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It was the jar of the coaster&039;s landing, Sheffield later thought, that first brought consciousness back It was a di in it at first

The sound of Mark&039;s voice was floating up to him That was his first sensation Then as he tried to roll over and get a knee beneath hi

For a while, Mark&039;s voice was only a collection of sounds that an to coalesce into words Finally, when his eyes fluttered open and light entered stabbingly so that he had to close theain, he could , one quivering knee holding hih-pitched voice, " a thousand people all dead Just graves And nobody knohy"

There was a rumble Sheffield couldn&039;t ain, "It&039;s true Why do you suppose all the scientists are aboard?"

Sheffield lifted achingly to his feet and rested against one wall He put his hand to his head and it came away bloody His hair was caked and ered toward the coaster&039;s cabin door He fu ra, afraid to trust his legs

He had to take in everything by instalh in die sky and a thousand feet away the giant steel cylinder of the Triple G reared its nose high above the runty trees that ringed it

Mark was at the foot of the ramp, semi-circled by members of the crew The creere stripped to the waist and browned nearly black in the ultraviolet of Lagrange I (Thanks only to the thick at in the upper reaches for keeping UV down to a livable range)

The crew on a baseball bat Another tossed a ball in the air and caught it Many of the rest earing gloves

Funny, thought Sheffield erratically, Mark landed right in the middle of a ball park

Mark looked up and saw hiht, "ask him Go ahead, ask him Dr Sheffield, wasn&039;t there an expedition to this planet once and they all died mysteriously?"

Sheffield tried to say, "Mark, what are you doing?" He couldn&039;t When he opened his mouth, only a moan cau the truth,with two perspiring hands The crewman&039;s face seemed to waver The face had thick lips on it and small eyes buried under bristly eyebrows It wavered very badly

Then the raripped in his hands suddenly and a cold ache on his cheekbone He gave up the fight and let go of consciousness again