A bright star was due to pass close to our sun; I entered my space ship and steered toward it. I landed on this planet.
This is a curious planet, Mr. Simms. You have noticed the phenomenon of the sunset. The surface of the planet expands and contracts all at once, rather than doing so by slow degrees. As a result, the sun rises and sets instantly. When I arrived in my space ship, the phenomenon was much more exaggerated. I emerged from my ship and walked about the planet. I did not expect the contraction which came at sunset. It was terrible: I was thrown against a jagged pinnacle of rock and severely injured. For many centuries I could not move. Slowly I recovered. I returned to my ship. In the course of many such sunsets, it had been shattered to atoms. The delicate instruments had been ruined. I worked many years on the ship, but I could do nothing to repair it. At last I abandoned the task.
Nothing is left of it now. Millions of years have passed and its dust is mingled with the dust of this planet.
I watched my people recede from me. When I lay next to the jagged pinnacle that had wounded me, I could still see my planet in the sky. By the time that I was well, I could discern my sun from the other stars only with difficulty.
The years have passed slowly and now my galaxy is a point of light that I can no longer resolve in the distance.
I am growing tired, Mr. Simms, and Mr. Bailey still follows me. He shoots at me no longer, but he understands that I must rest. I shall complete my tale as rapidly as I can.
I waited milleniums, but no one came. Without my aid, my people could never have built a space ship with which to rescue me. I did not have the materials. I waited alone, confident at some times that help would come, confident at most that I would remain here forever ... alone.
Then you came, Mr. Simms. I saw immediately that your ship was damaged and I knew that it was not damaged badly. I wished to save you from my fate. I wished to repair your ship; I did not dare attempt to repair it, however; you would have thought that I was trying to hurt you and you would have destroyed me. I could only wait until a suitable opportunity presented itself.
You were very kind, Mr. Simms. You petted me between my eyes. The contact of your hand, the first contact with a living being in millions of years, drove me to distraction. I almost brought you inside me then and there, but I restrained myself. I knew that Mr. Bailey would not understand and would destroy me.
Now you have told me that you wish to help me. Mr. Simms, I wish to return to my own people. In the course of these years of exile, I have thought many thoughts that will be useful to them. And who was there to instruct them, after my departure? I wish to return to my people, Mr. Simms.