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On his left hand, toward the south along the nearby horizon of the Moon, was a crescent of bright white Sunlight. Beyond the horizon, and invisible, was the opposite lip of the crater. The Sun never peered high enough over the lip of his own edge of the crater to illuminate the floor immediately beneath his feet. He was safe from radiation- from that at least.
He dug carefully but clumsily, swathed as he was in his spacesuit. His side ached abominably.
The dust and broken rock did not take up the 'fairy castle' appearance characteristic of those portions of the Moon's surface exposed to the alternation of light and dark, heat and cold. Here, in eternal cold, the slow crumbling of the crater wall had simply piled fine rubble in a heterogeneous mass. It would not be easy to tell there had been digging going on.
He misjudged the uneve
Je
A little deeper and he could push the Device into the depression and begin covering it. Strauss must not find it.
Strauss!
The other member of the team. Half-share in the discovery. Half-share in the renown.
If it were merely the whole share of the credit that Strauss had wanted, Je
One of the few things Je
They had found it together. Actually, Strauss had found the ship or, better, the remains of theship; or, better still, what just conceivably might havebeen the remains of something analogous to a ship.
'Metal,' said Strauss, as he picked up something ragged and nearly amorphous. His eyes and face could just barely be seen through the thick lead glass of the visor, but his rather harsh voice sounded clearly enough through the suit radio.
Je
There shouldn't be. But you know well enough they haven't explored more than one per cent of the
Moon's surface. Who knows what can be found on it?'
Je
It was true enough that almost anything might be found on the Moon for all anyone really knew. Theirs was the first privately financed selenographic expedition ever to land on the Moon. 'I'll l then, there had been only government-conducted shotgun affairs, with half a dozen ends in view. It was a sign of the advancing space age that the Geological Society could afford to send two men to the Moon for selenological studies only.
Strauss said, 'It looks as though it once had a polished surface.'
'You're right,' said Je
They found three more pieces, two of trifling size and one a jagged object that showed traces of a seam.
'Let's take them to the ship,' said Strauss.
They took the small skim boat back to the mother ship.
They shucked their suits once on board, something Je
Strauss eschewed such weakness and got to work. The laser beam pock-marked the metal and the vapor recorded itself on the spectrograph. Titanium-steel, essentially, with a hint of cobalt and molybdenum.
That's artificial, all right,' said Strauss. His broad-boned face was as dour and as hard as ever. He showed no elation, although Je
It may have been the excitement that trapped Je
Strauss, however, looked at Je
Well, never mind. The discovery they had made was worth a far better-pun than any he could construct for all Strauss's calmness.
Je
He knew very little about Strauss, as a matter of fact, except by selenological reputation. That is, he had read Strauss's papers and he presumed Strauss had read his. Although their ships might well have passed by night in their University days, they had never happened to meet until after both had volunteered for this expedition and had been accepted.
In the week's voyage, Je
Je
'If it were a part of a ship,' said Strauss, 'it should be smooth and polished. This is eroded and, without an atmosphere here, that means exposure to micrometeor bombardment over many years.'
Then he did see the significance. Je
'Who knows?' agreed Strauss dryly.
'In the report-'
'Wait,' said Strauss imperiously. Time enough to report when we have something to report. If it was a ship, there will be more to it than what we now have.'
But there was no point in looking further just then. They had been at it for hours, and the next meal and sleep were overdue. Better to tackle the whole job fresh and spend hours at it. They seemed to agree on that without speaking.
The Earth was low on the eastern horizon, almost full in phase, bright and blue-streaked. Je
'It looks peaceful enough,' he said, 'but there are six billion people busy on it.'
Strauss looked up from some deep i
Strauss said, 'What the hell are you talking about?'
Je
For a whole generation now, the Earth's population had held steady. No further increase could be afforded. Everyone admitted that. There were those, in fact, who said that 'no higher' wasn't enough; the population had to drop. Je
But how was the population to be made to drop? Randomly, by encouraging the people to lower the birth rate still further, as and how they wished? Lately there had been the slow rise of a distant rumble which wanted not only a population drop but a selected drop-the survival of the fittest, with the self-declared fit choosing the criteria of fitness.
Je
Later, when he was almost asleep, it suddenly occurred to him that he knew virtually nothing of Strauss's character. What if it were his intention to go out now on a foraging expedition of his own so that he might getsole credit for-?