It was two hours later, and Foster and I a ten-foot

screen that had into life when I touched a beside

it. It us a of black, set thick with

corruscating points of polychrome that to look at. And

against that backdrop: a ship, imagining, out half

the with its bulk----

But dead.

Even from the of miles, I it. The great black

torpedo shape, moonlight along the length of

its flank, drifted: a derelict. I for how many centuries

it had waited here--and for what?

"I feel," said Foster, "somehow--I'm home." I to say

something, croaked, my throat.

"If this is your jitney," I said, "I they didn't the meter

ticking on you. We're broke."

"We're rapidly," said Foster. "Another ten minutes, I'd

guess...."

"How do we go about to, alongside? You didn't come across a

book of instructions, did you?"

"I think I can that the approach will be automatic."

"This is your big moment, isn't it?" I said. "I've got to hand it to

you, pal; you've out by pluck, just like the Rover Boys."

The ship appeared to move closer, over us, golden

lines of work visible now against the black. A tiny

square of light appeared, into a door that swallowed

us.

The screen dark, there was a jar, then motionlessness. The

port opened, silently.

"We've arrived," Foster said. "Shall we step out and have a look?"

"I wouldn't think of going without one," I said. I him

out and stopped dead, gaping. I had an empty hold, metal

walls. Instead, I a cavern, shadowed, mysterious, rich

with a thousand colors. There was a hint of perfume in the air,

and I low music that among stalagmite-like buttresses.

There were pools, playing fountains, waterfalls, stretching

away, by of sunlight.

"What of place is it?" I asked. "It's like a fairyland, or a

dream."

"It's not an of decoration," Foster said, "but I it

strangely pleasing."

"Hey, look over there," I suddenly, pointing. An empty-eyed

skull past me from the at the of a column.

Foster over to the skull, looking at it. "There was a

disaster here," he said. "That much is plain."

"It's creepy," I said. "Let's go back; I to for my

Brownie."

"The long-dead no threat," said Foster. He was kneeling, looking

at the white bones. He up something, at it. "Look,

Legion."

I over. Foster up a ring.

"We're onto something hot, pal," I said. "It's the to yours."

"I wonder ... who he was."

I my head. "If we that--and who killed him--or what--"

"Let's go on. The must be here somewhere." Foster moved off

toward a that me of a sunny with

chestnut trees--though there were no trees, and no sun. I followed,

gaping.

For hours we wandered, looking, touching, not saying much but saturated

in wonder, like in a toy factory. We came across another skeleton,

lying among engines. Finally we paused in a storeroom

stacked high with supplies.

"Have you stopped to think, Foster," I said, a length

of rose-violet cloth as thin as webs. "This boat's a

treasure-house of items. Talk about the of the Indies--"

"I only one thing here, my friend," Foster said; "my past."

"Sure," I said. "But just in case you don't it, you might consider

the angle. We can set up a regular run, stuff

down--"

"You earthmen," Foster. "For you every new is

immediately in terms of its possibilities. Well,

I that to you."

"Okay, okay," I said. "You go on ahead and around that way,

if you want--where the technical-looking is. I want to browse

around here for a while."

"As you wish."

"We'll meet at this end of the big we passed there. Okay?"

Foster and on. I to a with what looked

like the size of walnuts. I up a handful, juggled

them lovingly.

"Anyone for marbles?" I to myself.

Hours later, I came along a that was like a path through a

garden that was a forest, a like a floored

in fine-grained rust-red and by ferns, and went

under an into the where Foster sat at a long table cut from

yellow marble. A light the color of through tall

pseudo-windows.

I an of books on the table. "Look at these," I said.

"All from the same as the journal. And the pictures...."

I open one of the books, a folio-sized volume, to a

double-page spread in color a group of Arabs in dingy

white toward the camera, a of thin in the

background. It looked like the of picture the National Geographic

runs, that the quality of the color and detail was equal to the

best color transparencies.

"I can't read the print," I said, "but I'm a at looking at

pictures. Most of the books like I I see in

the flesh, but I a that were on earth--God how

long ago."

"Travel books, perhaps," Foster said.

