Andre Norton (ed) by Space Pioneers

of a city, the metropolis it resembled was a
dead one.
    A dead city in the midst of a cold, frozen sea of lava. A ghost city that had never lived, yet rose up from the gray sea over which no ship had
sailed and whispered and whined ghostly warnings. "Stay with me, Manl I am
dry and lonely. There are no people to warm me with light and sound . . . there
is none to see my massive strength and, by seeing, make it into reality . . .
stay where you are, Man!"
    "But it's dead," thought Hansen. "More
than dead—sterile!"
    "But
you, Man, you too are dead. You are already turning cold. You will slowly
congeal . . . become solid ... a monument ... a symbol of the tribute brought
by folly and life to the sea of coldness and gray death—No, do not shake your
head . . . it is too late . . . my shadows are about you . . . you have no
light ... all your prayers and wishes
will not turn on a single light. The shadows reach you . . . touch you . . .
the pain in your leg is the cold of space . .. you will sit there forever . . . drowned
in the gray sea of frozen lava . . . imagining lights for me in the blackness .
. . imagining life in me in the noon glare . . . but now there is no light
unless you have the force to see it . . . but you are cold . . . cold . . .
cold . . . cold . . .
    The sky flared with flickering light. It
turned black while the image of light still remained in Hansen's eyes. Then a
new light, tinier and higher streaked overhead. Hansen awoke with the hairs
tingling on his neck and leaped to his feet with a hoarse shout.
    "A rocket!"
    In the stillness of the radio room, the
incoming call from Bucky's rocket made Mike jump in his chair before the set.
Hastily, he turned down the volume he had kept in hope of picking up faint
calls from Plato.
    When
he had answered and relayed the message by phone to the landing area, he turned
to the others in the room.
    Joey
had been sleeping in the upper bunk. Louise had asked to stay and Mike had
offered his bunk for her to sit on. She had not slept, as far as he knew; but
he had turned to the radio and maintained a lengthy silence.
    "Maybe
I ought to talk to her," he thought, "but what is there to say? Four
good guys; but they're awful late checking in."
    But
when he looked around, they were both watching him; and he had to tell them.
    "Bucky's coming
in," he said.
    "Did he find
anything?" demanded Louise.
    "Don't know yet," Mike told her.
"He said he took a snap of Plato coming and going and three more on the
way back."
    Louise moved toward the
door.
    "Thanks a lot,
Mike," she said.
    Joey
slipped down from the bunk as she disappeared into the corridor.
    "Never mind," advised Mike.
"With Louise and Bucky in that hole they call a darkroom, dodging the
photographer's elbows every time he breathes in, they won't have any place for
you but up on a shelf."
    "I just thought
I'd—"
    "We'll
get told. Now, stay with me, kid, an' make sure I don't go wanderin' off to have a look tool"
     
     
    Hansen stood stiffly by the rock and
painfully tried his neck muscles. He searched the sky, but nothing moved among
the stars.
    "Now, did I see something?" he asked himself slowly. "Or was I still
dreaming?"
    He grimaced, and raised a
hand to the back of his head be-

fore he remembered that he was still in his
spacesuit. His neck was stiff and sore from lying across the rigid neckpiece of
his suit, and he was chilled to the bone.
    "Must have been asleep quite a
while," he thought. "Maybe I ought to turn up the heating again—or
should I just warm up as I walk?"
    He
paused a moment to stare in open-mouthed amazement at the ringwall of Kirch,
rearing up three thousand feet toward the stars.
    "When
am I going to do something right?" he asked. "Why couldn't I stay
where I was, facing Earth, and go to sleep dreaming I was home?"
    He
went on to wish that he had not gone to sleep at all. The aches that were
irritations when he was warm from walking were now centers of agony.
    He
was sure he had blisters, and