Calhoun the with something like as his voice a approach-call for the time. But no answer came, which had a long time ago. This was a new Med Service for Calhoun. He'd been to another man's of the other man had been taken with romance. He'd married, which him out for Med Ship duty. So now Calhoun to his own voice a call that should have been answered immediately.
Murgatroyd the with beady, eyes. The Maya off to port of the Med Ship Esclipus Twenty. Its almost full size on a screen the ship's board. The image was clear and colored. There was an ice cap in view. There were continents. There were seas. The cloud of a be noted off at one side, and the looked as they should, and the were of that muddy, which water.
Calhoun's own voice, an hour earlier, in a as it again to the and then to the visible world a hundred thousand miles away.
"Calling ground," said Calhoun's recorded voice. "Med Ship Esclipus Twenty calling ground to report and ask for landing. Our is fifty tons. Repeat, five-oh tons. Purpose of landing, health inspection."
The recorded voice stopped. There was for the which the of the ship from like the of a tomb.
Murgatroyd said: "Chee?"
Calhoun said ironically, "Undoubtedly, Murgatroyd. Undoubtedly! Whoever's on at the out for a moment, or dead, or did something inconvenient. We have to wait until he or somebody else takes over."
Murgatroyd said "Chee!" again and to his whiskers. He that when Calhoun called on the communicator, another voice should reply. Then there should be conversation, and the force-fields of a landing-grid should take of the Med Ship and it planet-ward. In time it ought to touch ground in a with a gigantic, landing-grid all about it. Then there should be people Calhoun and Murgatroyd with and petting.
"Calling ground," said the recorded voice yet again. "Med Ship Esclipus Twenty—"
It on through the notice of arrival. Murgatroyd waited in anticipation. When the Med Ship at a port of call gave him and cakes, and they it that he coffee just like a human, only with more gusto. Aground, Murgatroyd moved in while Calhoun worked. Calhoun's work was with health officials, such as they important, and telling them about the most in medical science as to the Interstellar Medical Service.
"Somebody," said Calhoun darkly, "is going to catch the for this!"
The spoke abruptly.
"Calling Med Ship," said a voice. "Calling Med Ship Esclipus Twenty! Liner Candida calling. Have you had an answer from ground?"
Calhoun blinked. Then he said curtly:
"Not yet. I've been calling all of an hour, and a word out of them!"
"We've been in twelve hours," said the voice from emptiness. "Calling all the while. No answer. We don't like it."
Calhoun a that a screen into with the ship's telescope. A appeared and wildly. Then a itself. He the magnification. The and a ship, with the false that like to they looked through when in space. Two large on each that it in to passengers. It was one of those intra-cluster ships that the and the long-haul off only at ports.
Murgatroyd across the Med Ship's and the image with a air of wisdom. It did not anything to him, but as and speech. He said, "Chee!" as if making an of significance, then to the and again up.
"We don't see anything aground," the liner's voice complained, "but they don't answer calls! We don't any scatter-signals either. We to two and couldn't up a thing. And we have a to land. He on it!"
By ordinary, different places on a planet's surface use the ion-layers of the either or past the horizon. But there is some small to space, and line-of-sight are abundant. It is one of the of a ship in to port that space near most is full of local signals.
"I'll check," said Calhoun curtly. "Stand by."
The Candida would have off Maya as the Med Ship had done, and called as Calhoun had been doing. It was very a ship on and the at the should have it. Space was to any planet, more or less with the export-import of an nation in times on Earth. Planets had traffic-aid for the cargo-carriers which moved as they'd once moved on Earth. Such traffic were very maintained. Certainly for a landing-grid not to respond to calls for twelve hours ominous.
"We've been wondering," said the Candida querulously, "if there be something below. Sickness, for example."
The word "sickness" was a for a more word. But a had nearly out the population of Dorset, once upon a time, and the ships to arrive after it had out most to ground, and so the to their next two of call. Nowadays were very indeed.
"I'll try to out what's the matter," said Calhoun.
"We've got a passenger," the Candida aggrievedly, "who that we land him by space-boat if we don't make a ship landing. He says he has aground."
Calhoun did not answer. The of were protected, these days. To fail to deliver a to his him to which no afford. So the Med Ship would heaven-sent to the Candida's skipper. Calhoun him of responsibility.
The screen and the surface of the a hundred thousand miles away. Calhoun at the image on the port screen and the to the city—Maya City. He saw and of buildings. He saw the and its landing-grid. He see no motion, of course.
He the magnification. He it again. Still no motion. He the until the lattice-pattern of the telescope's to show. But at the ship's from the planet, a ground-car would only the of a second of arc. There was atmosphere, too, with thermals; anything the size of a ground-car couldn't be seen.
But the city clearly. Nothing had to it. No large-scale physical had occurred. It did not answer calls from space.
Calhoun off the screen.
"I think," he said into the microphone, "I I'll have to make an landing. It be something as as a power failure—" but he that was improbable—"or it be—anything. I'll land on and tell you what I find."