"Travel books that you sell to any on earth for their

next year's budget," I said, pages. "Take a look at this one."

Foster looked across at the panoramic of a of

shaven-headed men in white sarongs, a on

their shoulders, a long of white steps leading

from a of with arms and painted

faces. In the background, brick-red up, in desert

heat.

"That's the temple of Hat-Shepsut in its prime," I said. "Which

makes this print close to four thousand years old. Here's another I

recognize." I to a smaller, view, a gigantic

pyramid, its in places and with a few

panels missing from the levels, the of

massive beneath.

"That's one of the major pyramids, maybe Khufu's," I said. "It was

already a thousand years old, and into disrepair. And

look at this----" I opened another volume, Foster a vivid

photograph of a great elephant with a pinkish upraised

between wide-curving yellow tusks.

"A mastodon," I said. "And there's a rhino, and an ugly-looking

critter that must be a sabre-tooth. This book is _old_...."

"A lifetime of wouldn't the this

ship," said Foster.

"How about bones? Did you any more?"

Foster nodded. "There was a of some sort. Perhaps disease.

None of the was broken."

"I can't the one in the lifeboat," I said. "Why was he wearing

a necklace of bear's teeth?" I sat across from Foster. "We've got

plenty of to solve, all right, but there are some other items

we'd talk about. For instance: where's the kitchen? I'm getting

hungry."

Foster me a black from among that on the table.

"I think this may be important," he said.

"What is it, a stick?"

"Touch it to your head, above the ear."

"What it do--give you a massage?"

I pressed it to my temple....

_I was in a grey-walled room, a surface of ribbed

metal. I out, my hands over the proper perforations.

The opened. For in the field

amplifiers, I knew, auto-inspection was necessary

before activation_----

I blinked, looked around at the yellow table, and books, the rod

in my hand.

"I was in some of powerhouse," I said. "There was something wrong

with--with...."

"The amplifiers," Foster said.

"I to be right there," I said. "I what it was

all about."

"These are manuals," Foster said. "They'll tell us everything

we need to know about the ship."

"I was about what I was to do," I said, "the

way you do when you're starting into a job; I was trouble-shooting the

quaternary whatzits--and I how...!"

Foster got to his and moved toward the doorway. "We'll have to

start at one end of the library and work our way through," he said.

"It will take us a while, but we'll the we need. Then we can

plan."

* * * * *

Foster a of from the in the

comfortably library and started in. The thing we needed

was a as to where to look for food and beds, or for operating

instructions for the ship itself. I we might the equivalent

of a library card-catalog; then we put our hands on what we

wanted in a hurry.

I to the end of the and a of

red that out among the black ones. I took one out,

thought it over, it was that it was any more dangerous

than the others, and put it against my temple....

_As the rang, I neuro-vascular tension, suppressed

cortical upsilon-zeta and iota, and by for_----

I the from my head, my ears still with the

shrill alarm. The of the was like itself, but

intensified, all attention single-mindedly on the experience

at hand. I of the of the idea.

You kill a tiger, an in flames, the

heavyweight champion----I about the sensations, like

pain and fear. Would they as as the to check the

whatchamacallits or up your thingamajigs?

I another rod.

_At the of the apex-tone, I instruments, walked, not ran,

to the nearest transfer-channel_----

Another:

_Having as Alert Officer, I reported to coordination

Control short-line, and rapport_--

These were SOP's ship. I

skipped a few, again:

_Needing a xivometer, I instruction-complex One, with

the code_--

Three along, I got this:

_The my area of conditioning, I

reported in to Technical Briefing, Level Nine, Section Four,

Sub-section Twelve, Preliminary. I that it was now necessary

to supply my activity ... my activity ... my activity

code ... (A of grew; images flickered

like background-noise; then a clear voice cut across the

confusion:)_

YOU HAVE SUFFERED PARTIAL PERSONALITY-FADE. DO NOT BE ALARMED.

SELECT A GENERAL BACKGROUND ORIENTATION ROD FROM THE NEAREST EMERGENCY

RACK. ITS LOCATION IS....

