Hugh McCann took the last of the photographic plates out of the developer and laid them on the table beside the others. Then he picked up the old star charts–Volume 1, Number 1–maps of space from various planetary systems within a hundred light years of Sol. He looked around the observation room at the others.

We might as well start checking.

The men and women around the table nodded. None of them said anything. Even the muffled conversation from the corridor beyond the observation room ceased as the people stopped to listen.

McCann set the charts down and opened them at the first sheet–the composite map of the stars as seen from Earth. Don’t be too disappointed if we’re wrong, he said.

Amos Carhill’s fists clenched. He leaned across the table. You still don’t believe we’re near Sol, do you? You’re getting senile, Hugh! You know the mathematics of our position as well as anybody.

I know the math, Hugh said quietly. But remember, a lot of our basics have already proved themselves false this trip. We can’t be sure of anything. Besides, I think I’d remember this planet we’re on if we’d ever been here before. We visited every planetary system within a hundred light years of Sol the first year.