The carrier lay on solid ground, in the shadow of the great Kalquoi globe-ship. An open port indicated that the smaller craft had been dumped unceremoniously from the larger.
Arm about Nelva, Dane turned now and looked off beyond the Kalquoi vessel.
Then, involuntarily, he stiffened. A chill of excitement ran through him. Instantly—instinctively, almost—he recognized the scene before him; knew the truth.
They stood upon Callisto!
CHAPTER VIII
This was Sandoz, man's last stronghold among all the outer satellites and planets ... fallen citadel, thirty years abandoned now.
Ruin's hand lay heavy upon it. Crumbling walls and shattered structures sprawled everywhere, and great saw-leaved, turquoise-blue plants half concealed long stretches of the cracked, disintegrating pavement. Scarcely a building stood staunch and whole.
Yet there was no mistaking the place. For though the last edifice might fall, the city's shining silver shaft still thrust up stark and proud into the sky.
Dane stared at it, fascinated, hardly able to tear his eyes away. It was compulsive, the inner drive he felt to draw still closer to it. Yet even though he recognized it as such, he could not fight it down.