THE ALIEN A Gripping Novel of Discovery and Conquest in Interstellar Space by Raymond F. Jones A Complete ORIGINAL Book, UNABRIDGED WORLD EDITIONS, Inc. 105 WEST 40th STREET NEW YORK 18, NEW YORK Copyright 1951 by WORLD EDITIONS, Inc. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. THE GUINN CO., Inc. New York 14, N.Y. [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Just speculate for a moment on the enormous challenge to archeology when interplanetary flight is possible ... and relics are found of a race extinct for half a million years! A race, incidentally, that was scientifically so far in advance of ours that they held the secret of the restoration of life! One member of that race can be brought back after 500,000 years of death.... That's the story told by this ORIGINAL book-length novel, which has never before been published! You can expect a muscle-tightening, sweat-producing, mind-prodding adventure in the future when you read it! _CHAPTER ONE_ Out beyond the orbit of Mars the _Lavoisier_ wallowed cautiously through the asteroid fields. Aboard the laboratory ship few of the members of the permanent Smithson Asteroidal Expedition were aware that they were in motion. Living in the field one or two years at a time, there was little that they were conscious of except the half-million-year-old culture whose scattered fragments surrounded them on every side. The only contact with Earth at the moment was the radio link by which Dr. Delmar Underwood was calling Dr. Illia Morov at Terrestrial Medical Central. Illia's blonde, precisely coiffured hair was only faintly golden against, the stark white of her surgeons' gown, which she still wore when she answered. Her eyes widened with an expression of pleasure as her face came into focus on the screen and she recognized Underwood. "Del! I thought you'd gone to sleep with the mummies out there. It's been over a month since you called. What's new?" "Not much. Terry found some new evidence of Stroid III. Phyfe has a new scrap of metal with inscriptions, and they've found something that almost looks as if it might have been an electron tube five hundred thousand years ago. I'm working on that. Otherwise all is peaceful and it's wonderful!" "Still the confirmed hermit?" Illia's eyes lost some of their banter, but none of their tenderness. "There's more peace and contentment out here than I'd ever dreamed of finding. I want you to come out here, Illia. Come out for a month. If you don't want to stay and marry me, then you can go back and I won't say another word."