Part-2
They all got out of the and their and looked up the road to the tall with the cap on its top. The four little that had been against its into the and started slowly, the smallest of them, Sachiko Koremitsu, paying out an electric behind. When it up the truck, they out; Sachiko the free end of the to a nuclear-electric battery. At once, dirty and orange out from the of the building, and, a second later, the banged.
She and Tony Lattimer and Major Lindemann onto the truck, the by the road. When they the building, a wide had been in the wall. Lattimer had his two of the windows; they were out along with the between, and on the ground. Martha the they had entered. A Space Force officer had up a and it at one of the windows, that would be all they'd need to do. It had back. He had his pistol—they'd all guns, then, on the that what they didn't know about Mars might easily them—and four shots. The had ricocheted, thinly; there were four of jacket-metal on the window, and a little surface spalling. Somebody a rifle; the 4000-f.s. had the without penetrating. An had taken an hour to cut the window out; the crew, the ship, were still trying to out just what the was.
Tony Lattimer had gone and was his and forth, petulantly, his voice and by his helmet-speaker.
"I I was into a[Pg 23] hallway; this lets us into a room. Careful; there's about a two-foot to the floor, and a of from the blast just inside."
He through the breach; the others out of the trucks—shovels and and and sledges, portable floodlights, cameras, sketching materials, an ladder, Alpinists' and and pickaxes. Hubert Penrose was something that looked like a machine gun but which was a nuclear-electric jack-hammer. Martha one of the spike-shod mountaineer's ice axes, with which she or or or or help herself over footing.
The windows, and with fifty of dust, in a twilight; the in the wall, in the shade, only a small of floor. Somebody on a floodlight, it at the ceiling. The big room was empty and bare; thick on the and the once-white walls. It have been a large office, but there was nothing left in it to its use.
"This one's been up to the seventh floor!" Lattimer exclaimed. "Street level'll be out, completely."
"Do for and shops, then," Lindemann said. "Added to the others, this'll take of on the Schiaparelli."
"Seem to have been a of electric or over along this wall," one of the Space Force officers commented. "Ten or twelve electric outlets." He the with his glove, then on the with his foot. "I can see where were loose."
The door, one of the the Martians had used, was closed. Selim Ohlmhorst it, but it was fast. The metal latch-parts had together, itself to molecule, since the door had last been closed. Hubert Penrose came over with the jack-hammer, a spear-point into place. He set the in the joint the doors, the against his hip, and the trigger-switch. The like the it resembled, and the doors a apart, then stuck. Enough had into the into which it was to to it on sides.
That was old stuff; they ran into that every time they had to a door, and they were prepared for it. Somebody and in a power-jack and one of the doors to the door jamb. That was to the lights and through: they all passed from the room to the beyond. About the other doors were open; each had a number and a single word, Darfhulva, over it.[Pg 24]
One of the volunteers, a woman of natural from Penn State University, was looking up and the hall.
"You know," she said, "I at home here. I think this was a college of some sort, and these were classrooms. That word, up there; that was the taught, or the department. And those devices, all where the class would them; audio-visual teaching aids."
"A twenty-five-story university?" Lattimer scoffed. "Why, a like this would thirty thousand students."
"Maybe there were that many.[Pg 25] This was a big city, in its prime," Martha said, moved by a to oppose Lattimer.
"Yes, but think of the in the halls, every time they classes. It'd take an hour to and from one to another." He to Ohlmhorst. "I'm going up above this floor. This place has been clean up to here, but there's a there may be something above," he said.
"I'll on this floor, at present," the Turco-German replied. "There will be much and going, and in and out. We should this and recorded first. Then Major Lindemann's people can do their worst, here."
"Well, if nobody else wants it, I'll take the downstairs," Martha said.
"I'll go along with you," Hubert Penrose told her. "If the have no value, we'll turn them into quarters. I like this building: it'll give room to keep out from under else's feet." He looked the hall. "We ought to at the middle."
The hallway, too, was thick with dust. Most of the open rooms were empty, but a furniture, small seat-desks. The original of the pointed these out as just what might be in classrooms. There were escalators, up and down, on either of the hall, and more on the passage to the right.
"That's how they the students, classes," Martha commented. "And I'll there are more ahead, there."
They came to a stop where the ended at a great square hall. There were elevators, there, on two of the sides, and four escalators, still as stairways. But it was the walls, and the paintings on them, that them up and staring.
They were with dirt—she was trying to what they must have looked like originally, and at the same time the labor that would be in them—but they were still distinguishable, as was the word, Darfhulva, in above each of the four sides. It was a moment she realized, from the murals, that she had at last a Martian word. They were a panorama, around the room. A group of skin-clad around a fire. Hunters with and spears, a of an animal like a pig. Nomads long-legged, like deer. Peasants and reaping; mud-walled villages, and cities; of and warriors; with and bows, and with and muskets; galleys, and ships with sails, and ships without visible means of propulsion, and aircraft.[Pg 26] Changing and and and of architecture. A landscape, into and bushlands—the time of the great planet-wide drought. The Canal Builders—men with as steam-shovels and derricks, and and across the empty with aqueducts. More cities—seaports on the oceans; dwindling, half-deserted cities; an city, with four and a thing like a combat-car in the middle of a brush-grown plaza, they and their vehicle by the around them. She had not the least doubt; Darfhulva was History.