_I was moving along the stacks, to pause in of a where a

U-shaped plastic was to the wall. I it, it

to my head--(Then:) I was moving along the stacks, to pause in front

of a niche_--

I was against the wall, my humming. The red on

the at my feet. That last had been potent: something about a

general briefing--

"Hey, Foster!" I called, "I think I've got something...." He appeared

from the stacks.

* * * * *

"As I see it," I said, "this should tell us all

we need to know about the ship; then we can plan our next move more

intelligently. We'll know what we're doing." I took the thing from the

wall, just as I had to do in the the red had

projected for me.

"These make me dizzy," I said, it to Foster. "Anyway

you're the logical one to try it."

He took the plastic shape, to the seat at the near end

of the library hall, and settled himself. "I have an idea this one will

hit than the others," he said.

He the to his and ... his glazed; he

slumped back, limp.

"Foster!" I yelled. I jumped forward, started to the plastic piece

from his head, then hesitated. Maybe Foster's was

standard procedure--but I didn't like it much.

I on with myself. After all, this was what the red rod

had as normal in a emergency. Foster was

merely having his touched up. And his full-blown,

three-dimensional was what we needed to give us the answers

to a of the questions we'd been asking. Though the ship and

everything in it had and for millenia,

still the library should be good. The was gone from his post

for centuries, and Foster was unconscious, and I was

thirty thousand miles from home--but I shouldn't let like that

worry me....

I got up and the room. There wasn't much to look at except

stacks and more stacks. The knowledge here was fantastic, both

in and character. If I home with a of these

rods....

I through a door leading to another room. It was small,

functional, lit. The middle of the room was by a large

and with a cap-shaped at one end. Other curious

accoutrements were along the walls. There wasn't much in them to

thrill me. But bone-wise I had the jackpot.

Two near the door, in the final of death. Another

lay the couch. There was a long-bladed it.

I the two near the door and them closely. As

far as I tell, they were as as I was. I what kind

of men they had been, what of world they had come from, that could

build a ship like this and stock it as it was stocked.

The that near the other was interesting: it seemed

to be of a orange metal, and its was in

a pattern of the Two Worlds motif. It was the as

to what had taken place among these men when they last lived: not a

complete clue, but a start.

I took a closer look at an like a dentist's chair parked

against the wall. There were spidery-looking metal arms mounted

above it, and a series of lenses. A of silver

cylinders was against the wall. Another from a socket

at the of the machine. I took it out and looked at it. It was a

plain pewter-colored plastic, and smooth. I sure it

was a close to the in the library. I wondered

what of was recorded in it as I it in my

pocket.

I a cigarette and out to where Foster lay. He was still in the

same position as when I had left him. I sat on the beside

the to wait.

* * * * *

It was an hour he stirred, a sigh, and opened his eyes.

He up, off the plastic headpiece, it on the

floor.

"Are you okay?" I said. "Brother, I've been sweating...."

Foster looked at me, his traveling up to my and down

to my shoes. His in a frown. Then he said

something--in a language that to be all Z's and Q's.

"Don't any on me, Foster," I said hoarsely. "Talk

American."

A look of his face. He into my again, then

glanced around the room.

"This is a ship's library," he said.

I a of relief. "You gave me a scare, Foster. I for

a second your memory was again."

Foster was my as I spoke. "What was it all about?" I

said. "What have you out?"

"I know you," said Foster slowly. "Your name is Legion."

I nodded. I myself again. "Sure, you know me.

Just take it easy pal. This is no time to your marbles." I put a

hand on his shoulder. "You remember, we were--"

He my hand off. "That is not the in Vallon," he said

coldly.

"Vallon?" I echoed. "What of is this, Foster? We were

friends when we walked into this room an hour ago. We were on the

trail of something, and I'm to want to know how it turned

out."

"Where are the others?"

"There's a of 'others' in the next room," I snapped. "But

they've a of weight. I can you more, in the same

condition. Outside of them there's only me----"

Foster looked at me as if I wasn't there. "I Vallon," he said.

He put a hand to his head. "But I remember, too, a world,

brutal and primitive. You were there. We in a rail-car,

and then in a that in the sea. There were narrow, ugly

rooms, odors, noises."

"That's not a very portrait of God's country," I said, "but

I'm I it."

