"It is," Johnny nodded. "An old Havelock Cruiser. And I found it."
"But these people must have crashed here years ago."
"Yeah. Look, Marcia, you better take the kids away while I look for the
remains. Got to find them and report to the police at Marsport when we
get back, but there's no reason why the kids have to see."
Marcia took Johnny's hand in one of her own and Joan's in the other,
and she walked away with them beyond the close horizon. "Okay, Burt,"
she called back. "You can start looking."
Burt did not like the task ahead of him, but with general space travel
still less than half a century old, lost ships were no rarity, and he
considered himself morally obligated to find the bodies. He was back
in the Havelock now, and it was a small ship. He covered it in five
minutes, and he scratched his head. No one ... there were all the signs
of occupation, but no one was around. Dishes for three were set on the
plastalloy table, with a blubbery green mass on each plate, billowing
over on to the table. That meant that there had been food on those
dishes when, quite suddenly, the three people had disappeared. It also
meant that bacteria, at least, flourished on this asteroid. And--what
else? Why had the three people disappeared, why had they vanished
utterly with a meal waiting for them on the table--
"Burt! Burt!" It was Marcia, and she was screaming.
* * * * *
Burt poked his head outside the broken airlock. Marcia was running
toward the Havelock. "Burt--get out. To me, quick!"
Burt looked up. Toward the other horizon was a slight hill, not a
very high one, but enough for Marcia to have seen it from beyond the
horizon. And rolling down that hill now, gathering speed as it came,
was a massive boulder.