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Mason saw it first

He was sitting in front of the lateral viewer taking notes as the ship cruised over the new planet His pen raph-spaced chart he held before him In a little while they’d land and take specietable, anie lockers and take them back to Earth There the technicians would evaluate, appraise, judge And, if everything was acceptable, sta, black INHABITABLE on their brief and open another planet for colonization froeneral topography when the glitter caught his eye

"I saw so position

"Sahat?" Ross asked from the control board

"Didn’t you see a flash?"

Ross looked into his own screen

"We went over a lake, you know," he said

"No, it wasn’t that," Mason said "This was in that clearing beside the lake"

"I’ll look," said Ross, "but it probably was the lake"

His fingers typed out a co ship wheeled around in a smooth arc and headed back

"Keep your eyes open now," Ross said "Make sure We haven’t got any tiaze on the vieatching the earth below move past like a slowly rolled tapestry of woods and fields and rivers He was thinking, in spite of himself, that maybe the moment had arrived at last The moment in which Earthmen would come upon life beyond Earth, a race evolved froht 1997 ht now be riding a new Santa Maria of discovery, a silvery, bulleted galleon of space

"There!" he said "There it is!"

He looked over at Ross The captain was gazing into his viewer plate His face bore the expression Mason kneell A look of s decision

"What do you think it is?" Mason asked, playing the strings of vanity in his captain

"Might be a ship, ht not be," pronounced Ross

Well, for God’s sake, let’s go down and see, Mason wanted to say, but knew he couldn’t It would have to be Ross’s decision Otherwise they ," he prodded

He watched Ross iers flick buttons for the viewer "We ht stop," Ross said "We have to take sa I’m afraid of is "

He shook his head Land, man! The words bubbled up in Mason’s throat For God’s sake, let’s go down!

Ross evaluated His thickish lips pressed together appraisingly Mason held his breath

Then Ross’s head bobbed once in that curt moveain He watched the captain spin, push and twist dials Felt the ship begin its tilt to upright position Felt the cabin shuddering slightly as the gyroscope kept it on an even keel The sky did a ninety-degree turn, clouds appeared through the thick ports Then the ship was pointed at the planet’s sun and Ross switched off the cruising engines The ship hesitated, suspended a split second, then began dropping toward the earth

"Hey, we settin’ down already?"

Mickey Carter looked at thee lockers He was rubbing greasy hands over his green ju down there," Mason said

"No kiddin’," Mickey said, co over to Mason’s viewer "Let’s see"

Mason flicked on the rear lens The two of the up at them

"I don’t knohether you can oh, yes, there it is," Mason said He looked over at Ross

"Two degrees east," he said

Ross twisted a dial and the ship then changed its doard htly

"What do you think it is?" Mickey asked

"Hey!"

Mickey looked into the vieith even greater interest His wide eyes exa on the screen

"Could be a ship," he said "Could be"

Then he stood there silently, behind Mason, watching the earth rushing up

"Reactors," said Mason

Ross jabbed efficiently at the button and the ship’s engines spouted out their flaases Speed decreased The rocket eased down on its roaring fire jets Ross guided

"What do you think it is?" Mickey asked Mason

"I don’t know," Mason answered "But if it’s a ship," he added, half wishfully thinking, "I don’t see how it could possibly be froot this run all to ourselves"

"Maybe they got off course," Mickey daed "I doubt it," he said

"What if it is a ship?" Mickey said "And it’s not ours?"

Mason looked at him and Carter licked his lips

"Man," he said, "that’d be so," Ross ordered

Mason threw the switch that set the air spring into operation The unit whichto stretch out on thick-cushioned couches They could stand on deck and hardly feel the iovernment ships

The ship hit on its rear braces

There was a sensation of jarring, a sense of slight bouncing Then the ship was still, its pointed nose straight up, glittering brilliantly in the bright sunlight

"I want us to stay together," Ross was saying "No one takes any risks That’s an order"

He got up from his seat and pointed at the wall switch that let atmosphere into the small chamber in the corner of the cabin

"Three to one we need our helmets," Mickey said to Mason

"You’re on," Mason said, setting into play their standing bet about the air or lack of it in every new planet they found Mickey always bet on the need for apparatus Mason for unaided lung use So far, they’d come out about even

Mason threw the switch, and there was a ot the helmet froh the double doors Mason listened to hi to switch on the side viewers and see if he could locate what they’d spotted But he didn’t He let hih the interco helmet," he said

Silence They waited Finally, a sound of disgust

"I lose again," Mickey said

The others followed him out

"God, did they hit!"

