He saw the great arching ribs, the looming platinum machinery that had no meaning for him because there had never been anything like it on Earth. Machines, and panels, that bore gauges and dials marked in strange symbols. And the alien but unmistakable assembly of jet-tubes, the great turbine-engines that once had driven thunderously—
Nelson spoke, and the sound of his own voice was echoing and strange in that vast dead vault of metal.
"A ship," he whispered. "The Cavern is a giant ship, that crashed here heaven alone knows how long ago. A space ship, that came to Earth and fell and was buried here by the silt of ages."
The deadly danger of the imminent crisis with Sloan was almost forgotten in Nelson's stupefied wonder. He moved slowly forward deeper into the shadowy ship, looking up at the huge broken machines.
Was this the colossal secret of the valley of L'Lan? Those ancients whose subtle science had made the thought-crowns and the mind-transferer — were they from another world, long, long ago? He stepped between two thick platinum pillars, on each of which was mounted a big quartz sphere. And suddenly, as though it came from the depthless gulfs of time, a cool, vast alien mind spoke to his.
The words, the thoughts, rang through his brain with a throbbing power that shook the whole fabric of his mind.
"You who shall come after us, take warning!"
Chapter XVII
THE DAY OF THE BROTHERHOOD
Nelson stopped, stricken by a freezing awe that he had never felt before. It was not the mere fact of the thought-voice speaking in his mind that stupefied him. He was too accustomed to that, by now.