Below the ship the of an unknown world that circled, frozen, around a dim, unknown sun, out in space. Cold and bleak, the low, were black, rock, in with a white of what appeared to be snow, though each of the men it must be air. Here and there ran of which into great and of liquid. There were of high, and in the and of these silent, of blue, by any in this world. It was a world that under a dim, sun.
They over the of the level, plain as the them. This world was about ten thousand miles in diameter, and its surface about a than that of Earth.
On and on they swept, over the at an of less than a thousand feet, the of the cold, world.
Then, ahead of them a bleak, dark of again. They had the and were to land again—a land no more solid than the sea.
Everywhere the of snow, and here and there, through valleys, ran the of blue.
"Look!" Morey in surprise. Far ahead and to their left a of columns, with the white of snow. Arcot a powerful on it, and it out against the snowfield. It was a dead, city.
As they looked at it, Arcot the ship and for it without a word.
It was hard to the of the that had a cold, death to the population of this world—death to an race.
Arcot spoke. "I'll land the ship. I think it will be safe for us all to leave. Get out the and make sure all the are and the working. It will be here than in space. Out there, we were only by radiation, but those are liquid nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, and there's a of hydrogen, and to about fifty Absolute. We'll be by and convection."
As the others got the ready, he the ship to the ground. It into nearly ten of snow. He on the powerful searchlight, and it around the ship. Under the warm beams, the evaporated, and in a moments he had the area around the ship.
Morey and the others came with their suits. Arcot his, and his weight to ten with the power unit.
A time later, they out of the onto the ice of the world. High above them the dim, blue-white of the sun, looking like little more than a star.
Adjusting the on the suits, the four men into the air and toward the city, moving easily about ten above the of the field.
"The thing I don't understand," Morey said as they toward the city, "is why this is here at all. The from the sun when it should have it!"
Arcot pointed toward a tall, oddly-shaped that rose from the of the city. "There's your answer. That is to those we on the of the Black Star; it's a screen. They had such all over the planet.
"Unfortunately, the screen's goes up as the fourth power of the temperature. It keep out the of a supernova, but couldn't keep in the of the after the had died. The was too to make the screen work efficiently!"
At last they came to the of the city. The of the were free of snow, and they see the blank, of the windows, and within, the bleak, empty rooms. They on through the until they came to one in the center. The doors of had been closed, and through the they see that the room had been high with some of material, used as a last-ditch attempt to keep out the cold.
"Shall we in?" asked Arcot.
"We may as well," Morey's voice answered over the radio. "There may be some records we take to Earth and have deciphered. In a time like this, I they would some records, that some might come and them."
They with pistols for fifteen minutes a way through. It was slow work they had to use the pistols to supply the necessary energy for the motion.
When they through, they they had entered on the second floor; the had the first. Before them a long, hall, painted with great murals.
The paintings a people in a of some soft, white cloth, with that to their shoulders. They were and more than Earthmen, perhaps, but there was a to them that the of their planet. The a world of warm sunlight, green plants, and tall trees in a breeze—a of air that now on the of their buildings.
Scene after they saw—then they came to a great hall. Here they saw hundreds of bodies; people in cloth blankets. And over the of the room little of green.
Wade looked at the little for a long time, and then at the people who there, perfectly by the cold. They only sleeping—men, women, and children, sleeping under a of soft that and as the energy of the lights on it. There was one little group the men looked at they left the room of death. There were three in it—a man, a fair, woman who more than a girl, and them, a little child. They were sleeping, arms about each other, warm in the arms of Death, the Reliever of Pain.
Arcot and rose, the long toward the door.
"That was not meant for us," he said. "Let's leave."
The others followed.
"But let's see what records they left," he on. "It may be that they wanted us to know their story. Let's see what of they had."
"Their was good, at least," said Wade. "Did you notice those green crystals? A quick, painless to them of the against the cold."
They to the level, where there was a single great court. There were no pillars, only a vast, floor.
"They had good architecture," said Morey. "No under all the of that building."
"And the is under this gravity," Arcot.
In the center of the room was a great, on a of marble. It must have been new when this world froze, for there was no of or oxidation. The men over to it and it, looking at the great sphere, nearly fifteen in diameter.
"A of their world," said Fuller, looking at it with interest.
"Yes," Arcot, "and it was set up after they were sure the cold would come, from the looks of it. Let's take a look at it." He up to the top of it and viewed it from above. The whole was a map, seas, mountains, and continents.
"Arcot—come here a minute," called Morey. Arcot to where Morey was looking at the globe. On the of one of the was a small globe, and around the globe, a circle had been etched.
"I think this is meant to this globe," Morey said. "I'm almost it this very spot. Now look over here." He pointed to a spot which, according to the of the globe, was about five thousand miles away. Projecting from the surface of the was a little tower.
"They want us to go there," Morey. "This was only the catastrophe; they must have put there that they want us to get. They must have that beings would space; I they have other like this in every large city.
