O Rocket trava de volta à Terra que tem tecnologia, mas não usa muito

Um foguete cai de volta à terra séculos depois que a Terra passou por uma forma de destruição com poucos sobreviventes.

Não há falha; primeiro a nave auxiliar e depois a grande espaçonave pousa com segurança na Terra. Eles estão vindo de uma colônia em um planeta de Theta Centauri que foi fundado pela tripulação da primeira espaçonave da Terra, que foi danificada em um pouso forçado:

It had taken four generations for the stranded crew of the original ship, the Starward, to repair the hyperdrives smashed in landing, and to wrest from the soil of Θ Centauri fourth planet — Terra Two, they called it — enough cerberum to take a pilot crew back to earth with news of their success. A hundred and thirty years, subjective time. Taking account of the time-lags engendered by their hyperspeeds, it was entirely possible that four or five hundred years had elapsed, objectively, on the planet their ancestors had left.

A Terra sofreu uma crise de superpopulação em algum momento do passado; as colônias em Marte e Vênus foram abandonadas, as cidades foram abandonadas e a população reduzida vive uma vida descentralizada em pequenas aldeias. O nativo da terra Hard Frobisher explica:

Probably the overpopulation reached such extremes—the solar system as a whole, of course, since Earth had to feed Mars and Venus too—that for one or two whole generations, every able-bodied man and woman had to put all his efforts into food-making instead of theoretical astronomy or whatever they called it. And by the time they had that problem solved, people were thinking of science in terms of human benefits, and probably realized that their resources could be handled more efficiently here on Earth.

Um dos homens-foguete tenta reintroduzir a tecnologia, apenas para ser excluído pelos moradores locais. Depois do tempo, a maioria reintegra-se de volta à sociedade, exceto por ele.

Esse seria Brian Kearns (tecnicamente um técnico hiperdrive, não um homem-foguete), ex-capitão da nave Homeward . Ele e seu parceiro ficam a bordo da nave enquanto o resto da equipe se muda para a aldeia:

"Brian is crazy!" Paula said emphatically. "Ellie—is it really true that you and Brian will go on living in the Homeward?" She glanced distastefully at the black mass of the starship, and went on, "Why do you stand for it?"

"I'd live with Brian in a worn-out hydroponics tank, Paula. You would too, if it were Tom," Ellie said wearily. "And Brian's right, some one should keep the ship from being dismantled. Any of you had the same choice."

Um dia vem quando uma das fêmeas deve dar à luz e um grupo está sendo reunido para ir até ela. O ex-foguista se pergunta como eles viajarão rápido o suficiente para estar no nascimento.

Paula está tendo um problema com a gravidez, aparentemente relacionada à concepção em queda livre:

"You're right there's something wrong," he raged, and advanced on Frobisher so violently that the old man retreated a step or two. "I've got a girl on my hands who looks as if she were going to die," Brian roared, "and I want to know where on this devil-ridden planet you packed Tom off to, and where Marcia's gone! And then I want to know if there's a decent medical man anywhere in this damned backward dark-ages Utopia of yours!"

Um local puxa um helicóptero de um celeiro, para surpresa do rocketman.

"I doubt if you'd understand," Brian snapped, but Frobisher said steadily, "I suppose it's the gravity sickness. Tom mentioned it before he left. It's easy to get hold of him. Destry—" He turned to the boy in the doorway. "Quick, go down and get the Center on the wire. Tell them to fly Mellen back here, inside an hour if they can. And—where's your father, Destry? This sounds like something for him."
[. . . .]
"What the—what the hell—!" Brian started, but Destry was already hurrying down a flight of stairs. Hard Frobisher put a compulsive hand on Brian's shoulder and shoved him after the boy. Brian stumbled on the steps and blinked in the raw light of an electric arc-bulb. On a rough wood workbench, with Destry's notebooks and a few ordinary boy-type oddments, the stupefied Brian recognized what was unmistakably a radio transmitter. And not a simple one. Destry was already adjusting earphones and making a careful calibration of an instrument which looked handmade but incredibly delicate. He moved a key and said in a hurried voice, "Marilla Center, please, second-class priority, personal. Hello—Betty? You've got a man in the Center working on radio? Mellen? That's the man. This is Destry Frobisher talking from Norten. Fly him over here—as fast as you can make it. His wife's ill—yes, I know, but it's a special case. Thanks—" A long pause. "Thanks again, but we'll manage. Look, Betty, I have to get Slayton. Clear the stations, will you?" Another pause, and he said. "My father. Why? Oh—thanks, Betty, thanks a lot. Tell them we'll bring a plane over there for him." He closed the key and ripped off the headphone, standing up, and Brian exploded again.
"Just what's going on?" he demanded. "What kind of a bluff have you people been putting up on us?"

A resposta à sua pergunta: só porque temos capacidade tecnológica, não significa que tenhamos que usá-la.

"Listen, Kearns," Frobisher said abruptly, "you've been jumping to conclusions all along. Now don't jump to another one, that we've been bluffing, and concealing our civilization from you. We live the way we like to live."

"But radio—planes—you have all those things, and yet—"

Frobisher said, with barely concealed disgust, "You have the Barbarian viewpoint, I see. Radio, for instance. We use it for emergency needs. The Barbarians used to listen to keep from doing things—I know, they even had radio with pictures, and used to sit and listen and look at other people doing things instead of doing them themselves. Of course, they had rather primitive lives—"

"Primitive!" Brian interrupted. "You have airplanes and yet people walk—"

Frobisher said irritably, "Why not? Where is there to go in such a hurry—as long as we have fast transport for those few times when it is really necessary?"