 What would have happened if the Centaurus Expedition hadn’t failed?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. The great chamber, a full cross-section of the vessel, had been at first a fuel hold. At the voyage's beginning eighty per cent of the fifteen-hundred-foot cylinder had been engines and fuel; but as the immense stores were spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. Earth's still there." He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." He had already set up on the calculator a course that would carry them to Earth. And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time.
 People from Earth would have colonized the Procyon system.
 People from Earth would have colonized the Procyon system.  Captain Llud would have become a hero.  The other two Quest ships would have been launched.  Humanity would have died out.