Page:Amazing Stories Volume 10 Number 13.djvu/115

Rh surgeon's scalpels, and construct at least one such ship. By every reckoning, earth is habitable now; if a half dozen humans land there the race may be saved. Birna

This record must be considered henceforth as a personal journal. I can no longer delude myself; annihilation has overtaken my countrymen. So only can their long silence be explained.

Tragedy and death hang like a red sun over us all. I must fight off the stupor and lassitude, that are conquering the women who still live. Perhaps this diary will help me to retain my balance.

The ladies of the court are inclined, by what ratiocination I cannot guess, to blame the queen for all that has happened. I believe there has been considerable resentment at her graciousness toward me. My instinct likes not the whispering that ceases as one or both of us approach.

Queen Ala informs me that of the five thousand souls who made up her subjects when I arrived here eight rotations ago, less than seventeen hundred are now living. Ectogenesis has been suspended; already there are too many mouths to feed. Cannibalism is rumored, but has not yet been proved.

I have resolved to set forth for home. If any of my fellow men still live, we may be able to carry out the space ship project—even to save a handful of these women, though, except for the queen, I find them harsh and unprepossessing. No blueprints of the prehistoric space fliers are available here; nor is any metal on hand save that which contains the unborn infants' nutrient solutions.

I have quitted Alania, servants with force-torches guarding me against the ants and termites. Little fuel for the fire remains, and the torches must be used sparingly.

As I write, seated on one of the empty termitariums that fill the dark- ness about me, I can see the lights of the palace. The remainder of the city is hidden beneath the surface of the earth. Will any of its inhabitants still live when—and if—I return?

It was difficult to leave the queen. I wished her to accompany me, but she feels that her duty lies here. She seemed distressed at our parting, though the sentiment was unreasonable. Being not only of different nations but of different sexes, we can have nothing but respect in common.

My food was gone before I reached Colla. At twilight of the fifth Rotation I killed and cooked my Taran, wrapping portions of the flesh in my sack and proceeding thenceforth afoot. Progress was slow among the ubiquitous termitariums, and the meat spoiled when half consumed. Wherever possible I travelled through craters, and spared my oxygen. Farmhouses that were still occupied when I went that way before are shells now, riddled by the white ants. To the eye, the buildings seemed unharmed; but a slap from my palm would transform them into heaps of grey dust.