This is a story of the end of the world. But not our world. Not Earth. We're still working on that. No, this story takes place in the future when we will have spread to lots of worlds and carried our short-sighted tendency to screw things up to the stars.And let's face it, the end of the world, even our world, has happened before. The dinosaurs' Earth ended. So did the Neanderthals'. Rome fell a couple of times. The worlds of Carthage, Byzantium and Moslem Spain are all gone. When the world that nurtured the Library of Alexandria fell it took half of mankind's knowledge with it.Now, with overpopulation, we're working on trashing this planet, possibly before we get to the stars and their worlds. If we're lucky or clever enough, maybe our future does include other planets we can destroy. But rest assured, those of us who willfully trash a world will find little sympathy from our brothers who have taken better care of theirs. And men like Commodore Ardcasl will doubtless be there to profit from the wreckage.