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.Suffice it to say that by the age of twenty-seven, Edward NMI Smith was appointed director of public information of the Space Science Services Administration.The youngest, and brightest, man ever placed so high within the government.At the time, he was unhappily married, the father of one child; a very lonely man.The year he took the directorate, the first men came back from the stars.They had gone to Alpha Centauri twenty-six years before, accelerating to near-light speeds for the middle third of their journey.They got there in twelve years.Sixteen years after the first ships left, a message dropped out of the clear sky one night.Seven of the original nine ships made the trip.For the duration, the crews remained awake like any other spacecraft crew.They guided the great craft through the darkness, monitoring those colonists they carried frozen in hopes of finding a new world orbiting the nearest star.Alpha Centauri IV, named Nova Terra (of course), had been found in short order.Less gravity, more sunlight, less oxygen, more nitrogen.A good world.The message came from the new transmitter on Nova Terra.The radio station had been broadcasting four years when its first message reached the Earth, and it would be another four before they knew whether Earth had received it.The distances immense, the blackness deep, the stars bright.Meanwhile, two and a half years after the settlement of Nova Terra, an expedition headed back.Due to the time lag between broadcast and reception, the message of their departure from Nova Terra was received eighteen and a half years after the ships left Earth.Someone quickly figured that the ships had been on their way back four years already, and would arrive in another eight.The message said, “Two ships to return to Earth.Methods developed here allow crews to sleep in shifts.Some colonists returning.See you in twelve years.”Eight years later the ships coasted into solar orbit a few hundred miles above the Earth.At night, they were brighter than Venus, brighter than the space stations wheeling near them; two new stars on the zenith.Ed Smith, the new director of information of the Space Science Services Administration, and his team were on Station No.3 to meet the first men and women to return from the stars.* * * *“Mom Church! Any time now,” said Newton Thornton, looking at the clock on the wall.“Easy, Newton,” I said.“This is the Station’s moment of glory.First they’ve had since the starships left almost three decades ago.You can’t blame them for taking a little longer in decompression than they have to.”“I know that, Mr.Smith,” he said, “but damn, they’re sure taking their time.”“Well, well have them long enough,” I said.The doors opened and out they came, the station’s director striding before them like head lion of the pride.His glad hand came out almost automatically.“Mr.Smith, the head of Space Services information, ladies and gentlemen.Mr.Smith, the crew and colonists from Nova Terra.”I made an impatient little bow.Several of the crewmen returned the bow, stiffly, formally.Two of the women curtsied.We all broke into smiles.* * * *Commander Gunderson was breathing smoke from the cigar as if it were air.“You’d be surprised to know,” he said, “that tobacco will not grow well on the areas of Nova Terra we settled.Most of the soil is too acid.Of course, that was.what? twelve years ago.Place may have more tobacco than North Carolina by now.” He breathed more of the cigar smoke.“I hope so,” said Newton.“Carolina doesn’t have any.”“What?”“Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, lost more than three quarters of their crops eleven years ago.New fungal disease.Spread quickly.Spores in the ground so thick the land still can’t be used for years.What tobacco is raised is now done in Arizona, New Mexico and parts of the California plains.still partly desert land when you left,” said Newton.“I’ll be damned,” said Gunderson.Weariness crossed his face.“It’ll take a while to get used to things.you know.” He stared at the burning ash of his cigar.“I went out as a colonist.Twenty-six years ago.That’s a long time.Decided that, even with my Services training, it’d be better for me to go out asleep.Just in case they ever wanted to come back, and the crews didn’t want to make another twelve-year trip.” He rubbed his graying hair.“The crewmen who went out.they aged.I didn’t.I thought I’d be like them on this trip back.That was before we developed the rapid cryogenics that allowed the crew to sleep in shifts.I’ve only been up seven months, since we left Nova Terra.“I knew there’d be people who’d want to come back.It’s not adventure out there, you know.It’s hard work.”He put out the stub of the cigar very carefully.“Hell, I’ve only aged three years and seven months since I left Earth twenty-six years ago.Course, I was old when I left”Thornton laughed.Commander Gunderson became serious.“There are some people who only aged three years,” he said.“Some of the colonists went out asleep.They’ve come back asleep.They were only up three years.They didn’t like what they found there any more than they liked what they left.”He sighed and leaned back in his chair.“I guess that’s why I went out asleep, rather than as a crew member.I knew there’d be people like that who’d need to get back more than they needed to leave.I guess that’s why.”After he left, Newton Thornton looked at me.“How are they ever going to make it?” he asked.“Like everybody else does,” I said, remembering.“They just get along, one way or another.”* * * *The debriefings lagged.The reports occupied a small room.Birth and deaths, arability, mineral deficiencies; all the things that tell you what a planet is so you can decide how to make it what you want it to be.We still had twelve returning colonists to interview, and Captain Welkins
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