Mickey’s face had an expression of disreenish-blue grass and looked

It was a ship Or as left of a ship for, apparently, it had struck the earth at terrible velocity, nose first The main structure had driven itself about fifteen feet into the hard ground Jagged pieces of superstructure had been ripped off by the crash and were lying strewn over the field The heavy engines had been torn loose and nearly crushed the cabin Everything was deathly silent, and the wreckage was so complete they could hardly make out what type of ship it was It was as if some enormous child had lost fancy with the toy ed on it insanely with a rock

Mason shuddered It had been a long tiotten the everpresent h space, of violent i lost in an orbit This re His throatat a chunk of metal at his feet

"Can’t tell much," he said "But I’d say it’s our own"

Mason was about to speak, then changed his ine up there, I’d say it was ours," Mickey said

"Rocket structure ht be standard," Mason heard his don’t work out like that It’s ours all right Some poor devils from Earth Well, at least their death was quick"

"Was it?" Mason asked the air, visualizing the crew in their cabin, rooted with fear as their ship spun toward earth, ht down like a fired cannon shell, yroscope trying in vain to keep the cabin always level

The screa, the shouted commands, the exhortations to a heaven they had never seen before, to a God whoup and blasting its hard face against their ship, crushing theain, thinking of it

"Let’s take a look," Mickey said

"Not sure we’d better," Ross said "We say it’s ours Itis still alive in there, do you?" Mickey asked the captain

"Can’t say," Ross said

But they all knew he could see thatcould have survived that

The look The pursed lips As they circled the ship The headthere," Ross ordered "And stay together We still have work to do Only doing this so we can let the base knohich ship this is" He had already decided it was an Earth ship

They walked up to a spot in the ship’s side where the skin had been laid open along the welded seaht bend paper

"Don’t like this," Ross said "But I suppose "

He gestured with his head and Mickey pulled hierly, then slid on his work gloves as he found soe He told the other two and they reached into their ju step into the dark maw of the ship

"Hold on, now!" Ross called up "Wait until I get there"

He pulled hi up the rocket skin He went into the hole too Mason followed

It was dark inside the ship Mason closed his eyes for a e When he opened theh the twisted tangle of beams and plates He pulled out his own flash and flicked it on

"God, is this thing wrecked," Mickey said, awed by the sight of htly through the shell Then, when the sound ended, an utter stillness descended on theht and Mason could sines

"Watch the s up for support "We don’t want to get ourselves gassed"

"I will," Mickey said He was cli one hand to pull his thick, powerful body up along the twisted ladder He played the bea his head

Ross followed hi around endlessly over the snapped joints, the wild jigsaw of destruction that had once been a powerful new ship He kept hissing in disbelief to himself as his beam came across one violent distortion of metal after another

"Door’s sealed," Mickey said, standing on a pretzel-twisted catwalk, bracing hiain and tried to pull it open

"Give ht," Ross said He directed both bearew red as he struggled He puffed

"No," he said, shaking his head "It’s stuck"

Mason came up beside them "Maybe the cabin is still pressurized," he said softly He didn’t like the echoing of his own voice

"Doubt it," Ross said, trying to think "More than likely the jaain "Help Carter"

Mason grabbed one handle and Mickey the other Then they braced their feet against the wall and pulled with all their strength The door held fast They shifted their grip, pulled harder

"Hey, it slipped!" Mickey said "I think we got it"

They resuled catwalk and pulled the door open The frame isted, the door held in one corner They could only open it enough to wedge theed in first He played his light beam toward the pilot’s seat It was eht to the navigator’s seat

There was no navigator’s seat The bulkhead had been stove in there, the viewer, the table and the chair all crushed beneath the bent plates There was a clicking in Mason’s throat as he thought of hi at a table like that, in a chair like that, before a bulkhead like that

Ross was in now The three beas spraddled, because the deck slanted

And the way it slanted s sliding down

Into the corner where he suddenly played his shaking bea, felt his unblinking eyes staring at the sight Then felt his boots thud him down the incline as if he were driven

"Here," he said, his voice hoarse with shock

He stood before the bodies His foot had bu down any further, as he shifted his weight on the incline

Now he heard Mickey’s footsteps, his voice A whisper A bated, horrified whisper

"Mother of God"

Nothing fro fro breaths

Because the twisted bodies on the floor were theirs, all three of the they stood there, wordlessly, looking down at the still, cruures on the deck

How does aover his own corpse? The question plied unconsciously at his mind What does a man say? What are his first words to be? A poser, he see Here he stood-and there he lay dead at his own feet He felt his hands grow numb and he rocked unsteadily on the tilted deck

"God"

Mickey again He had his flash pointed down at his own face His mouth twitched as he looked All three of them had their flash beaht connected their dual bodies

Finally Ross took a shaking breath of the stale cabin air

"Carter," he said, "find the auxiliary light switch, see if it works" His voice was husky and tightly restrained

"Sir?"

