hesitancy.
"We're going down," he mumbled, as if repeating the words over and overin his mind and trying to believe them.
The men stirred as realization sprouted and grew. They stirred likelethargic animals aroused from the long, dreamless sleep of hibernation.
"We're going to land," breathed Parker, unbelievingly.
The _Wanderer_ moved as though caught in the grip of a giant, invisiblehand.
The voice said:
"You may now descend."
Captain Wiley moved to the jet-control panel. "Lieutenant!" he snapped."Wake up. Let's go!"
The ship sank downward through the thick sea of clouds. The men walkedto the ports. A tenseness, an excitement grew in their faces, like dyingflame being fanned into its former brilliancy.
Out of the clouds loomed monstrous, shining, silver spires and towers,Cyclopean bridges, gigantic lake-like mirrors, immense golden spheres.It was a nightmare world, a jungle of fantastic shape and color.
The men gasped, whispered, murmured, the flame of their excitementgrowing, growing.
"The whole planet is a city!" breathed Parker.
----
Thump!
The _Wanderer_ came to rest on a broad landing field of light bluestone. The jets coughed, spluttered, died. The ship quivered, then laystill, its interior charged with an electric, pregnant silence.
"You first, Captain." Lieutenant Gunderson's voice cracked, and his facewas flushed. "You be the first to go outside."
Captain Wiley stepped through the airlock, his heart pounding. It wasover now--all the bewilderment, the numbness.
And his eyes were shining. He'd waited so long that it was hard tobelieve the waiting was over. But it was, he told himself. The journeywas over, and the waiting, and now the loneliness would soon be over.Mankind was not alone. It was a good universe after all!
He stepped outside, followed by Lieutenant Gunderson, then by Parker,Doyle and Fong.
He rubbed his eyes. This couldn't be! A world like this couldn't exist!He shook his head, blinked furiously.
"It--it can't be true," he mumbled to Lieutenant Gunderson. "We're stillon the ship--dreaming."
The landing field was huge, perhaps ten miles across, and its sides werelined with incredible ships, the smallest of which seemed forty times aslarge as the _Wanderer_. There were silver ships, golden ships, blackships, round ships, transparent ships, cigar-shaped ships, flat-toppedships.
And scattered over the field were--creatures.
A few were the size of men, but most were giants by comparison. Somewere humanoid, some reptilian. Some were naked, some clad in helmetedsuits, some enveloped with a shimmering, water-like luminescence. Thecreatures walked, slithered, floated, crawled.
Beyond the ships and the field lay the great city, its web-work oftowers, minarets, spheres and bridges like the peaks of an enormousmountain range stretching up into space itself. The structures were likethe colors of a rainbow mixed in a cosmic paint pot, molded andsolidified into fantastic shapes by a mad god.
"I--I'm going back to the ship," stammered Parker. The whiteness ofdeath was in his face. "I'm going to stay with Brown."
He turned, and then he screamed.
"Captain, the ship's moving!"
Silently, the _Wanderer_ was drifting to the side of the field.
The toneless voice said:
"We are removing your vessel so that other descending ships will notdamage it."
Captain Wiley shouted into the air. "Wait! Don't go away! Help us! Wherecan we see you?"
The voice seemed to hesitate. "It is difficult for us to speak inthoughts that you understand."
----
Silence.
Captain Wiley studied the faces of his men. They were not faces ofconquerors or of triumphant spacemen. They were the faces of dazed,frightened children who had caught a glimpse of Hell. He attempted,feebly, to smile.
"All right," he said loudly, "so it isn't like we expected. So no onecame to meet us with brass bands and ten cent flags. We've stillsucceeded, haven't we? We've found life that's intelligent beyond ourcomprehension. What if our own civilization is insignificant bycomparison? Look at those beings. Think of what we can learn from them.Why, their ships might have exceeded the speed of light. They might befrom other galaxies!"
"Let's find out," said Parker.
