low, were you worried about
me?"

They passed through the lock. "Take her up," Thompson said. "We need a
little time to think about this enigma. Maybe we can think better when
we're not so close to it."

At his words, relief showed on the faces of the men. "Maybe sometime
soon we'll be heading for home?" Kurkil spoke, grinning hopefully.

"You can be certain of that," Thompson said.

* * * * *

The ship lifted, hung miles high in the air above the silent planet. The
group considered the problem.

"I vote to make a complete investigation," Grant said. He was full of
eager enthusiasm. "There was a race here. Something happened to it.
We've got to find out what happened because--" He got no further. Slowly
the enthusiasm went from his face. "No, that's not possible," he ended.

"There's no danger of the virus that destroyed this race crossing space
to Sol Cluster," Kurkil spoke. "The distance is too great."

"The distance wasn't too great for us to cross it," Fortune spoke.

"Please," Thompson interrupted. "We can't use logic on this situation
until we have adequate data. The only data we have--" His voice trailed
off into silence as his memory presented him with a facsimile of that
data--silent, deserted cities, a world going back to vegetation, three
skeletons in front of a shrine.

Abruptly he reached a decision. It was impulsive. "Our tour of
exploration is near an end anyhow. We're leaving. We're heading back to
Sol Cluster. We'll mark this planet on the star maps for further
exploration."

The face of every man present brightened as he made the announcement.
Sol Cluster! Home! The green world of Earth across the depths of space.
In even the thought there was almost enough magic to wipe out the fear
of what they'd seen back there on the deserted planet.

Less than an hour later, the drone of the drivers picked up as the ship,
already set on course, began to accelerate in preparation for the jump
into hyper-flight. Thompson was in his cabin making a final check of the
machine-provided flight data. Buster was in his lap half-asleep.
Suddenly the cat jumped from his lap and seemed to pounce on some
elusive prey in the room. The cat caught what it was seeking, its jaws
crunched, it swallowed.

Thompson stared at the cat from disbelieving eyes. "Buster, are you
dreaming? Did you dream there was a mouse in here?"

The cat meowed, came toward him, jumped again into his lap and