Alien from Arcturus

by Gordon R. Dickson

Quarantine...Ever since Earth's first starship crept out on sublight drive a hundred years ago and was met by an emissary of the Galactic Federation, man has lived as a prisoner in the solar system. The Federation decreed that unless man could demonstrate his technological maturity and leave the solar system via a fasterthanlight drive, he would not leave it at all. All Earth knows the test that man must pass to win Galactic Citizenship and the freedom of the stars; the FTL drive is every physicist's top priority. But what they cannot know is that they work against both an alien timelimit and human sabotage and time is running out. Unless John Parent's stardrive project is successful, mankind will remain trapped in the solar system, forever...