"My father's followers needed an out-of-the-way place like this," Laniq explained as the time-conveyor dropped out of the time-stream and cruised along above the desert. "We're building a spaceship, you see."
"A spaceship? What for? There is nothing worth while on the planets, nothing worth the trouble to mine it."
"My fault, Tedor. I should have said a starship. If necessary, we'll go to the stars. Oh, we can do it, although the trip will take generations and only a few hundred people will find room. We won't do it unless the monopolist forces us. If he gains the dictatorial control of time he's seeking, we'll have no choice. We're collecting trophies, artifacts of man's culture, just in case. We'll gladly put them in a museum or return them if the monopolist fails." Laniq turned to the port, gazed down on the desert sweeping by. Suddenly; "Tedor!"
Tedor stood beside her and stared down. There had been a village of tents below them. There now were the remains of tents in a well-watered oasis—but no village.
Fires smouldered below them. Charred wreckage lay strewn about the rolling dunes and jumbled rock on either side of the oasis. A great silver hull—the body of an incomplete starship, Tedor knew, lay on its side, a dying animal, huge rents and gashes disfiguring it like ugly, bloodless scars.
"Tedor—Tedor—I'm afraid!"
Tedor took the conveyor down, landing it adjacent to the wrecked starship. He climbed out first, helped Laniq alight. Dazed, clasping and unclasping her hands, she walked about the oasis. In some of the burned tents dishes were set on crude tables. Personal equipment was everywhere, on the floors, on the charred plastoid beds, in hastily emptied lockers. Most of the fires had burned themselves out, but smoke still curled lazily into the dry, hot air of the desert.
"They came, Tedor. They destroyed—everything."
Tedor stood mutely, uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. Everything he thought about Laniq had changed so drastically in the space of a few hours and now he wanted to help her, but could do nothing.
"Miss Hadrien. Miss Hadrien!"