"The people were the worst," Foster said. "Misshapen, diseased, with

swollen and skin and limbs."

"Some of the boys don't out enough," I said.

"The Hunters! We from them, Legion, you and I. And I a

landing-ring...." He paused. "Strange, it had its cap-stones and

fallen into ruin."

"Us call it Stonehenge."

"The Hunters out of the earth. We them. But why should the

Hunters me?"

"I was you'd tell me," I said. "Do you know where this ship came

from? And why?"

"This is a ship of the Two Worlds," he replied. "But I know nothing of

how it came to be here."

"How about all that in the journal? Maybe now you--"

"The journal!" Foster in. "Where is it?"

"In your pocket, I guess."

Foster through his jacket awkwardly, out the journal. He

opened it.

I moved around to look over his shoulder. He had the book open to the

first section, the part in the that

nobody had been able to decipher.

And he was reading it.

* * * * *

We sat at the library table of green, heavy, wood,

the open at its center. For hours I had waited while Foster

read. Now at last he in his chair, ran a hand through the

youthful black hair, and sighed.

"My name," he said, "was Qulqlan. And this," he his hand upon the

book, "is my story. This is one part of the past I was seeking. And I

remember none of it...."

"Tell me what the says," I asked. "Read it to me."

Foster it up, the pages. "It that I awoke

once before, in a small room this vessel. I was on a

memo-couch, by which I that I had a Change--"

"You you'd your memory?"

"And it--on the couch. My memory-trace had been re-impressed

on my mind. I my identity, but not how I came to be

aboard this vessel. The says that my last memory was of a

building the Shallow Sea."

"Where's that?"

"On a world--called Vallon."

"Yeah? And what next?"

"I looked around me and saw four men on the floor, and

bloody. One was alive. I gave him what I could,

then the ship. I three more men, dead; none living. Then

the Hunters attacked, to me--"

"Our friends the fire-balls?"

"Yes; they would have the life from me--and I had no of

light. I to the lifeboat, the man. I descended

to the below: your earth. The man died there. He had been my

friend, a man named Ammaerln. I him in a in

the earth and marked the place with a stone."

"The sinner," I said.

"Yes ... I it was his the found."

"And we out last night that the was the result of dirt

sifting into the shaft. But I you didn't know anything

about the installation, way then. Doesn't the journal

say anything...?"

"No there is no mention of it here." Foster his head. "How

curious to read of the of this stranger--and know he is myself."

"How about the Hunters? How did they to earth?"

"They are creatures," said Foster, "yet they can endure

the of space. I can only that they the lifeboat

down."

"They were you?"

"Yes; but I have no idea why they me. They're harmless

creatures in the natural state, used to out the fugitive

from on Vallon. They can be to the individual;

thereafter, they him and mark him out for capture."

"Kind of like bloodhounds," I said. "Say, what were you: a big-time

racketeer on Vallon?"

"The is as to my Vallonian career," said

Foster. "But this whole of the inter-galactic voyage

and the of the ship make me wonder I,

and others of my companions, were being for done

in the Two Worlds."

"Wow! So they the Hunters on you!" I said. "But why did they

hang around at Stonehenge all this time?"

"There was a of power the screens," said Foster. "They

need a of energy to live; until a hundred years ago

it was the only one on the planet."

"How did they into the without opening it up?"

"Given time, they pass easily through porous substances. But, of

course, last night, when I came on them after their long fast, they

simply through in their haste."

"Okay. What next--after you the man?"

"The tells that I was set upon by natives, men who the

hides of animals. One of their number entered the ship. He must have

moved the drive lever. It lifted, me marooned."

"So those were his we in the boat," I mused, "the ones with

the bear's-tooth necklace. I wonder why he didn't come into the ship."

"Undoubtedly he did. But the we just the

landing port? That must have been a fresh and corpse

at the time the aboard. It to him all

too clear an of what in store for himself if he ventured

further. In his terror he must have to the to wait, and

there to death.

"He was in your world, and you were in his."

"Yes," said Foster. "And then, it seems, I among the brute-men

and came to be their king. I waited there by the landing ring through

many years in the of rescue. Because I did not age as the natives

did, I was as a god. I would have a device,

but there were no pure metals, nothing I use. I to teach

them, but it was a work of centuries."

