Lying there, the face of the body was like snow framed by the
ebon-black of the hair. The eyes were blue jewels caught in the snow.
There were slender fingers reclining against the hips. But, most
important of all, was the cut of the silver metal uniform, the grey
leather belt and the bronze triangle over the silent heart with the
numerals 51 on it.
Logan held onto the rungs. "Three hundred years old," he whispered it.
"Three hundred years old," he said.
"Yes." The Numerals 51 were enough for Brandon. "After all these
centuries, and in perfect condition. Look how calm he is. Most corpse
faces aren't--pretty. Something happened, three hundred years ago, and
he's been drifting, alone, ever since. I--" Brandon caught his breath.
"What's wrong?" snapped Logan.
"This man," said Brandon, wonderingly, "committed suicide."
"How do you figure?"
"There's not a mark of decompression, centrifugal force, disintegrator
or ray-burn on him. He simply _stepped_ out of a ship. Why should a
Scientist of the 51 Circle commit suicide?"
"They had wars back there, too," said Logan. "But this is the first
time I ever seen a stiff from one of them. It can't happen. He shoulda
been messed up by meteors."
A strange prickling crept over Brandon. "When I was a kid, I remember
thumbing through history books, reading about those famous 51
Scientists of the Circle who were doing experimental work on Pluto back
in the year 2100. I memorized their uniforms, and this bronze badge.
I couldn't mistake it. There was a rumor that they were experimenting
with some new universal power weapon."
"A myth," said Logan.
"Who knows? Maybe. Maybe not. But before that super weapon was
completed, Earth fell beneath Mar's assault. The 51 Scientists
destroyed themselves and their Base when the Martians came.
The--myth--says that if the Martians had been only a month later--the
weapon would have been out of blueprint and into metal."
Brandon stopped talking and looked at the long-boned, easily slumbering
Scientist.
"And now he shows up. One of the original 51. I wonder what happened?
Maybe he tried to reach Earth and had to leap into space to escape the
Martians. Logan, we've got history with us, pulled in out of space,
cold and stark under our hands."
Logan laughed uneasily. "Yeah. Now, if we only had that weapon. Baby,
that'd be something to sing about, by God."
Brandon jerked.