 How long will it take the Weblor II to make the round trip to the new colony and back?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, November 1959. Two years in a sardine can. Interstellar Chief Rexroad knocked the dottle from his pipe in a tray, saying, "Transworld Press is willing to let you have a leave of abscence, if you're interested." The Weblor I had taken off on the first trip to Antheon five years before with a thousand families, reached the planet with less than five hundred surviving colonists. Upon the return to Earth a year later, the crew's report of suffering and chaos during the year's outgoing voyage was twisted, distorted and fragmentary. The decision of Interstellar was that the colonists started a revolution far out in space, that it was fanned by the ignorance of Captain Sessions in dealing with such matters. "We have conquered the problem of small groups in space—witness the discovery of Antheon, for example—but when there are large groups, control is more difficult." It ended with passengers engaging in open warfare with each other and the crew. "No weapons were allowed on the ship, but you must remember the colonists were selected for their intelligence and resourcefulness. "The second trip is history," Rexroad said. "Assuming no accident in space," Phipps said, "it was a wrong decision. "And now," Ellason said, "you're going to try again." Rexroad said very gravely, "We've got the finest captain in Interplanetary. We don't think anything is going to happen, but if it does, we want to get an impersonal, unprejudiced view. Captain Branson and his fifty crewmen want to return as badly as you do." The Weblor II had been built in space, as had its predecessor, the Weblor I , at a tremendous cost. Basically, it was an instrument which would open distant vistas to colonization, reducing the shoulder-to-shoulder pressure of a crowded solar system. A gigantic, hollow spike, the ship would never land anywhere, but would circle Antheon as it circled Earth, shuttling its cargo and passengers to the promised land, the new frontier. A space-borne metropolis, it would be the home for three thousand persons outward bound, only the crew on the return trip. It was equipped with every conceivable facility and comfort—dining rooms, assembly hall, individual and family compartments, recreation areas, swimming pool, library, theater. On loan from Transworld, he will have an observer status."
 24 months
 24 months  42 months  30 months  36 months