Nobody told us why. But then nobody told us why we were on Earth, either. That other Earth, I mean. The one you came from. How do we know there wasn’t another before that one?’
‘A good question,’ said the captain.
Lustig kept smiling at his grandparents. ‘Gosh, it’s good to see you. Gosh, it’s good.’
The captain stood up and slapped his hand on his leg in a casual fashion. ‘We’ve got to be going. Thank you for the drinks.’
‘You’ll be back, of course,’ said the old people. ‘For supper tonight?’
‘We’ll try to make it, thanks. There’s so much to be done. My men are waiting for me back at the rocket and—’
He stopped. He looked towards the door, startled.
Far away in the sunlight there was a sound of voices, a shouting and a great hello.
‘What’s that?’ asked Hinkston.
‘We’ll soon find out.’ And Captain John Black was out of the front door abruptly, running across the green lawn into the street of the Martian town.
He stood looking at the rocket. The ports were open and his crew was streaming out, waving their hands. A crowd of people had gathered, and in and through and among these people the members of the crew were hurrying, talking, laughing, shaking hands. People did little dances. People swarmed. The rocket lay empty and abandoned.
A brass band exploded in the sunlight, flinging off a gay tune from upraised tubas and trumpets. There was a bang of drums and a shrill of fifes. Little girls with golden hair jumped up and down. Little boys shouted, ‘Hooray!’ Fat men passed around ten-cent cigars. The town mayor made a speech. Then each member of the crew, with a mother on one arm, a father or sister on the other, was spirited off down the street into little cottages or big mansions.
‘Stop!’ cried Captain Black.
The doors slammed shut.
The heat rose in the clear spring sky, and all was silent. The brass band banged off around a corner, leaving the rocket to shine and dazzle alone in the sunlight.
‘Abandoned!’ said the captain. ‘They abandoned the ship, they did! I’ll have their skins, by God! They had orders!’
‘Sir,’ said Lustig, ‘don’t be too hard on them. Those were all old relatives and friends.’
‘That’s no excuse!’
‘Think how they felt, Captain, seeing familiar faces outside the ship!’
‘They had their orders, damn it!’
‘But how would you have felt, Captain?’
‘I would have obeyed orders—’ The captain’s mouth remained open.
Striding along the sidewalk under the Martian sun, tall, smiling, eyes amazingly clear and blue, came a young man of some twenty-six years. ‘John!’ the man called out, and broke into a trot.
‘What?’ Captain John Black swayed.
‘John, you old son of a bitch!’
The man ran up and gripped his hand and slapped him on the back.
‘It’s you,’ said Captain Black.
‘Of course, who’d you think it was?’
‘Edward!’ The captain appealed now to Lustig and Hinkston, holding the stranger’s hand. ‘This is my brother Edward. Ed, meet my men, Lustig, Hinkston! My brother!’
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