"Wonderful!" Ohlmhorst was saying. "The entire history of this race. Why, if the painter and and for each period, and got the right, we can the history of this into and and civilizations."
"You can assume they're authentic. The of this would on in the Darfhulva—History—Department," she said.
"Yes! Darfhulva—History! And your magazine was a of Sornhulva!" Penrose exclaimed. "You have a word, Martha!" It took her an to that he had called her by her name, and not Dr. Dane. She wasn't sure if that weren't a than learning a word of the Martian language. Or a more start. "Alone, I that means something like science or knowledge, or study; combined, it would be to our 'ology. And would something like past, or old times, or events, or chronicles."
"That you three words, Martha!" Sachiko jubilated. "You did it."
"Let's don't go too fast," Lattimer said, for once not derisively. "I'll admit that is the Martian word for history as a of study; I'll admit that is the word and it and tells us which is meant. But as for meanings, we can't do that we don't know just how the Martians thought, scientifically or otherwise."
He stopped short, by the blue-white light that as Sid Chamberlain's Kliegettes on. When the of the camera stopped, it was Chamberlain who was speaking:
"This is the biggest thing yet; the whole history of Mars, age to the end, all on four walls. I'm taking this with the fast shutter, but we'll it in slow motion, from the to the end. Tony, I want you to do the voice for it—running commentary, of each as it's shown. Would you do that?"
Would he do that! Martha thought. If he had a tail, he'd be it at the very thought.[Pg 27]
"Well, there ought to be more on the other floors," she said. "Who wants to come with us?"
Sachiko did; immediately. Ivan Fitzgerald volunteered. Sid to go with Tony Lattimer, and Gloria Standish to go upstairs, too. Most of the party would on the seventh floor, to help Selim Ohlmhorst it finished. After at the with the of her ice axe, Martha the way downward.
The was Darfhulva, too; and history, from the of the murals. They looked around the hall, and to the fifth; it was like the above that the big was with and boxes. Ivan Fitzgerald, who was the floodlight, it slowly around. Here the were of heroic-sized Martians, so in as to members of her own race, each some object—a book, or a test tube, or some of scientific apparatus, and them were of and factories, and smoke, lightning-flashes. The word at the top of each of the four was one with which she was already familiar—Sornhulva.
"Hey, Martha; there's that word," Ivan Fitzgerald exclaimed. "The one in the title of your magazine." He looked at the paintings. "Chemistry, or physics."
"Both." Hubert Penrose considered. "I don't think the Martians any them. See, the old with the must be the of the spectroscope; he has one in his hands, and he has a him. And the woman in the smock, him, in chemistry; see the of long-chain her. What word would the idea of and taken as one subject?"
"Sornhulva," Sachiko suggested. "If hulva's something like science, "sorn" must matter, or substance, or physical object. You were right, all along, Martha. A like this would something like this, that would be self-explanatory."
"This'll a little more of that off Tony Lattimer's face," Fitzgerald was saying, as they the to the below. "Tony wants to be a big shot. When you want to be a big shot, you can't the possibility of else being a big shot, and makes a start on reading this language will be the biggest big saw."
That was true. She hadn't of it, in that way, before, and now she not to think about it. She didn't want to be a big shot. She wanted to be able to read the Mar[Pg 28]tian language, and out about the Martians.
Two down, they came out on a around a wide on the level, the them and the thirty above. Their lights out object after object below—a group of in the middle; some of a vehicle up on for repairs; that looked like machine-guns and auto-cannon; long tables, with a dust-covered miscellany; machinery; boxes and and containers.
They their way and walked among the clutter, missing a hundred for every one they saw, until they an to the basement. There were three basements, one under another, until at last they at the of the last escalator, on a floor, the portable over of boxes and and drums, and of dust. The boxes were plastic—nobody had anything of in the city—and the and were of metal or or some substance. They were intact. The might have been anything organic, or anything fluid. Down here, where wind and not reach, had been the only of after the minute life that had vanished.
They rooms, too, and using Martha's ice and the Sachiko on her belt, they and one open, to of what had been vegetables, and of meat. Samples of that stuff, up to the ship, would give a estimate, by radio-carbon dating, of how long ago this had been occupied. The unit, different from anything their own had produced, had been powered. Sachiko and Penrose, into it, the still on; the machine had only to when the power-source, that had been, had failed.
