- 34 -
Active work was going on in the United States Rocket Research Centre in New Mexico. Under the hot sun ten red and silver rockets stood in the large field ready to fly up. Somewhere a man counted loudly:
"Ten… Nine… eight… seven…»
The rockets were part of the artificial satellite project. In a few minutes they would fly up into space, orbit Earth and send information back to the Earth base. They were the first steps of man to other planets and stars.
The sky was bright blue and completely cloudless. There was no wind.
The man had his finger on the starting button. He continued to count:
"Four… Three… Two…»
Suddenly a great explosion shook the field. Great columns of flame and smoke covered the rockets.
The next moment a lot of Brains appeared in the field. They sent bright hot beams of fire from their energy weapons. In a few minutes all the laboratories were destroyed and all the people were killed. The Brains left nobody alive.
Telephones rang in the United Nations. The same thing happened in all the rocket bases of the world. The rocket research centres in Russia, Australia, China, and everywhere else were completely destroyed.
"For the first time in history the nations of the world are united, and we can do nothing," complained the Secretary-General.
He was standing at a high window and looking at the sky and stars. He could not see any way out of the situation. Nothing could stop the Brains… except, perhaps, Captain Christian. He was the only man who really knew about the Brains…
- 35 -
Christian opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a bed in a room with white walls. Through a round window he could see the desert covered with black sand. The huge red sun hung in the black sky.
A door opened, and a man walked in.
"I am Paul, one of the Watchers," he said. "And you are, I think, from the twentieth century?"
"Captain Arthur Christian."
"Nice to meet you. I hope you are feeling well. Lunch is almost ready."
Christian stood up.
"There are a lot of questions - " he began.
The door opened. The woman who walked in was young and pretty. Christian noticed that both she and the young man had very wise eyes. Both Watchers were young - about twenty-five years old, Christian thought.
Paul said: "Barbara - Captain Arthur Christian."
Barbara smiled.
"It is an honour," she said, "to meet one of our ancestors."
They led Christian along a brightly lit corridor.
"Is this a spaceship?" the captain asked.
"Yes. We have just come from our base on the moon."
They came to a small comfortable room and sat down. Barbara brought lunch. Christian was very hungry and ate with pleasure.
"I wonder," said Christian after lunch, "how far away I am ahead of my time."
Paul looked at him carefully.
"You must prepare yourself for a shock, Captain," he said."…About one hundred thousand years!"
Christian put his glass on the table. One hundred thousand years! That was really a shock. He looked through the window at the black sand and the dyring sun. This, then, was the winter of Earth.
He looked at the Watchers again.
"There must be more than just the two of you," he said. "So far I've seen only the Brains and their giant women. What's happened to the rest of humanity?"
Paul rose and went to a wall with a large screen. He pressed a button, and Christian saw space with lots of stars.
"The humanity is there," said Paul. "Man has reached the stars"
Christian felt proud. After all, the human race was not really represented by the Brains. The stars… he dreamed a little, then remembered the reality.
"Do you know that the Brains have traveled into the past?" he said. "That they have come into the twentieth century and are murdering the best scientists of my time? Can the future be changed?"
Paul frowned. "That is a big question," he said, "even bigger than you think. I am not sure that I know the answer. Perhaps, it is a terrible mistake to try to change the past."
"But that's just what the Brains are doing!" said Christian. "Can you stop them?"
Perhaps," said Paul and rose from the table. "Let us go to the control room."
They came into a large round room with a large screen on the wall and a switchboard before it.
Paul said: "We can send the robots from here, and they will act as our eyes. We shall see on this screen all that they will see on the ground and underground."
He pressed some buttons on the switchboard, and the screen came to life.
The desert started moving before their eyes.
"Our robots could not help you before," said Barbara. "They can only see. As soon as we saw you, we came."
The robots approached the high wall near which Christian had been attacked by the ants.
"Why was this huge wall built?" asked Christian.
"It was an attempt to keep back the insects," said Paul. "Before people left this planet, these giant insects threatened them. They had mutated from small forms because of atomic radiation."
The robots came up to the lift and went underground. Christian saw the jungle in which he was hunted by the Brains.
"At first it was a cultivated hydroponic garden," said Paul, "but the Brains did not take care of it, and now it is wild."
The robots passed the jungle and moved along the corridors to the transmitter hall.
The time machine looked like a monster with many red lights. There were very few crystals in it now…
"It means," said Christian, "that they have gone into the past."
Paul nodded.
"Can you destroy this time machine?" asked Christian.
"Of course," answered Paul. "But what then?" You will remain here for ever - and the Brains will be destroying life in your time. Our problem is to reverse the situation."
He frowned.
"It is a problem which is not easy to solve," he said.
- 36 -
Paul asked Christian to tell them what the Brains were doing in his time, and he told them all he knew.
"It is clear," said Paul when Christian had finished, "that the Brains are trying to change the course of history, to remake the world and be its masters. If they do it, the result will be-"
"the end of civilization," finished Barbara. "No star colonies. Only the Brains and their giant women. It's awful!"
Paul nodded.
"We must do something to stop them," he said. "But what?"
He looked at the time machine on the screen.
"It is necessary to understand how this machine operates," he said. "I must concentrate… I will leave you with Barbara now, Captain. Later we'll speak again. Excuse me now."
Paul left them.
Barbara said:
"If you like, I will tell you about our history since your time."
"I'll be interested to hear that," said Christian. "I want to know more about you and Paul, and this ship and the star colonies."
"The time period is great," she began, "so I can only mention the main events that have brought us where we are today. First you must know that there was a war - the last terrible war, when atomic radiation flooded the planet, and whole continents were dead.
"This was the time of the insects: they mutated and became very big. The people who remained alive now divided into two camps: the true men and the Brains. It was impossible to live on the surface. We saw hope in leaving the planet and flying into space to look for other worlds. The Brains decided to go underground.