It is the year 2029, and Harl is leaving on a long space journey. When he comes back, he will be eight years older, but people on Earth will be a hundred years older. Ellen refuses to go with him. She says that when he gets back, the world will be completely different because humans will be telepaths.
She has been working on Project X: a secret project to produce telepathic human beings. There are now generators in space which will turn everyone into telepaths at the same time: the Project X scientists believe it has to be done like this to avoid problems between telepaths and non-telepaths. Harl and Ellen part.
Much later in 2129, the spaceship Astronaut returns to Earth. As the space travellers approach, they are surprised not to see any sign of life. They land on a deserted airfield.
The nearby city of Detroit is deserted too. They search the rest of the planet in a smaller spacecraft and find no-one. In Rome they see lions herding wild pigs: if carnivorous animals are telepathic too, they would only be able to catch food by co-operating. The spaceship crew still do not understand why there are no people until a very old man arrives. He was born in the year the Astronaut left, and has stayed alive long enough to tell them what happened. Most telepaths died or committed suicide during adolescence because reading the innermost thoughts of other humans was too unbearable. The old man wants the travellers to start human life again: he knows there are two women on the spacecraft. Harl tells him they are too old to bear children.
It is the year 2029, and Harl is leaving on a long space journey. When he comes back, he will be eight years older, but people on Earth will be a hundred years older. Ellen refuses to go with him. She says that when he gets back, the world will be completely different because humans will be telepaths.
She has been working on Project X: a secret project to produce telepathic human beings. There are now generators in space which will turn everyone into telepaths at the same time: the Project X scientists believe it has to be done like this to avoid problems between telepaths and non-telepaths. Harl and Ellen part.
Much later in 2129, the spaceship Astronaut returns to Earth. As the space travellers approach, they are surprised not to see any sign of life. They land on a deserted airfield.
The nearby city of Detroit is deserted too. They search the rest of the planet in a smaller spacecraft and find no-one. In Rome they see lions herding wild pigs: if carnivorous animals are telepathic too, they would only be able to catch food by co-operating. The spaceship crew still do not understand why there are no people until a very old man arrives. He was born in the year the Astronaut left, and has stayed alive long enough to tell them what happened. Most telepaths died or committed suicide during adolescence because reading the innermost thoughts of other humans was too unbearable. The old man wants the travellers to start human life again: he knows there are two women on the spacecraft. Harl tells him they are too old to bear children.
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