'What makes you think that?' asked Tiger.
'If this was their base we should by now be seeing signs, possibly in the air, but almost certainly on the ground. A vehicle as advanced as a spaceship could only result from a highly developed state of industry, which demands roads or railways for surface transport between mines, oilfields, factories and the like. Whatever Mars may be, even through the telescope, I can see no signs of the activity, or cultivation, of our own world.
As you remarked, it looks dead. That means Phobos is dead too. Why are there no mountains? There's a problem for you.'
What's your opinion of that?'
'Either they have been worn down, abraded by continual dust-storms, or disintegrated from sheer old age. Either that or the planet has been subject to a disaster of the first magnitude.'
The mountains in the Sahara are being worn down by the action of wind-blown sand.'
Exactly. It could have happened here. If Mars is older than Earth, in astronomical terms, the process could be even more advanced. We have a crumb of comfort in the thought that if there is wind there must be air.
Little Phobos, I perceive, has a somewhat more rugged face. The same argument applies in reverse. If Mars stole its atmosphere, as it might by its superior gravity, there would be no wind to grind the hills to dust.'
`Do you still intend to land on Phobos?'
If I can find a suitable place. I have a theory that I'd like to put to the test, and it is this. If ever Mars carried a highly developed civilization we shall find signs of it on Phobos. I feel that the distance between them is so small — no farther than London to Singapore
— that there must have been communication.'
Nothing more was said. The little globe of Phobos, looking more and more like a miniature moon without its craters, drew near. The Professor turned the Spacemaster and began to check the fall. Watching, Rex thought he saw the harbour ' for which the Professor was making — a flat, sandy-looking basin surrounded by low rounded hills, destitute of any forms of vegetation. But as he stared he saw something else, something that caused him to take a new interest. 'I can see houses!' he cried.
For a minute no one answered. Then Tiger said: I can see what you mean, and they do look like dwellings of a sort.'
'Probably curious rock formations,' interposed the Professor. If they were houses the people would be out by now, to look at us.'
'If there were any people to come out,' said Tiger. 'The existence of dwellings doesn't necessarily mean that they're occupied.'
In a rising atmosphere of excitement the Spacemaster continued its descent until it must have been evident to all that there was a village in the hollow. But there was still no sign of life.
A few minutes later, with dust swirling away from its jets, the landing legs of the Spacemaster grated in the sand some fifty yards or so from the nearest houses. There was no longer any doubt about them being houses. They were small square structures, the same colour as the hills, with open doors and square windows.
As movement stopped and silence fell everyone in the Spacemaster stood at his window and stared at the scene outside. Not that there was much to look at apart from the houses.
'Dead,' said the Professor at last. 'This, I'm afraid, is what we shall find on Mars, on a larger scale. Wait while I check the atmosphere.'
It did not take him long to make his test. 'Practically no atmosphere at all,' he announced.
Very faint traces of oxygen and hydrogen. No use to us. I imagine Mars has gradually stolen what air there was here; for there must have been an atmosphere of sorts at one time or these houses wouldn't be here. We might as well investigate while we are on the spot, so let us get into our suits.'
In twenty minutes they were ready, and the same procedure was followed as for the Moon-landing. The Professor was out first, and held on to one of the landing legs to recover his balance while waiting for the others.
While Rex had been dressing he had noticed something. Not far from where the ship had landed there appeared to be a circular cavity in the ground, as if it had been dug up and smoothed over. Spaced around this were a number of small marks. It was the regular pattern made by these that at first attracted his attention. He swayed towards them with an even more floating sensation than he had experienced on the Moon. Reaching them he stopped.
'What are you doing?' asked Tiger.
Rex did not answer at once. He looked at the marks. Turning, he looked at the ground under the Spacemaster, and saw the same basin-like hole where the sand had been churned up by the jets. He realized, too, that when the Space-master left the ground its legs would leave the same marks in the sand as those by which he was standing.
'I believe a spaceship has landed here,' he answered. 'Perhaps a saucer.'
This brought the others to his side.
'There's no doubt about it,' declared the Professor. 'How extraordinary!
No, on second thoughts, it isn't extraordinary. The pilot of a spaceship would naturally choose the best available spot for a landing, just as I did. Of course, it may have been a long time ago.
The absence of wind would leave the marks unaffected indefinitely. Well done, Rex.
First discovery goes to you. Now let us look at these houses. Their structure indicates clearly a form of intelligence close to our own.'
Leaving Judkins in charge of the ship they bounced their way over the dry dusty ground towards the nearest doorway; but before reaching it they pulled up and looked at each other as a significant line of mounds came into view. There was no mistaking what they were. Their shape said plainly that they were graves. There were no headstones nor any other form of decoration. Just a long straight row of heaped-up dry earth. For a moment no one spoke. Then the Professor said: 'What tale of tragedy have we here? People with the intelligence to build houses would also bury their dead. The question that arises is, who did the burying? Were the bodies buried by someone from outside or by those who dwelt in these houses; for in the latter case there would be no one to bury the last survivor? Let us go on. We may find the answer.'
