Here the too luxuriant vegetation had not yet wreaked so- great a havoc. The houses stood intact, though here and there a roof was missing, or there were other signs of long neglect and abandonment. It would seem that through some chance or disaster Dylan had been left to silence and emptiness. We came to the house we had left to go to the valley. I went into the courtyard to face closed doors. Hesitatingly I called. As I expected there was no answer. Still I went to open the door of Guska’s room. It was empty even of furniture.
“Kilda – it’s all gone – my clothes – my byny shell – everything! It’s all gone!” Oomark came running from the room that had been his. Bartare had not even tried her door. She stood by the dried pool.
“Of course it is!” Some of her old impatience was back in her voice. “Everything’s gone – it’s been gone a long time!” Perhaps the meaning of all we had seen had not really struck Oomark until that moment He turned very pale. Then he went to Kosgro, and his voice shook as he asked, “It’s real then – we’ve been away a long, long time?”
Kosgro made no attempt to soothe. Instead, he answered him as he might a much older boy or man. “It’s real, Oomark.”
“I wish – I wish they had left my byny shell,” he said. “Father, he had it when he was a little boy. He wanted me to keep it always. I just wish they had left that.”
He walked slowly out toward the gate before he turned to ask, “If there’s no one left here, what are we going to do?”
“We haven’t been to the port yet. If there is anyone left, that is where we should find him – or them.”
We did not visit any of the other houses. Now we hurried along the streets of the city. And there was only silent ruin about us as we passed.
So we came to the apron of the landing site. No ships stood down there. I had not expected that they would. The burn scars left by deter landing rockets still marked the. field, but those could remain visible for years.
“Headquarters tower.” Kosgro spoke as if to himself and headed purposefully across the end of the burned apron to that building which had been the heart of an active port, filled with computers and com devices. Perhaps if we had been abandoned here – my spirits took a sudden leap – there would still be some off-world com left working so we could summon help from the stars.
I quickened pace, and the children began to run, keeping up with Kosgro’s lengthening strides. We reached the central door of the tower – to find it closed. But the admittance circuit was still working, and it opened for us.
Kosgro called out – his voice seeming a thunderous shout in that place – “Anyone here?”
18
A moment later I wished that he had not made that call, for his voice echoed so hollowly, coming back in an eerie moan. I did not expect any answer, so I was startled.
The words “Who’s there?” in an authoritative demand came out of thin air. For a moment I could believe we were back in the gray world where such happenings were not extraordinary.
“Scout Kosgro and party,” my companion returned. Then he went to one of the inter-com screens and fingered the controls so that we would appear on any open screen in the building.
I heard a muffled exclamation and then, “Flight deck lookout. Take the grav and come up.”
A door slid back in the right wall to display the open shaft of a grav. We stepped in, caught by the energy beam, and were carried aloft. Inside me a tight pressure band relaxed. So we were not alone on Dylan after all. Whatever had happened since we went on that fatal expedition to the valley had been drastic, but at least it had not finished off our species here.
The grav deposited us on the lookout of the tower. As soon as the door slid back, we saw three men awaiting us. But there were no familiar faces among them. I realized my hope of seeing Commandant Piscov, who would believe our story because of the very fact we did appear now, had been a foolish one.
The trio were not young, and they were in uniform. But their tunics were patched and threadbare. Two had the insignia of planet militia, the third was a ranger. They had lasers ready, which they restowed in their belt rings as we stepped out.
“Who are you?” the leader asked.
“First-in Scout Jorth Kosgro, Kilda c’ Rhyn, Bartare and Oomark Zobak.” Kosgro answered for us all.
“Your ship – where did it crash?” The ranger pushed forward a little. “Are you refugees?”
“By the look of them they are near beat.” The officer waved the other back. “They can do with food, I would imagine. Sit down. And, Brolster, bring out the rations.”
So we found ourselves sitting in the places for those monitoring in and out space ships, eating such food as I had almost forgotten existed. Whatever had chanced here, they still had ever-heat containers-full of what must be savored slowly bite by bite.
However, when my first sharp hunger was satisfied and I looked around that chamber, I could see it was not a working place any longer. Many of the devices were shrouded and sealed in protecto, as if they had not been used for a long time. In fact, only the tall ledge of buttons and levers, before which the man who had introduced himself as Section Commander Weygil had taken his seat, appeared to be in use.
His companions were Patrolman Brolster and Ranger Cury, Cury being the one who eyed us almost as if he held some suspicion concerning our purposes here.
“You did crash, didn’t you?” Weygil asked when we finished the food.
But before Kosgro could answer, Oomark went over and put one of his small, much scratched, and grimy hands on the section commander’s arm.
“Please, where is everyone? They – they were all here – yesterday-” He looked back to me. “Was it yesterday, Kilda? How long were we in that place?”
“I don’t know.” A time long enough to frighten me if I allowed myself to dwell upon it, I guessed.
“What – ” Cury interrupted impatiently.
Then once more Weygil held up his hand. “Not now!” he ordered, before he gave Oomark a gentle, encouraging smile. “The people have gone, son, most of them. Did you have someone here you wanted to see?”
“Mother – she was sick. And there was Randulf and his poohka Griffy, and Gentlehomo Largrace, and Commandant Piscov – ”
At that last name I saw Weygil’s eyes narrow and knew he had recognized it.
“And you expected to find them all here?”
“Sure. They were here – everybody was here when we went to the valley. And now – everything’s different. All our things are gone out of the house. Even my byny shell Father gave me – everything!”
“It’s been forty years since Commandant Piscov was transferred,” the patrolman said in a low voice. “His name was in the records we sealed last week. Forty years!”
“What was the date – when you went to the valley?” Weygil asked Oomark.
Oomark frowned a little and glanced at me. “Kilda, when was it?”
I did not want to tell them, but I had no choice. “The fourth of Adi, 2422 After Flight.”
They stared at me. I saw incredulity and then suspicion on two faces. Only Weygil appeared unmoved.
“This,” he said slowly, “is the twenty-first of Narmi, 2483, After Flight.”
“No!” Perhaps it was my cry of horror that convinced them.
Cury’s hand had gone back to the butt of his weapon. But at my cry his fingers relaxed. I had suspected, but I had not been sure. More than fifty years! Yet I felt no older, the children looked no older than when we had gone into the gray world. Then I remembered – for Jorth it was now more than one hundred and eighty years!
“It’s a trick!” That was Cury. “They’re spies sent to trick us.” He drew his laser and pointed it at Kosgro, probably deeming the scout the most dangerous of our company.
“Listen!” Weygil had been studying us, but he spoke to Oomark.
“You went to school here?”
“Of course!” Oomark was impatient. “I was in the fourth group – with Randulf and Furwell and Portus – ”
“Who else?” Weygil prompted as he paused.
“Well, Randulf and Furwell and Portus – they were my friends. But there were some girls – and there was Buttie Navers and Cleeve. Why – his name was the same as yours! He was Cleeve Weygil! Is he your little boy? He never said his father was a soldier – “