The ornament of the other necklace was a tiny metal fish. It had fins
and a tail, but no scales. Instead, its body was protected by bony
armor. It was a ganoid fish, like a sturgeon. But it was not a sturgeon,
though sturgeons are now the main representatives of what once were
innumerable ganoid species.

Soames shook his head, then spoke to Gail and Captain Moggs. "The ship
was built for children to operate, I can't imagine why. But there's
nothing like a weapon in view. I'm going to call Base before they get
alarmed."

* * * * *

He made a report which sounded as if there were some minor trouble with
the 'copter and he'd landed. It did not check with his last call
speaking insistently of caution, but he couldn't help it. Other bases
were on the same wave-length. He said he'd call back. He intended to
call for help--in handling the matter of the children--as soon as it
would seem plausible that he needed help to get off the ground again.

But he felt shaky, inside. The radar-report and the static and
earth-shock and concussion-wave of the night before had been improbable
enough. But this was more incredible still. The children's ship must
have appeared in the middle of all those unlikely phenomena. It was
reasonable for it to have crashed amid such violence. But where had it
come from, and why?

They were human and they were members of a culture beside which the
current culture on Earth was barbaric. It could not be an Earth
civilization. On a world where for thousands of years men had killed
each other untidily in wars, and where they now prepared to destroy
themselves wholly in a final one, there was no possibility of such a
civilization existing in secret. But where was it?

Soames stood by the 'copter, staring bemusedly at the ship. The two boys
came out. They went briskly to the shattered part of the ship and picked
up a metal girder neatly matching the one that leaned absurdly where it
was fixed in the icy surface. By the ease of their movements, it could
not be heavy. It would have to be aluminum or magnesium to be so light.
Magnesium alloy, at a guess.

One boy held it upright by the slanting beam. The other produced a small
object Soames could not see. He bent over the ice and moved his hand to
and fro. The new girder sank into the ice. They slanted it to meet the
one already fixed. They held it fast for a moment. They went back to the
wrecked ship. The second girder r