The voice from the Candida said hopefully:
"Can you us to to land our for his own protection? He's the devil! He that his that he be landed."
A word from Calhoun as a Med Service man would protect the from a for damages. But Calhoun didn't like the look of things. He realized, distastefully, that he might anything below. He might that he had to the and himself with it. In such a case he'd need the Candida to word of the to other and thus to Med Service headquarters.
"We've a of time," the Candida. "Can you us—"
"Not yet," said Calhoun. "I'll tell you when I land."
"But—"
"I'm off for the moment," said Calhoun. "Stand by."
He the little ship downward, and as it he over the this particular world. He'd touched ground here before. His occupation, of course, was to the of medical science as it under the Med Service. The Service itself was neither political administrative. But it was important. Every human-occupied world was to have a Med Ship visit at least once in four years to the of public health.
Med Ship men like Calhoun offered on public-health problems. When something out of the ordinary up, the Med Service had a staff of who hadn't been yet. There were great ships which the in laboratory and to any place where they were needed. Not less than a dozen worlds in this alone the of their populations to the Med Service, and the number of those which couldn't have been without Med Service help was legion.
Calhoun the briefing. Maya was one of four in this area life to have had a common origin, that the Arrhenius of space-traveling was true in some limited sense. A of ground-cover plants with and and was of common origin.
The had been for two centuries now, and produced of great value from plants, most of which were used in manufacture. There were no local to which men were susceptible. A number of human-use were grown. Cereals, and grains, however, not be of the native ground-cover motile-stem plants. All and food had to be imported, which limited Maya's population. There were about two people on the planet, settled on a in the Yucatan Sea and a small area of mainland. Public-health had a great many about a great many ... but there was no mention of anything to account for the failure of the to respond to calls from space. Naturally!
The Med Ship on down, and the it.
As Maya's enlarged, Calhoun the telescope's wide. He saw cities, and of land where native plants were as materials for the organics' manufacturies. He saw very little true green, though. Mayan to a dark color.
At fifty miles he was sure that the city were empty of ground-car traffic. There was no in the landing-grid. There were no ground-cars in motion on the splendid, multiple-lane highways.
At thirty miles there were still no in the atmosphere, though when he amplitude-modulation he up static. But there was no on the air at any frequency. At twenty miles—no. At fifteen miles, power was available, which proved that the landing-grid was as usual, the upper for electric to power for all the planet's needs.
From ten miles to ground-touch, Calhoun was busy.
It is not too difficult to land a ship on rockets, with level ground to land on. But landing at a spot is something else. Calhoun the ship to the itself. His out pencil-thin through the and the tarmac. He cut them off.
Silence. Stillness. The Med Ship's up small of wind over the city. There was no other at all.
—No. There was a sound, not loud and not fast. Perhaps a click—a click—every two seconds. That was all.
Calhoun into the airlock, with Murgatroyd a little in the of great social success among the people of this world. When Calhoun the door he something. It was a sour, odor that had the quality of in it. But it was no of he recognized. Again and silence. No traffic-noise; not the almost that every city has in all its at all hours. The looked as should look at daybreak, that the doors and were open. It was somehow shocking.
A city is dramatic. An city is pathetic. This was neither. It was something new. It as if had walked away, out of sight, the past minutes.
Calhoun for the with Murgatroyd at his side. Murgatroyd was disturbed. There should be people here! They should welcome Calhoun and him—Murgatroyd—and he should be a social lion with all the he eat and all the coffee he put into his belly. But nothing happened! Nothing at all.
"Chee?" he asked anxiously.
"They've gone away," Calhoun. "They left in ground-cars. There's not one in sight."
There wasn't. Calhoun look out through the and see long, and empty streets. He at the building. There was—there had been—a green area about the of the structure. There was not a plant left. Leaves were and limp. The had almost a jelly of and of dark olive-green. The plants were dead; but not long to have up. They might have two or three days before.
Calhoun in the building. The open on a desk. It recorded the of to be away—undoubtedly—on the Candida now in aloft. There was no of disorder. It was as if the people here had walked out to look at something interesting, and hadn't come back.
Calhoun out of the and to the and of the city proper. It was incredible! Doors were opened or unlocked. Merchandise in the shops on display, as it had been spread out to customers. There was no of anywhere. Even in a restaurant there were and on the tables. The food in the plates was stale, as if three days old, but it hadn't yet to spoil. The of was as if people at their had simply, at some signal, up and walked out without any panic or disturbance.
Calhoun a face. He'd something. Among the that had been from Earth to the other worlds of the there was a which people still sometimes to an to. It was the of an ship called the Marie Celeste, which was in the middle of the ocean. There was food on the table, and the was still warm. There was no of any trouble, or terror, or which might the ship to be abandoned. But there was not a on board. Nobody had been able to a explanation.
"Only," said Calhoun to Murgatroyd, "this is on a larger scale. The people of this city walked out about three days ago, and didn't come back. Maybe all the people on the did the same, since there's not a in operation anywhere. To make the of the century, Murgatroyd, I don't like this. I don't like it a bit!"