"I should think you have set up a school, the smartest

ones," I said.

"There was no of minds," Foster said. "It is plain

that the were of the blood of the Two Worlds. This earth must

have been long ago by some castaways."

"But how you go on living--for hundreds of years? Are your people

supermen that live forever?"

"The natural of a life is very great. Among your people,

there is a from which you all die young."

"That's no disease," I said. "You just naturally old and die."

"The mind is a instrument," Foster said, "not meant

to quickly."

"I'll have to that one over," I said. "Why didn't you catch this

disease?"

"All Vallonians are against it."

"I'd like a of that," I said. "But let's to you."

Foster the pages of the journal. "I many peoples, under

many names," he said. "I in many lands, for skilled

metal-workers, glass-blowers, wise men. But always I returned to the

landing-ring."

"It must have been tough," I said, "exiled on a world, living

out your life in a wilderness, century after century...."

"My life was not without interest," Foster said. "I my savage

people put their animal and learn the of civilization.

I them how to build, and keep herds, and till the land. I built

a great city, and I tried--foolishly--to teach their the

code of of the Two Worlds. But although they sat at a round

table like the great Ring-board at Okk-Hamiloth, they really

understood. And then they too wise, and at their king,

who aged. I left them, and again to a long-signaller.

The Hunters it, and to me. I them off with fires,

and then I curious, and them to their nest----"

"I know," I said. "'----and it was a place you of old: no but

a Pit by men.'"

"They me; I with my life. Starvation had

made the Hunters vicious. They would have my of its

life-energy."

"And if you'd the was there--but you didn't. So you

put an you and them."

"They me there. Each time I many of them, and

fled. But always a to and me out again."

"But your signaller--didn't it work?"

"No. It was a attempt. Only a technology

could supply the materials. I only teach what I knew,

encourage the of the sciences, and wait. And then I began

to forget."

"Why?"

"A mind weary," Foster said. "It is the price of longevity. It

must itself. Shock and the Change. I had it

off for many centuries. Now I it on me.

"At home, on Vallon, a man would record his memory at such a time,

store it in a device, and, after the Change,

use the memory-trace to restore, in his body, his old

recollections in toto. But, as I was, my memories, once lost,

were gone forever.

"I did what I could; I prepared a safe place, and that I

would when I awoke----"

"When you up in the hotel, you were again, overnight. How

could it happen?"

"When the mind itself, the of the years, the body,

too, regenerates. The skin its wrinkles, and the their

fatigue. They again as they once were."

"When I met you," I said, "you told me about up in

1918, with no memory."

"Yours is a world, Legion. I must have many times.

Somewhere, some time, I the link, my quest. When the

Hunters came again, I fled, not understanding."

"You had a machine gun set up in the house at Mayport. What good was

that against the Hunters?"

"None, I suppose," Foster replied. "But I didn't know. I only that

I was--pursued."

"And by then you have a signaller," I said. "But you'd

forgotten how--or that you needed one."

"But in the end I it--with your help, Legion. But still there is

a mystery: What came to pass this ship all those centuries ago?

Why was I here? And what killed the others?"

"Look," I said. "Here's a theory: there was a mutiny, while you were

in the machine having your memory fixed. You up and it was all

over--and the was dead."

"That will serve," said Foster. "But one day I must learn

the truth of this matter."

"What I can't out is why somebody from Vallon didn't come after

this ship. It was right here in orbit."

"Consider the of space, Legion. This is one world, among

the stars."

"But there was a station here, out for your ships.

That like it was a regular port of call. And the books with

the pictures: they prove your people have been here off and on for

thousands of years. Why would they stop coming?"

"There are such on a thousand worlds," said Foster. "Think

of it as a marking a reef, a in the wilderness. Ages

could pass a this way again. The that the

ventilator at Stonehenge was with the of centuries

when I there how this world was visited."

I about it. Bit by Foster was together the jig-saw

pieces of his past. But he still had a long way to go he had the

big picture, and all. I had an idea:

"Say, you said you were in the memory machine. You up there--and

you'd just had your memory restored. Why not do the same thing again,

now? That is, if your brain can take another this soon."

