Chapter III

“City” is not necessarily descriptive: perhaps less so than the application of Euclidean axioms to advanced geometry. Physically, it was this:

1. Three dozen stone arches whose keystones were inverted bowls.

2. A smooth-walled recess in the sheer face of a cliff.

3. A level lip of rock, as precisely flat as though honed, from which the arches seemed to grow.

“Is this all?” Mr. Tucker asked.

“Yes, sir,” Captain Meford said.

Mr. Ryan came to the viewing section. “It looks,” he said, “as though the cliff were split down to here and then hewn away to leave the structures there and the apron.”

“We found no tools, sir. There were no tools here, nor with them.”

“Nothing else at all?”

“They left behind some four hundred chips of stone, apparently numbered. We have them in the dome. And there’s a two-line inscription on one of the arches. There’s nothing else.”

High above the men and the ship, the new wind sang in one of the inverted bowls and fluttered lightly over the inscription. It, like the face of the cliff, was oxidizing. Dust filtered down before the recess, alien symbols falling. Life is the recording angel of time. Without life, all ceases.

“Dust,” Mr. Tucker said. “Dust ... dust ... more dust. Soon the dust will be over everything. When the wind is gone, it will be there to hold our footprints.”

Inside the air-conditioned scout, the men shivered.

“How did you come to find them?” Mr. Ryan asked.

“I saw the constructions from the photos, sir. This had been missed by the mapping party. It’s easy enough to see why when you see the pictures.”

“This the only one?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How can you be sure of that, Captain Meford? It’s a large planet.”

“I had one of the machines scan the remaining maps for geometrical patterns, sir.”

“Isn’t that done routinely?” Mr. Tucker asked rather sharply.

“Yes, sir. But you see, we’ve always expected that if we were ever going to encounter intelligent life on a planet, it would be rather widespread. Accordingly--and this is the routine procedure, sir, used, as far as I know, by all contact parties--we ran through a statistically significant sample of the terrain. There was nothing on Miracastle out of the ordinary. There was the typical, low-order vegetable matter, about what we always find. It was a very typical planet, sir.”

The third man from the Earth Committee, Mr. Wallace, seldom spoke. When he did, his voice was mild, and there was a sense of child-like wonder in his tone. “The natives?” he asked.

“They ... had fled when we discovered the city.”

“Where did they flee to?” Mr. Wallace asked.

Captain Meford glanced upward. Other eyes followed to end just below the edge of the view screen. Above stood the sheer face of the cliff. Clouds roiled below the summit, obscuring it from view.

“There is a long sloping plateau up there, and a series of natural caves back in the next cliff face,” Captain Meford said. This did not seem adequate. He continued: “Most of the air-changing activity starts in the low-lying areas, at first around the dome positions. It advances along an elevation front, gradually drifting up. Little tongues are carried up in advance by the heated currents. The aliens retreated before it. On the plateau you can see the sentries. I guess they posted themselves there, at intervals, between the edge and the new caves, to define the limits of safety. They died there. Six of them. The rest, several hundred, reached the caves. They are dead, too.”

“I see,” Mr. Wallace said.

“When you first discovered them--?” Mr. Ryan asked after a moment.

Captain Meford hesitated.

Mr. Tucker said: “I believe one of your men killed himself last night--wasn’t it? A technician? I was told he felt you could reverse the air-changing equipment in time to save the aliens. I understand that was very much on his mind for the last week or so.”

“I’m not too familiar with the man, sir. He was on Captain Arnold’s shift, I believe.”

“Captain Meford,” Mr. Ryan insisted, “when did you say you first discovered the aliens?”

Captain Meford hesitated. The others waited.

“They were then scaling the cliff, sir.”

“And General Shorter, was he told of this immediately?” Mr. Ryan asked.

“I don’t know when the general was told.”

“You discovered them?”

“Yes, sir. I ... you see, at the time the winds completely prohibited air traffic. As you know, the air scouts are not stable enough until ... later. Later, I ... Yes, sir. I discovered them.”

“Did you then inform the general?”

“No, sir. I informed the duty officer.”

“Did he inform the general?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you tell the general?” Mr. Tucker asked.

“I was then in communication with Captain Geiger, and I felt he...” The sentence trailed away.

“Would tell the general?” Mr. Tucker prompted. “Well, did he?”

“I believe he did, sir,” Captain Meford said. He let out a long breath.

“May we see the aliens?” Mr. Ryan asked.

“I wouldn’t advise it, sir,” Captain Meford said. “High flights are still very risky because of the wind velocities.”

After the evening meal, General Shorter called Captain Arnold aside. “Mind if I go over to Nine with you?” he asked. “The air around here is--well, the fact of the matter is, I’d like to get away from them for awhile.”

“Of course not, sir,” Captain Arnold said.

“We’ll call it an inspection. Which might be a good idea at that. With these people running around trying to interfere with my schedule. Poking around. Asking questions. Taking men away from their work, basically.” He tapped his teeth with his right thumb in reflection. “I’d better check up on all the domes tonight, just to be sure.”