"Our cameras have succeeded in tracking the escaping space-ship Pi-meson, containing convicts Manny Bloom, better known as the Fireclown, and Simon Powys!"
Deep space. The ship in clear focus.
"The ship, degutted of its weird time devices but retaining its ordinary drive, has so far outdistanced all pursuers."
"That answers my question," Alan said from behind Helen. "Where are they going?"
"They seem to be heading for Venus. They could just about survive there and certainly escape the police. The re-vitalization project is two-thirds complete."
"A strange pair to be traveling together," Helen reflected.
"They've got things in common," Alan pointed out. "In their different ways they were both reactionary idealists. They wanted things simpler than they in fact are."
The ship passed Venus.
"Where in the universe are they heading for?" Helen said, baffled.
Alan thought he knew.
He watched helplessly as the ship carrying his father and grandfather plunged on.
"Perhaps it's for the best-for them and for us," he whispered.
The Pi-meson passed the orbit of Mercury.
They watched as it wheeled and sailed in towards the sun.
It vanished, consumed almost immediately, as it followed its unveering course into the heart of Sol.
The watchers were silent. Helen turned her face up towards Alan and studied his expression. She glanced back at the screen.
In a few short weeks a new Age had come to Earth and gone as swiftly. It had left a strange mood behind it-and perhaps a new science. Sociologists and psychologists attempted to explain the sudden ebb of hysteria that had seized the people. There were a dozen theories, all complex, all with their merits. One attempted to explain it as the result of the transition period between "natural" (or biological) living and "artificial" (or machine) living. It concluded that until the "artificial" became the natural and human psychology altered accordingly we should experience many such disturbances.
It was a likely explanation. But there might have been another, far simpler explanation.
Perhaps the world had just been-bored.
THE END