The Professor proceeded to the doorway. There was no actual door. He went in and the others followed, to find themselves in a small square room with an earth floor. There were three articles of furniture; a bed, a table and a chair. All were fashioned in the same way and of the same material; coarse plaited rushes. Several earthenware pots of simple design stood on the floor.
'Now what are we to make of this? ' murmured the Professor. Observe, there is no wood anywhere. Obviously they had no wood, or it would have been used. You may say, neither had they any rushes, for rushes need water, and there is certainly no water on Phobos. Very well. The answer must be, the rushes, or the pieces of furniture already fabricated, must have come from Mars. In that case' it follows that wood was not available on Mars —
anyway, at the time these things were made. We need not, therefore, expect to find any trees on Mars. The vegetation, I suspect, is mostly rushes. Note the pots. There was water where they came from, for you can't make earthenware without clay, and you can't work clay without water. I think we can say with certainty that men very much like ourselves lived here. Let us go on.'
The next house revealed the same simple furniture. So did the next, and the next.
'What did these people use for food?' asked Tiger. 'There is obviously none here.'
'There may have been some at one time, when there was air, although that must have been a long time ago,' replied the Professor. 'As I read the story these people died of starvation, and that must have been before the air disappeared entirely. They may have been supplied with food from Mars for a time, but when supplies ended, as obviously they did, the people here perished. Impossible though it may seem to us now, in view of what we can see, there must have been a time when life on Phobos was possible, or this settlement could never have come into existence. The conditions are not very unlike those we found on our own Moon, but the Moon being so much larger, life ha
s lingered on. Phobos is finished, and, as I believe, our own Moon is on its way to final extinction.'
The last house in the row produced a shock. A man was lying on the bed.
He was dead.
Rex didn't realize it until the Professor said so, for so wonderfully preserved was the body that it looked alive. It was that of a very tall man clad in a single garment of coarse material in the manner of a Roman toga. His features were normally human, but so woefully emaciated that he might well have died from starvation. The colour of his skin was creamy brown. His hair was long and flaxen.
'How long since he died, Professor?' asked Tiger quietly.
'I wouldn't like to guess,' was the answer. 'It might be ten years, a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand years. The agents of decomposition are air and water. Neither of them occur here, in which case a body, undisturbed, would be preserved indefinitely — as happens with the mummies of Ancient Egypt, in their dry, sealed tombs. The presence here of this body is of profound importance. It is the greatest discovery we have made to date. For now we know that there is, or has been, human life on at least one other planet.
We also know that there is now no animal life on Phobos, for had there been, this body would have been damaged, if not consumed.'
'Could this man have been one of the crew of a spaceship that called here?' asked Rex.
`No,' answered the Professor without hesitation. 'Had that been so, surely his companions would have buried him? The tragedy is, I think, plain to read. It's inconceivable that this tiny sphere could have produced life of its own, so the man must have been a Martian.
He was here with several companions. It would be idle to speculate for what purpose they came here, or were put here; but here they came and here they were abandoned, to perish miserably. This man was the last survivor. Having buried his companions he himself lay down to die. Why were these men abandoned? Why did their countrymen on Mars leave them to their fate? The answer is, I'm afraid, all too apparent. They themselves were faced with a similar end. In a word, what we have found here we shall find on the planet over the way on a bigger scale. Let's go and look.'
'Does that mean there's no air on Mars?' asked Rex.
'I didn't say that. I expect to find an atmosphere there. It may be thin, and the belt may not be as wide as that which envelops our Earth; but air of some sort there certainly is, or there could be no cloud. There has always been some doubt about the amount of oxygen because our instruments are to some extent affected by the oxygen in our own atmosphere.'
By this time they had reached the Spacemaster and the Professor asked Judkins for his telescope. Through it he subjected the neighbouring planet to a close scrutiny that lasted for some time. 'I can see marks that might be towns of some size, but I would rather not make a definite statement,' he announced. The canals are without doubt bands of vegetation; and they are too straight to have been the unaided work of nature. Nature abhors straight lines. Let us go over and settle the matter. As the journey is only a short one we'll keep our suits on. We shall probably need them again, but we can always take them off if we find they're not necessary. All aboard.'
13 Land of living death
A flight — or rather a drop — of minutes, took the Spacemaster from the little satellite to the surface of its parent, so that a vast panorama was soon exposed to view. While they were still a hundred miles away the Professor had announced, with satisfaction in his voice, that already he detected signs of air; which surprised him, for it had been reckoned by some astronomers that the atmosphere was not more than fifty miles in depth. Rex shared his satisfaction for the freedom of movement this promised. But, as will be seen, he was to be disappointed, although in view of what happened, he had no cause for complaint.
