'Is—is she alive?' Foss demanded.
Thanel produced his life-force detect. Making some adjustments, he advanced. And it seemed to me he went reluctantly, glancing now and then at the whirling crown. He held the instrument up before the reclining woman, studied its dial with a gathering frown, triggered some button, and once more took a reading.
'Well, is she?' Foss persisted.
'Not alive. But not dead either.'
'And what does that mean?'
'Just what I said.' Thanel pushed the button again with the forefinger of his other hand. 'It doesn't register either way. And I don't know of any life force so alien that this can't give an instant decision on the point. She isn't in freeze, not in this atmosphere. But if she is dead I have never seen such preservation before.'
'Who is dead?' Borton came through the curtain now with the other Patrolman, stopped short when he saw her.
I could no longer watch the woman. There was something in the constant motion of her cat-headed coronet which disturbed me, as if those whirling thumb-sized bits of metal wove a hypnotic spell. I made my last effort to warn them.
'Dead or alive'—my voice was harsh, too loud in the confinement of that room—'she reaches for you now. I tell you—she is dangerous!'
Thanel looked at me. The others stood, their attention all for her as if they had heard nothing. Then the medic caught at the commander's arm, gave a sudden swift pull which brought Borton around so he no longer eyed her squarely. He blinked, swallowed as if he had gulped a mouthful of some potent brew.
'Move!' The medic gave him a second push.
Borton, still blinking, stumbled back toward the curtain, knocking against Foss. I was already on the other side of the captain, had set my shoulder against his, using the same tactics Thanel had, if in a more clumsy fashion. And once shoved out of direct line with the woman, he, too, seemed to wake.
In the end we all got back on the other side of the curtain and stood there, breathing a little heavily, almost as if we had been racing. I was aware that the cap on my head was warm, that the line of wire touching my temples was near burning me. I saw Thanel touch his own band, snatch his fingers away. But Foss was at my side.
'Turn around.'
I obeyed his order, felt him busy at my wrists. A moment later my hands were free.
'I can believe,' he said, 'in anything happening here, Vorlund. After seeing that, I can believe! She is just as you described her. And I believe she is deadly!'
'What about the others?' Thanel asked.
'There is one there.' I rubbed my left wrist with my right hand, nodding in the direction where the next compartment must lie. 'Two more on the other two sides. One held Griss when I was here before.'
Borton went again to that picture of the pyramid. 'Do you know what this is?'
'No. But it is plain to guess you have seen its like before, and not on Sekhmet,' Foss returned. 'Does it have any importance for us now?'
'Perhaps. That—that was built on Terra,in a past so distant we can no longer reckon it accurately. By accounts the archaeologists have never agreed on its age. It is supposed to have been erected by slave labor at a time when man had not yet tamed a beast of burden, had not discovered the wheel. And yet it was a great feat of highly sophisticated engineering. There were countless theories about it, one being that its measurements, because of their unusual accuracy, held a message. It was not the only such either, but one of several. Though this particular one was supposed to be the first and greatest. For a long time the pile was said to be the tomb of a ruler. But that theory was never entirely proved—for the tomb itself might have been a later addition. At any rate, it was built millennia before our breed took to space!'
'But Forerunner remains,' Thanel objected. 'Those were never found on Terra. None of the history tapes records such discoveries.'
'Perhaps no remains recognized as such by us. But—' Borton shook his head. 'What do we even know of Terra now except from tapes copied and recopied, some of them near-legendary? Yet—and this is also very odd indeed— in the land where that stood' —he pointed to the picture—'they once worshiped gods portrayed with human bodies and beast or bird heads. In fact—there was a cat-headed goddess Sekhmet, a bird-headed Thoth, a saurian Set —'
'But these planets, this system, were named by the First-in Scout who mapped them, after the old custom of naming systems for ancient gods!' Foss interrupted.
'That is true. The Scouts gave such names as suited their fancies—culled from the tapes they carried with them to relieve the boredom of spacing. And the man who named this system must have had a liking for Terran history. Yet—he could also have been influenced in some way.' Borton again shook his head. 'We may never know the truth of the past, save this is such a find as may touch on very ancient mysteries, even those of our own beginnings!'
'And we may not have a chance to learn anything, unless we get to the bottom of a few modern mysteries now!' Foss retorted.
I noted that he kept his head turned away from the curtain, almost as if she who waited beyond it might have the power to pull him back into her presence. The wires of my cap no longer were heated; but I was unhappy in this place, I wanted out.
'That crown she wears—' Thanel shifted from one foot to another as if he wanted to look at the woman again. I saw Borton shake his head. 'I would say it is a highly sensitive communication device of some sort. What about it, Laird?'
'Undoubtedly—' began the other Patrolman. 'Didn't you feel the response of your protect? The caps were close to shorting, holding against that energy. What about the crowns the others wear?' He turned to me. 'Are they alive—moving—also?'