"The light switch-the light switch!" Ross snapped

Mason and the captain stood there, motionless, as Mickey shuffled up the deck They heard his boots kick metallic debris over the deck surface Mason closed his eyes, but was unable to take his foot away froainst the body that was his He felt bound

"I don’t understand," he said to hi on," Ross said

Mason couldn’t tell whether it was said to encourage hienerator begin its initial whining spin The light flickered, went out The generator coughed and began huhtly

They looked do Mickey slipped down the slight deck hill and stood beside them He stared down at his own body Its head was crushed in Mickey drew back, his et it," he said "I don’t get it What is this?"

"Carter," Ross said

"That’s me!" Mickey said "God, it’s me!"

"Hold on!" Ross ordered

"The three of us," Mason said quietly, "and we’re all dead"

There seehtled The three corpses all doubled over and tus flopped over each other All they could do was stare

Then Ross said, "Go get a tarp Both of you"

Mason turned Quickly Glad to fill his mind with simple command Glad to crowd out tense horror with activity He took long steps up the deck Mickey backed up, unable to take his unblinking gaze off the heavy-set corpse with the green jued a heavy, folded tarp fros and ar in robotlike sequence He tried to numb his brain, not think at all until the first shock had dwindled

Mickey and he opened up the heavy canvas sheet ooden motions They tossed it out and the thick, shinythe heads, the torsos, the one arm that stood up stiffly like a spear, bent over wrist and hand like a grisly pennant

Mason turned aith a shudder He stumbled up to the pilot’s seat and slus, the heavy boots He reached out and grabbed his leg and pinched it, feeling al pain

"Co to Mickey, "I said, co Mickey up fro position over the bodies He held Mickey’s arm and led him up the incline

"We’re dead," Mickey said hollowly "That’s us on the deck We’re dead"

Ross pushed Mickey up to the cracked port and made him look out

"There," he said "There’s our ship over there Just as we left it This ship isn’t ours And those bodies They can’t be ours"

He finished weakly To a man of his sturdy opinionation, the words sounded fliant His throat mas He stood for decision and action He wanted action now

"You saw yourself down there," Mason said to hi to say it isn’t you?"

"That’s exactly what I’," Ross bristled "This may seem crazy, but there’s an explanation for it There’s an explanation for everything"

His face twitched as he punched his bulky arlared at the opposition "I’m alive," he said

They stared blankly at hiet it," Mickey said weakly He shook his head and his lips drew back over his teeth

Mason sat limply in the pilot’s seat He alh this That his staunch bias against the inexplicable would save the day He wanted for it to save the day He tried to think for himself, but it was so much easier to let the captain decide

"We’re all dead," Mickey said

"Don’t be a fool!" Ross exclaio on Actually, he began to expect a sudden awakening, hi position on his bunk to see the two of them at their tasks as usual, the crazy dream over and done with

But the dream went on He leaned back in the seat and it was a solid seat Froers over solid dials and buttons and switches All real It was no drea wasn’t even necessary

"Maybe it’s a vision," he tried, vainly atteht, as an animal h," Ross said

Then his eyes narrowed He looked at them sharply His face mirrored decision Mason alure out what Ross orking on Vision? No, it couldn’t be that Ross would hold no truck with visions He noticed Mickey staring open- of simple explanation too

"Time warp," said Ross

They still stared at him

"What?" Mason asked

"Listen," Ross punched out his theory More than his theory, for Ross never bothered with that link in the chain of calculation His certainty

"Space bends," Ross said "Tiht?"

No answer He didn’t need one

"Re of the possibility of circu time They told us we could leave Earth at a certain time And e came back we’d be back a year earlier than we’d calculated Or a year later

"Those were just theories to the teachers Well, I say it’s happened to us It’s logical, it could happen We could have passed right through a tialaxy, maybe different space lines, maybe different time lines"

He paused for effect

"I say we’re in the future," he said

Mason looked at hiht"

"We’re not dead!" Ross seeet it

"If it’s in the future," Mason said quietly, "then we’re going to die"

Ross gaped at hiht that his ideaworse than dying And that was knowing you were going to die And where And how

Mickey shook his head His hands fumbled at his sides He raised one to his lips and chewed nervously on a blackened nail

"No," he said weakly, "I don’t get it"