They strode to the nearest ship, an immense, smooth, bluish sphere. Twocreatures stood before it, shaped like men and yet twice the size ofmen. They wore white, skin-tight garments that revealed muscular bodieslike those of gods.
They looked at Captain Wiley and smiled.
One of them pointed toward the _Wanderer_. Their smiles widened and thenthey laughed.
They laughed gently, understandingly, but they _laughed_.
And then they turned away.
"Talk to them," Parker urged.
"How?" Beads of perspiration shone on Captain Wiley's face.
"Any way. Go ahead."
Captain Wiley wiped his forehead. "We are from Earth, the thirdplanet...."
The two god-like men seemed annoyed. They walked away, ignoring theEarthmen.
Captain Wiley spat. "All right, so they won't talk to us. Look at thatcity! Think of the things we can see there and tell the folks on Earthabout! Why, we'll be heroes!"
"Let's go," said Parker, his voice quavering around the edges.
They walked toward a large, oval opening in a side of the field, a holebetween mountainous, conical structures that seemed like the entrance toa street.
Suddenly breath exploded from Captain Wiley's lungs. His body jerkedback. He fell to the blue stone pavement.
Then he scrambled erect, scowling, his hands outstretched. He felt asoft, rubbery, invisible substance.
"It's a wall!" he exclaimed.
The voice droned:
"To those of Earth: Beings under the 4th stage of Galactic Developmentare restricted to the area of the landing field. We are sorry. In yourprimitive stage it would be unwise for you to learn the nature of ourcivilization. Knowledge of our science would be abused by your people,and used for the thing you call war. We hope that you have been inspiredby what you have seen. However, neither we nor the other visitors to ourplanet are permitted to hold contact with you. It is suggested that youand your vessel depart."
"Listen, you!" screamed Parker. "We've been nine years getting here! ByHeaven, we won't leave now! We're...."
"We have no time to discuss the matter. Beings under the 4th stage ofGalactic...."
"Never mind!" spat Captain Wiley.
Madness flamed in Parker's eyes. "We won't go! I tell you, we _won't_,we _won't_!"
His fists streaked through the air as if at an invisible enemy. He rantoward the wall.
He collided with a jolt that sent him staggering backward, crying,sobbing, screaming, all at once.
Captain Wiley stepped forward, struck him on the chin. Parker crumpled.
They stood looking at his body, which lay motionless except for the slowrising and falling of his chest.
"What now, Captain?" asked Lieutenant Gunderson.
Captain Wiley thought for a few seconds.
Then he said, "We're ignorant country bumpkins, Lieutenant, riding intothe city in a chugging jalopy. We're stupid savages, trying to discussthe making of fire with the creators of atomic energy. We're childrenracing a paper glider against an atomic-powered jet. We're tooridiculous to be noticed. We're tolerated--but nothing more."
"Shall we go home?" asked Fong, a weariness in his voice.
Lieutenant Gunderson scratched his neck. "I don't think I'd want to gohome now. Could you bear to tell the truth about what happened?"
Fong looked wistfully at the shining city. "If we told the truth, theyprobably wouldn't believe us. We've failed. It sounds crazy. We reachedProxima Centauri and found life, and yet somehow we failed. No, Iwouldn't like to go home."
"Still, we learned somethi
ng," said Doyle. "We know now that there islife on worlds beside our own. Somewhere there must be other races likeours."
They looked at each other, strangely, for a long, long moment.
At last Lieutenant Gunderson asked, "How far is Alpha Centauri?"
Captain Wiley frowned. "_Alpha_ Centauri?" Through his mind swirledchaotic visions of colossal distances, eternal night, and lonely years.He sought hard to find a seed of hope in his mind, and yet there was noseed. There were only a coldness and an emptiness.
Suddenly, the voice:
"Yes, Men of Earth, we suggest that you try Alpha Centauri."
The men stood silent and numb, like bewildered children, as theimplication of those incredible words sifted into their