oom. "This _is_ a spaceship, isn't it?"

The huddled figure in the wheelchair cackled in a brief laugh. "I've
been hoping that somebody would get up enough nerve someday to ask
that kind of question," it said. "Yep, this is a spaceship. And a
darned big one."

"How did you happen to land on this planet?"

"Had an accident. Didn't want to land here, but there wasn't any
choice. Made a mighty good landing, considering everything. It was a
little rough, though, in spots."

"How many people were there in the ship, in addition to yourself?"

The Visitor's voice turned suddenly soft. "There were three thousand,
nine hundred and forty-eight passengers and twenty-seven in the crew
when the accident happened."

"My Lord," asked Garth, "did any survive, aside from you?"

The Visitor was silent for many minutes, and his answer, when he
spoke, was a faint whisper, filled with the anguish of seven thousand
years. "Not one survived. Not one. They were all dead, most of them,
long before the ship touched ground, in spite of everything I could
do. I was as gentle as I could be, but we touched a hundred _g_ a
couple of times on on the way down. Flesh and blood just weren't made
to take shocks like that. I did all I could."

"You were the pilot, then? You landed the ship?" asked Garth.

"I landed the ship," said The Visitor.

"If I may ask, my Lord, how did you manage to survive when all the
others died?"

"It's a question I've asked myself many times, sitting here on this
mountaintop these seven thousands of your years. I was just enough
tougher, that's all. Built to take it, you might say, and I had a job
to do. But I was badly hurt in the landing. Mighty badly hurt."

"You were always in a wheelchair, then? Even before--"

"Even before I got so old?" Thin parchment-white hands lifted slowly
to rub a thin parchment-white face. "Things were always pretty much as
you see them now. I looked about the same to your ancestors as I do to
you. Your ancestors didn't think anybody could be smart unless they
were old. Of course, that's all changed now." He paused and nodded
twice. "Oh, I've managed to fix myself up a good deal; I'm not in
nearly as bad shape as I was at first, but that's all inside. I'm in
pretty good condition now, for having been stuck here seven thousand
years." The cackling laugh sounded briefly in the small room.

"Could you tell me how it all happened?" asked Garth curiously.

"Be glad to. It's a pleasure