From an altitude of a few miles he looked down on a picture for which he could muster no enthusiasm; for as far as it was possible to see the surface of the planet was one vast plain, creating an impression of monotony almost beyond belief. Nine-tenths of it, he estimated, was desert, flat, sterile, hopeless. The remaining part within his view was a broad band of green that ran as straight as a railway line across the landscape to where, in the far distance, it was crossed at right angles by another. Along this unnatural line, spaced at intervals, were light-coloured patches that looked as if they might be towns of some size. He could think of nothing else they could be. He thought he could discern similar marks out in the desert, too. The Professor had been right, he decided. This strange arrangement was not the work of nature.
As the Spacemaster dropped nearer the picture became intensified, but yielded no further information. Nothing moved. Anywhere. Nothing, large or small, lithe green belt was grass, and that was what it looked like, it supported no grazing animals.
I'm going to look closer at the canals,' announced the Professor.
The Spacemaster went down until it was hovering at about fifty feet.
Grass,' said Rex.
`No, reeds,' contended Tiger.
'It looks to me very much like an ordinary marsh,' said the Professor.
There's water there or the growth wouldn't be as green as that. What have we over here?' He took the ship some way out into the desert and brought it to a stop, still hovering, over what was unmistakably a town. From above, it appeared not unlike one of the desert towns of Arabia. There were no trees. Not one. There was a little scrub in the nature of camel-thorn. But there was no movement of any sort. No smoke arose from chimneys. It was clear that the place was no longer inhabited.
'A melancholy picture,' said the Professor. 'I shall now go round to the far side of the planet, where, running into night, we shall see lights —
if there is anyone to light them. It won't take us long.'
The Spacemaster continued on at increasing speed, but the scene remained unchanged.
More desert came into view: more canals. All were alike, with the exception of what appeared from slight shadows to be occasional undulations. As their progress brought them closer to the horizon the fiery glow of the Sun turned the barren earth to crimson, an awe-inspiring sight. Outcrops of rock ffickered like flames where the light caught them. But not a tree was to be seen. No movement. No sign of life.
Only the eternal desert with its green girdles rolling on endlessly.
'Dead,' muttered the Professor. 'Observe, my friends, how even a star can perish of old age.'
Approaching the side opposite from the Sun they ran through twilight into darkness, a darkness relieved only by a dim light reflected from the satellite Deimos, which was still catching the Sun. But of lights on the ground there were none.
'Nothing,' said the Professor, as he accelerated and sent the Spacemaster back into daylight. It is a solemn and depressing thought that everything must one day perish,' he added. 'This, no doubt, will be the fate of the Earth one day — unless our atom-exploding experts set it off into the same state of nuclear fission as the Sun; for that, you know, is what is happening in the centre of our own little system.'
That looks like a big city, the biggest we have seen so far, at the junction of those two cam's,' observed Tiger. It may have been the capital of the planet, for it's hard to see how there could have been any national divisions of territory, such as we have.'
'We'll go and look at it.'
Have you reached any decision about the purpose of the canals?'
Well, I have a theory, and it seems to be a fairly obvious one,' answered the Professor.'
They were once open waterways, but they have now become choked with weeds and rushes. What must have happened is clear. Mars has no seas. If ever it had any they have dried up until not a vestige remains. Windblown sand may have levelled the mountains, and depositing them in the seas in the form of dust, filled them up. Perhaps there never was much water. Whether there was much or little, the planet began to dry out, just as the whole of North Africa and parts of the Middle East have dried up within our own historical records. The land that once flowed with milk and hone
y now flows mostly with sun-scorched sand. If that could happen there, why shouldn't it happen here in a bigger way? The Martians, seeing what was happening, strove desperately to conserve their dwindling water supply by concentrating it in canals. Towns in what is now desert, but may once have stood in fertile country, were abandoned as the water failed. New ones were built beside the artificial waterways.'
But why are there no trees?' asked Rex. 'Trees hold water in the soil.'
'Either there were no trees, although that seems most unlikely, or else the Martians cut too many down, thereby committing the same folly that has created the great deserts of China and elsewhere. Maybe they cut down their trees for the same reason— to make more arable land available to support a growing population. It is easier to create a desert than it is to stop one advancing. At every breath of wind the dust blows and the desert grows and grows until it has overrun the fertile land. That is happening on Earth, you know, in many places. Here, I feel sure, we are seeing the ultimate result. But there is still a question for which I can find no answer.'
Tiger spoke. You mean, why did the people die? Why did they let their canals become overgrown? Even now, just under the surface, there must be water. With heat and water, and a reasonable supply of air, which you say there is, food could be grown.'
'You have hit the nail on the head. Why did they die? Some of the canals may have been overwhelmed in the desert, but not all of them. The margin of those which we can see below would support a considerable population.
There must have been something else to account for the wholesale extermination of men and animals. Look at the city below us.
Observe the splendid square in the middle and the noble buildings around it; no doubt the administrative centre. They could only have been the work of a great civilization. If any men were left alive it would be here. We should see them moving about. I can't see one.'
What would they eat?' inquired Tiger.
'You might well ask. But these people didn't die of hunger. Had they retained their strength they would have tilled the fertile banks of the canals, if nothing more. But I see no sign of cultivation. That ground would graze herds of cattle. Why are there no cattle?
01 Kings Of Space Page 15