“It must have been a plant once,” Chuck admitted.

There was a sudden shout in their ears, and Sokolsky*s voice came rattling in, a torrent of sound. “Wait boys, wait for me. Don’t lose it. It may be the only evidence of plant life; maybe we’re surrounded by plants, but maybe this was ten million years ago, preserved by the dryness. Hang onto it, I’m coming with you!”

He was coming too—bursting out of the little entrance, his helmet on, but the snaps only half-fastened. His hands were working on them, while he came bounding toward the boys in frenzied leaps. “I heard your description. Lew, it must be a plant, let’s see it Ah!”

Sokolsky was all biologist now. He crooned over the little rootlet, caressing it in gentle hands. From a string around his neck, he produced one of the little forty-power microscopes and began examining it more closely.

“Well?” Chuck asked, finally.

Sokolsky looked up, and there was reverence on his face. “Cells. Real cells—mummified, of course. But this is what was once alive. Are there more? Where was it?”

Lew pointed ahead a few steps, and Sokolsky bounded forward, his light bobbing on the surface. He didn’t stop, but went running on until his figure began to vanish over a rise in the sand and into a hollow beyond.

A sudden shriek sounded in their headphones, followed by silence.

They leaped after him, while all the visions of bug-eyed monsters that were ever imagined on alien planets ran through Chuck’s mind. And their first sight of him did nothing to make them feel better. Sokolsky was stretched out flat on the ground, motionless.

Lew yelled at him, and they went rushing forward. But the doctor came to his feet calmly, holding something else out

It was curled up into a tight ball, with a hard, waxy surface exposed, but beginning to open in the light And there was no question about it The bright green color was the familiar hue of plant life. .

“There’s more—millions more—and dozens of lands,” Sokolsky said. His voice sounded ecstatic, but hushed. “We landed in a little barren spot but look…”

They followed his gaze, and he hadn’t exaggerated. AH the vegetation seemed to be balled up into a compact form, probably to avoid any loss of heat during the freezing night. Some of it was largely buried in the sandy ground. But unfamiliar as it was in form, there was at least an acre of ground covered thickly with green objects.

“See,” Sokolsky pointed out to them, “the surface is hard, like glass. The plant secretes some kind of wax that keeps it from drying out And notice how thick the leaves are—they must store water and air—very little as we know it, but a lot for Mars. This will give us a whole new science of life—comparative evolution!”

Chuck found one of the tiny cabbage-like things, and pulled it up. At least forty feet of thin root came up before it finally broke off. He looked at it, and noticed that this one also was opening slowly in the glare of his light “Do they all move like that. Doc?”

‘They have to—they need every bit of light, but they can’t stay open when the sun goes down. A lot of Earth plants open and close too—but these have to be better at it. Look at that beautiful root—it probably goes down to some tiny bit of moisture we wouldn’t even believe was around!”

Vance’s voice cut through their admiration of the tiny plant “Break it up, boys. It’s time to come back now.”

“Ten minutes more,’” Sokolsky asked. “There’s one more thing I have to see. Captain!”

“Five, then. No more,” Vance agreed. “You can get all the plants you want later.”

Sokolsky turned the plant over carefully. “Ten minutes, and I’ll find you a Martian city,” he suggested quickly.

‘Take ten minutes and you’d better produce a city.” Vance’s voice was sick with irritation, as if one more trouble would snap the tight control and break his mask of agreeableness.

Sokolsky chuckled. “Thanks, Captain.”

“He means it,” Lew said. “We’d better get back.”

The little man shook the red hair inside his helmet, and chuckled again. “I know. And if you’ll point your lights over there you’ll see the city. You’ve got ten minutes to look at it—and I’ve got to find out whether these plants show signs of being male and female.”

A joke was a joke. Chuck thought, and started to turn back to the ship. Then his lights swept over the horizon, and his eyes jerked back.

It did look like a city—not a highly advanced one, but like some of the pictures of European ruins he had seen, built of stones that had since crumbled until only bits remained.

Unconsciously, he started forward with Lew at his side. The ruins were probably only natural stones eroded by the winds, but he couldn’t stay away.

They were up to it in a few minutes.

It was a city of stone, laid out with streets, and with square, low stone walls outlining what had been houses. Even doors were plain enough—now empty openings. Just inside the doorway of one, a stone bench could be seen—and near it, set into the wall, a seven-pointed star of another color.

Chuck could almost imagine humans sitting on the bench and gazing at the star. But it would have had to be very long ago. Here, with no rainfall, it would surely take at least a million years to weather the stones down to the wrecks these bad become.

“Five minutes are up,” Vance called.

“Captain, there is a city!” Chuck stooped suddenly to pick up a broken piece of what looked like porcelain, glazed, and with a tiny design running in a perfect arc of a circle around its edge. “There are ruins here.”

“I don’t care if you’ve found native Martians smoking peace pipes. The five minutes are up. If you don’t start back, I’m sending Dick out to get you.”

Chuck started to throw the shard of porcelain down, but Lew halted him. “Take it easy, Chuck. He’s got to get us back, and anything we find is second to that. Let’s collect our biologist.”

They had no trouble. Sokolsky was already heading back to the ship, smiling to himself. He nodded, holding out three of the tiny cabbage-like plants.

“I’ve found the answer,” he told them. “At least, as much as I can for tonight. There are three sexes among the plants. One produces something like pollen, another a different kind of pollen, and the third seems to be equipped to incubate the seed. I don’t care if we cant return—Just get the radar working so I can call Earth.”

Then he sighed, and his face settled into practical lines again. “I hope we don’t find infections here that attack the men, though. I’ll have to keep a careful check on all the cuts we got from the crash.”

“There was a city there,” Chuck told him, trying to puzzle out the new man the doctor had become. “Real houses, though they’re as old as the hills.”

Sokolsky nodded. “I thought so. But I had my luck with the plants, so I left the city for you. There’s enough here for all of us. And—you know, boys, it’s been two years since I lost my head over anything. I’m glad I did.”

Steele was reaching for his helmet as they came through the air lock and his face was shocked and worried. He made no comment, but jerked a thumb and preceded them along the passage toward the mess hall.

Inside, the others were already assembled with Vance at the head of the table. He looked up, and his hand went down to his lap, to come up with a big .45 automatic.

Chuck laid the shard on the table, pretending not to see the gun. “There were ruins, sir—really. This came from them.”

There was a sudden stir among the others as they bent forward, but Vance’s free hand picked the shard up and set it aside.

“Very well,” he said, in a voice that seemed ready to break into brittle pieces. “There were ruins. We’ll overlook your disobedience this time. But from now on, there can be no exception to the rules and orders. I’m proclaiming absolute, military rule—enforceable by the death penalty, if needs be.”

He sat back, his hand caressing the gun, while, stunned silence fell over the others.

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