"I think it's our to visit that cairn."
"I agree," Arcot. "The of other men visiting this world is small."
"Then let's this City of the Dead!" said Wade.
It gave them a of than that by the of space. One is so as when he is with the dead, and the men to that the original Ancient Mariner had been more with than they had been in the of ten light years of space.
They to the ship, through the last of this world's atmosphere, through the of the to the cheering, warm of the ship.
It was a that each of them more the gift that a hot, sun is. Perhaps that was what Fuller ask: "If this to a star so much like our sun, why couldn't it to Sol?"
"Perhaps it may," said Morey softly. "But the of man us saying: 'It can't here.' And besides—" He put a hand on the of the ship, "—we don't have to worry about anything like that now. Not with ships like this to take us to a new sun—a new planet."
Arcot the ship and over the cold, ground them, the on the great in the city. Mile after mile of ice by as they over it at three miles second.
Suddenly, the of a them. Arcot the power and the ship to a stop. With the powerful searchlight, he the area, looking for the tower he should be here. At last, he it out, a than a tower, and over with ice. They soon out the by playing the energy of three powerful upon them, and in a minutes the of gold through the melting ice and show.
"It looks," said Wade, "as though they have an of gold over a of iron or to protect it from corrosion. Certainly gold doesn't have to itself up under this gravity—not in such as that."
Arcot the ship the tower and the men once more out through the into the cold of the almost world. They across to the and looked for some means of entrance. In places, they noticed in great, foot-high characters. They in for a door until they noticed that the was not perfect, but truncated, a area on top. The only joint in the to be there, but there was no or visible methods of opening the door.
Arcot his powerful light on the surface and for some opening device. He a bas-relief of a hand pointing to a of the door. He looked more closely and a small jewel-like set in the metal.
Suddenly the men a vibration! There was a click, and the door to slowly.
"Get on it!" Arcot cried. "We can always our way out if we're trapped!"
The four men on it and slowly with it. The of the tower were nearly five thick, and of some tough, white metal.
"Pure iron!" Wade. "Or a silicon-iron alloy. Not as as steel, but very to corrosion."
When the stopped, they themselves in a great that was a of the race. All around the were models, books, and diagrams.
"We can to take all this in our ship!" said Arcot, looking at the great collection. "Look—there's an old airplane! And a steam engine—and that's an electric motor! And that thing looks like some of an electric battery."
"But we can't take all that stuff," Fuller.
"No," Morey agreed. "I think our best would be to take all the books we can—making sure we the ones, so we can read the language.
"See—over there—they have marked those with a single mark. The ones next to them have two marks, and next ones three. I we up with those books and take them to the ship."
The agreed, and they of books, out through the top of the to the ship and for more.
Instead of to the for the last load, Arcot that he was going to a note for anyone who might come here later. While the others for the last load, he at the "note".
"Let's see your masterpiece," said Morey as the three men returned to the ship with the last of the books.
Arcot had used a piece of tough, plastic which would any the cold, almost world might have to offer.
Near the top, he had a of their ship, and it a of the they had taken from to universe. The they were in was by a cloud of gas, its main feature. Underneath the line of their through space, he had printed "200,000,000,000, u".
Then a little table. The "1" by a bar, then "2" by two bars, and so on up to ten. Ten was by ten and, in addition, an S-shaped sign. Twenty was next, by twenty and two S-shaped signs. Thus he had up to "100".
The he used would make it clear to any that he had used a and that the meant ten times.
Next below, he had the of the world, and the from the they were on to the sun he "u". Thus, the that they had come a of two hundred billion units, where a of three hundred miles was taken as the unit; they had, then, come from another galaxy. Certainly any with to this world would this!
"Since the year of this is eight times our own," Arcot continued, "I am that we came here five hundred years after the catastrophe." He pointed at of the other drawings.
They left the message in the tower, and Arcot closed the door, the as it had been they had come.
"Say!" Morey commented, "how did you open and close that door, anyway?"
Arcot grinned. "Didn't you notice the at the corner? It was the of a photoelectric cell. My opened the door. I didn't it out; it just accidentally."
Morey an eyebrow. "But if the thing is so simple, any creature, or not, might be able to in and the records!"
Arcot looked at him. "And where are your going to come from? There are none on this planet, and anyone to a isn't going to the of the tower."
"Oh." Morey looked a little sheepish.
They into the and took off their suits. Then they packing the books in cases that had been for the purpose of such things.
When the last of them was stowed, they returned to the room. They looked out across this strange, world, how much it must have been like Earth. It was now, and forever. The low that out them were by the weak of a sun. Three hundred miles away, it so that this world only a little more than it might have from a small fire a mile away.
So it that in this thin of and helium, its little about it plainly, and the around it brilliantly. The men see one that itself in the of a dragon, with the sun of this as its cold, eye.
Gradually, Arcot the ship, and, as they out into space, they see the behind. It was as if a of from them as they out into the of the stars.
