They were machine men from Zor. Once they had been organic creatures, but they had transposed their brains to the coned, metal heads which surmounted their cubed, mechanical bodies. The bodies were upheld by four metal legs and were equipped with six metal tentacles. They communicated by thought projection.
What the professor had accomplished in death, they had accomplished in life. They were undying just so long as no injury occurred to their metal heads housing the all-important brain. Any metal parts, such as legs, tentacles or body parts, were replaced when worn out. A complete circle of mechanical eyes were fitted into the coned heads, and one eye peered virtually from the apex. These were shuttered and could also be replaced.
The machine men took the professor's body from his rocket satellite and recalled his brain to life in order to learn his story. They placed the brain in one of the mechanical bodies.
The professor's astonishment on his revival can be imagined better than described. When he came to a full realization of what had actually happened, he told them his story and of the past glories of the earth up to the point when he had died.
He found that his revival made him the last living creature of the earth. With the machine men he visited the strangely changed surface of his home planet.
The Zoromes told him of their eternal adventures from world to world and asked him to join them. There was nothing on the now-lifeless Earth to keep him there—so he joined the machine men in their cosmic flight from system to system, exploring new planets and strange creatures of varying degrees of intelligence.
He came to be known among the Zoromes as 21MM392, and after their return to Zor he was given joint command with 744U-21 of a new expedition into space.