Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
They went on, coming to wide roads down which lines of marching men
stood silently in attitudes startlingly like some paintings of men
marching to war. Undoubtedly they were soldiers. Once or twice along
the line, the Earthmen saw huge projector-like instruments mounted on
wheels, being taken along with the marchers.
"Say, look at this scene!" called out Rokesmith.
He was standing before an open gate, staring in at the courtyard of a
large, pretentious stone building. Before the gate stood two guards
who evidently had been frozen just as they were turning about to stare
in through the entrance. On their faces was a look of aroused inquiry.
Inside the courtyard was a dramatic tableau.
* * * * *
A young woman of great beauty was fixed in the posture of running. Her
foot was lifted from the ground, her body thrust forward, her face
strained, hair flowing backwards as if the wind were brushing it back.
In one hand, tightly grasped, was a scroll.
Directly behind her stood a young man with a look of astonishment
and anger on a face that was cruel and evil. His hand was still held
outstretched as if to grasp after the scroll that the woman was fleeing
with. All about, in similar positions of astonishment and anxiety, were
other men, some of whom had started forward as if about to commence a
pursuit.
"Some scene, eh?" murmured Barth. "Looks real dramatic. I wish we could
know what it was all about."
"That's an idea!" burst from Wanderman. "Why didn't I think of it
sooner? Barth! We can use the mentascope on these frozen people--with
the attachments that are used to read the minds of the newly dead,
can't we?"
"I think we can, Captain. These people are perfectly preserved; there's
no reason why we can't shoot a current through their brains and get the
information stored there."
They turned, commenced to retrace their steps to the ship. It took them
about ten minutes to reach the street by which they had entered the
city and come to the vessel. Once inside, they hastened to unpack the
mentascope and its attendant apparatus. When at last they were ready,
they left the airlock and started back; the return to the ship had
taken them about twenty minutes.
They entered the street of the city they had first chanced upon. As
they passed the first figure, Weber suddenly whirled around and stared
at it.
"Look! Stop and look at this man!"
The others gathered around.
"Does he look the same to you? It seems to me that it was his other leg
which was being put forward when last we saw him. I'm sure his arms
were in a different position."
They stared amazedly. The figure certainly was not in the identical
posture as before. Weber's observations had been correct.
"All the rest of them seem to be planted in slightly different
postures, too."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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