The middle had also been used, at least toward the end, for storage; it was cut in by a partition by but one door. They took an hour to this, and were on the point of sending above for when it for them to through. Fitzgerald, in the lead with the light, stopped short, looked around, and then gave a that came through his helmet-speaker like a foghorn.
"Oh, no! No!"
"What's the matter, Ivan?" Sachiko, entering him, asked anxiously.
He aside. "Look at it, Sachi! Are we going to have to do all that?"
Martha through her friend and looked around, then[Pg 29] motionless, with excitement. Books. Case on case of books, an of cases, fifteen to the ceiling. Fitzgerald, and Penrose, who had pushed in her, were talking in excitement; she only the of their voices, not their words. This must be the main of the library—the entire of the of Mars. In the center, an the cases, she see the square of the librarians' desk, and stairs and a dumb-waiter to the above.
She that she was walking forward, with the others, toward this. Sachiko was saying: "I'm the lightest; let me go first." She must be talking about the metal stairs.
"I'd say they were safe," Penrose answered. "The trouble we've had with doors around here that the metal hasn't deteriorated."
In the end, the Japanese girl the way, more than in her caution. The stairs were sound, in of their appearance, and they all her. The above was a of the room they had entered, and to about as many books. Rather than waste time the door here, they returned to the middle and came up by the which they had originally descended.
The upper kitchens—electric stoves, some with and still on them—and a big room that must have been, originally, the students' room, though when last used it had been a workshop. As they expected, the library reading room was on the street-level floor, directly above the stacks. It to have been into a of common room for the building's last occupants. An had been into a chemical works; there were and apparatus, and a metal tower that through a in the seventy above. A good of plastic of the they had been in the city was about, some of it up, for reprocessing. The other rooms on the also to have been to and repair work; a industry, along a number of lines, must have been on here for a long time after the had to as such.
On the second floor, they a museum; many of the remained, half-visible in cases. There had been offices there, too. The doors of most of them were closed, and they did not waste time trying to them, but those that were open had been into quarters. They notes, and plans, to them in more examination; it was almost they had their way to the seventh floor.[Pg 30]
Selim Ohlmhorst was in a room on the north of the building, sketching the position of them and them for removal. He had the with a of lines, each numbered.
"We have on this photographed," he said. "I have three gangs—all the I have—sketching and making measurements. At the we're going, with time out for lunch, we'll be by the middle of the afternoon."
"You've been fast. Evidently you aren't being high-church about a 'qualified archaeologist' entering rooms first," Penrose commented.
"Ach, childishness!" the old man impatiently. "These officers of yours aren't fools. All of them have been to Intelligence School and Criminal Investigation School. Some of the most I were retired soldiers or policemen. But there isn't much work to be done. Most of the rooms are either empty or like this one—a of and trash and of paper. Did you anything on the floors?"
"Well, yes," Penrose said, a hint of in his voice. "What would you say, Martha?"
She started to tell Selim. The others, unable to their excitement, in with interruptions. Von Ohlmhorst was in amazement.
"But this was almost clean, and the we've entered were all from the level up," he said, at length.
"The people who this one here," Penrose replied. "They had electric power to the last; we full of food, and with the dinner still on them. They must have used the to from the upper floor. The whole was into and laboratories. I think that this place must have been something like a in the Dark Ages in Europe, or what such a would have been like if the Dark Ages had the of a scientific civilization. For one thing, we a of machine and light auto-cannon on the level, and all the doors were barricaded. The people here were trying to keep a after the of the had gone to barbarism; I they'd have to off by the now and then."
"You're not going to on making this into quarters, I hope, colonel?" Ohlmhorst asked anxiously.
"Oh, no! This place is an treasure-house. More than that; from what I saw, our can learn a lot, here. But you'd this up as soon as you can, though. I'll have the part, from the down, airsealed. Then we'll[Pg 31] put in and power units, and a of into service. For the above, we can use temporary by floor, and portable equipment; when we have and and heated, you and Martha and Tony Lattimer can go to work and in comfort, and I'll give you all the help I can from the other work. This is one of the biggest we've yet."
Tony Lattimer and his came to the seventh a little later.
"I don't this, at all," he began, as soon as he joined them. "This wasn't the way the others were. Always, the to have been to from the up, but they to have the top first, here. All but the very top. I out what that thing is, by the way. It's a wind-rotor, and under it there's an electric generator. This its own power."
"What of condition are the in?" Penrose asked.
"Well, everything's full of that in under the rotor, of course, but it looks to be in good shape. Hey, I'll that's it! They had power, so they used the to down. That's just what they did. Some of the above here don't to have been touched, though." He paused momentarily; of his oxy-mask, he to be grinning. "I don't know that I ought to mention this in of Martha, but two above—we a room—it must have been the library for one of the departments—that had close to five hundred books in it."
The noise that him, like the of a Brobdingnagian parrot, was only Ivan Fitzgerald laughing through his helmet-speaker.
