«But they never did-and that was a long time ago.»
«They may have changed their minds.»
It was curious Alvin thought, how both he and Hilvar had unconsciously started using the word «they.» Whoever or whatever «they» had been, their presence had been strong on that first planet-and was even stronger here. This was a world that had been carefully wrapped up, and put away until it might be needed again.
«Let’s go back to the ship,» panted Alvin. «I can’t breathe properly here.»
As soon as the air lock had closed behind them, and they were at ease once more, they discussed their next move. To. make a thorough investigation, they should sample a large number of domes, in the hope that they might find one that had no warning and which could be entered. If that failed Alvin would not face that possibility until he had to.
He faced it less than an hour later, and in a far more dramatic form than he would have dreamed. They had sent: the robot down to half a dozen domes, always with the same, result, when they came across a scene that was badly out of place on this tidy, neatly packaged world.
Below them was a broad valley, sparsely sprinkled with’ the tantalizing, impenetrable domes. At its center was the unmistakable scar of a great explosion-an explosion that had thrown debris for miles in all directions and burned a shallow crater in the ground.
And beside the crater was the wreckage of a spaceship.
Twenty-one
They landed close to the scene of this ancient tragedy and walked slowly, conserving their breath toward mense, broken hull towering above them. Only a short section -either the prow or the stern-of the ship remained; presumably the rest had been destroyed in the explosion. As they approached the wreck, a thought slowly dawned in Alvin’s mind, becoming stronger and stronger until it attained the status of certainty.
«Hilvar,» he said, finding it hard to talk and walk at the same time, «I believe this is the ship that landed on the first planet we visited.»
Hilvar nodded, preferring not to waste air. The same idea had already occurred to him. It was a good object lesson, he thought, for incautious visitors. He hoped it would not be lost on Alvin.
They reached the hull and stared up into the exposed interior of the ship. It was like looking into a huge building that had been roughly sliced in two; floors and walls and ceilings, broken at the point of the explosion, gave a distorted chart of the ship’s cross section. What strange beings, wondered Alvin, still lay where they had died in the wreckage of their vessel?
«I don’t understand this,» said Hilvar suddenly. «This portion of the ship is badly damaged, but it’s still fairly intact. Where’s the rest of it? Did it break in two out in space, and this part crash here?»
Not until they had sent the robot exploring again, and had themselves examined the area around the wreckage, did they learn the answer. There was no shadow of doubt; any reservations they might have had were banished when Alvin found the line of low mounds, each ten feet long, on the little hill beside the ship.
«So they landed here,» mused Hilvar, «and ignored the warning. They were inquisitive, just as you are. They tried to open that dome.»
He pointed to the other side of the crater, to the smooth, still unmarked shell within which the departed rulers of this world had sealed their treasures. But it was no longer a dome; it was now an almost complete sphere, for the ground in which it had been set had been blasted away.
«They wrecked their ship, and many of them were killed. Yet despite that, they managed to make repairs and leave again, cutting off this section and stripping out everything of value. What a task that must have been!»
Alvin scarcely heard him. He was looking at the curious marker that had first drawn him to this spot-the slim shaft Pinged by a horizontal circle a third of the way down from its up. Alien and unfamiliar though it was, be could respond to the mute message it had carried down the ages. Underneath those stones, if he cared to disturb them, was the answer to one question at least. It could remain unanswered; whatever these creatures might have been, they had earned their right to rest.
Hilvar scarcely heard the words Alvin whispered as walked slowly back to the ship.
«I hope they got home,» he said.
«And where now?» asked Hilvar, when they were once more out in space.
Alvin stared thoughtfully at the screen before replying.
«Do you think I should go back?» he said.
«It would be the sensible thing to do. Our luck may ad hold out much longer, and who knows what other surprise these planets may have waiting for us?»
It was the voice of sanity and caution, and Alvin wad now prepared to give it greater heed than he would have done a few days before. But he had come a long way, and waited all his life, for this moment; he would not turn bar while there was still so much to see.
«We’ll stay in the ship from now on,» he said, «and wn won’t touch surface anywhere. That should be safe enough surely.»
Hilvar shrugged his shoulders, as if refusing to accept any responsibility for what migt happen next. Now that Alvin was showing a certain amount of caution, he thought it unwise to admit that he was equally anxious to continu! their exploring, though he had long ago abandoned all hopl of meeting intelligent life upon any of these planets.
A double world lay ahead of them, a great planet with 1 smaller satellite beside it. The primary might have been the twin of the second world they had visited; it was clothed it that same blanket of livid green. There would be no point it landing here; this was a story they already knew.
Alvin brought the ship low over the surface of the satellite, he needed no warning from the complex mechanism which protected him to know that there was no atmosphere here. Al shadows had a sharp, clean edge, and there were no gradation between night and day. It was the first world on which he had seen something approaching night, for only one of the more distant suns was above the horizon in the area where they made first contact. The landscape was bathed in a dull rep light, as though it had been dipped in blood.
For many miles they flew above mountains that were sti) as jagged and sharp as in the distant ages of their birth. This was a world that had never known change or decay, hay never been scoured by winds and rains. No eternity circuit were needed here to preserve objects in their pristine fresh ness.
But if there was no air, then there could have been no life -or could there have been?
«Of course,» said Hilvar, when Alvin put the question d him, «there’s nothing biologically absurd in the idea. Lift can’t originate in airless space-but it can evolve forms that will survive in it. It must have happened millions of times, whenever an inhabited planet lost its atmosphere.»
«But would you expect intelligent life forms to exist in a vacuum ? Wouldn’t they have protected themselves against the loss of their air?»
«Probably, if it occurred after they achieved enough intelligence to stop it happening. But if the atmosphere went while they were still in the primitive state, they would have to adapt or perish. After they had adapted, they might then develop a very high intelligence. In fact, they probably would-the incentive would be so great.»
The argument, decided Alvin, was a purely theoretical one, as far as this planet was concerned. Nowhere was there any sign that it had ever borne life, intelligent or otherwise. But in that case, what was the purpose of this world? The entire multiple system of the Seven Suns, he was now certain, was artificial, and this world must be part of its grand design.