"If I may not return to Terra, and may not remain on Ertene, I can guess the other alternative and will admit that I do not like it. On the returning angle, about all I can do is to justify myself in my own mind that I have done all that I can by bringing these scientific items back with me. Since doing the best I can for Terra includes keeping your secret, I can do that also. But tell me, how do you hope to cover the fact that I've been missing for almost a year? That will take more than mere explanation."
"The process is easy," said Charalas. "We have one of the lifeships from the derelict. It was slightly damaged in the blast. It is maneuverable, but unwieldy. Evidence has been painstakingly forged. Apparently you will have broken your straps under the shock of the blast—and before the torture reached its height—and you found yourself in a derelict with no one left alive but yourself. You were hurt, mentally, and didn't grasp the situation clearly. There was no way to signal your plight in secrecy, and open signaling would have been dangerous since you were too close to Mars.
"You found the lifeship and waited until you could safely take off. The derelict took a crazy course, according to the recorded log in your own handwriting, and headed for interstellar space. You took off at the safe time and have been floating free in the damaged lifeship. You've been on a free orbit for the best part of a year."
"Sounds convincing enough."
"The evidence includes empty air cans, your own fingerprints on everything imaginable, a dulled can opener and the remnants of can labels that have fallen into nooks and crannies of the ship. The water-recovery device has been under constant operation and examination will show about a year's accumulation of residual matter. A scratch-mark calendar has been kept on the wall of the lifeship, and daily it has been added to. That is important since the wall will show more oxidation in the scratches made a year ago than the ones made recently. The accumulators of the ship have been run down as if in service while you were forcing the little ship into its orbit, and the demand recorder shows how the drain was used. The lights in the ship have been burned, and the deposits of fluorescent material in the tubes have been used about the calculated number of hours. Books have been nearly worn out from re-reading and they were used with fingerprint gloves though they were studied by us. Instruments and gadgets are strewn about the ship in profusion, indicating the attempts of an intelligent man trying to kill time. Also you will find the initial findings on the energy collector we used in conjunction with the light-shield.
"Now, yourself. Into your body we will inject the hormones that occur with fear and worry. You will not enjoy a bit of atmosphobia, but believe us, it is necessary. You will have the appearance and attitude of a man who has been in space alone for a year, and luckily for you, you are a spaceman and inured to the rigors of space travel so that it will not be necessary to really give you the works in order to make you seem natural.
"As a final touch, both for our safety and yours, we will inject in your body a substance far superior to your anti-lamine. This is not destroyed by electrolysis, but only by a substance made from the original base. This will protect you against any attempt to make you talk. As long as it is your will, consciously or subconsciously, our secret will be kept. Is there anything we may have overlooked?"
"One thing. The space tan."
"That you will get before you leave."