"Yes," he said. He up abruptly. "There's just a chance. Come!"

I him out of the library into the room with the bones. He

moved over to look at them curiously.

"Quite a fracas," I said. "Three of 'em."

"This would be the room where I awakened," said Foster. "These are the

men I saw dead."

"They're still dead," I said. "But what about the machine?"

Foster walked across to the couch, it, then

shook his head. "No," he said. "Of it wouldn't be here...."

"What?"

"My memory-trace: the one that was used to my memory--that

other time."

Suddenly I the I had hours before. With a

surprising at my I it up, like a kid in a classroom

who he's got the right answer. "This it?"

Foster at it briefly. "No, that's an empty--like those you see

filed over there." He pointed to the of pewter-colored cylinders

on the opposite wall. "They would be used for recordings.

Regular multi-life memory-traces would be key-coded with a pattern of

colored lines."

"It figures," I said. "That would have been too easy. We have to do

everything the hard way." I looked around. "It's a big to look

for a under, but I we can try."

"It doesn't matter, really. When I return to Vallon, I'll my

past. There are where every citizen's is stored."

"But you had yours here with you."

"It only have been a copy. The master is from

Okk-Hamiloth."

"I you'll be to there," I said. "That'll be quite

a moment for you, home after all these years. Speaking of

years: were you able to out how long you were on

earth?"

"I all record of long ago," said Foster. "I can only

estimate the time."

"About how long?" I persisted.

"Since I from this ship, Legion," he said, "three thousand

years have passed."

* * * * *

"I to see the team up," I said. "You know, I was of

getting used to being an nut. I'm going to miss you, Foster."

"Come with me to Vallon, Legion," he said.

We were in the lounge, looking out at the

bright-lit surface of the earth thirty thousand miles away. Beyond it,

the dead-white of the moon like a cutout.

"Thanks anyway, buddy," I said. "I'd like to see those other worlds

of yours but in the end I might it. It's no good an

Eskimo a television set. I'd just around on Vallon for home:

beat-up people, stinks, and all."

"You return here some day."

"From what I about traveling in a ship like this," I said,

"a of hundred years would pass I got back, if it

only like a en route. I want to live out my life

here--with the of people I know, in the world I up in. It has

its faults, but it's home."

"Then there is nothing I can do, Legion," Foster said, "to your

loyalty and my gratitude."

"Well, ah," I said. "There is a little something. Let me take the

lifeboat, and stock it with a from the library, and some

of those marbles from the storeroom, and a of the smaller

mechanical gadgets. I think I know how to them in a way

that'll the economy on an keel--and set me up

for life. As you said, I'm a materialist."

"As you wish," Foster said. "Take you desire."

"One thing I'll have to do when I back," I said, "is open the

tunnel at Stonehenge to a bomb it--if they

haven't already the station."

"As I judge the of the local people," Foster said, "the secret

is safe for at least three generations."

"I'll the in a spot where won't it

up," I said. "Our was good; in another years, it wouldn't

have been possible."

"And this ship would soon have been discovered," Foster said. "In

spite of radar-negative screens."

I looked at the great hanging, haloed, against utter

black. The Pacific Ocean a image of the sun.

"I think I see an there that will the bill perfectly,"

I said. "And if it doesn't, there are a more to choose from."

"You've changed, Legion," Foster said. "You like a man with a

fair of _joie de vivre_."

"I used to think I was a guy who got the breaks," I said.

"There's something about here looking at the world that makes

that of dumb. There's there

a man needs to make his own breaks--even without a stock of trade

goods."

"Every world has its of life," Foster said. "Some more complex

than others. To your own reality--that's the challenge."

"Me against the universe," I said. "With those odds, a can

look good." I to Foster. "We're in a ten-hour orbit," I said.

"We'd moving. I want to put the in southern South

America. I know a place there where I can off-load without answering

too many questions."

"You have hours the most time," Foster

said. "There's no hurry."

"Maybe not," I said. "But I've got a to do--" I took a last look

toward the the viewscreen, "--and I'm to

get started."