He sat down. Another flare flashed in the sky behind him silhouetting a
row of grotesque trees. I'm over here, you fools, he thought. He watched
until the flare flickered out, then turned his head back toward the
remains of the ship. There wasn't much of a glow to it now. It would be
hard to see unless Astro was right on top of it.

He raised the antenna on the tele-talkie and snapped it on. The screen
glowed into life. Towers was stepping through the bulkhead door into the
radio room. Just like a television play in installments, Brandon
thought. Scene two coming up.

"No sign of him at the scene of the crash," Towers told Reinhardt.

"If he got out," observed Reinhardt, "he could be a hundred miles away
or more."

"_If_ he got out," Towers said in a tone that irritated Brandon.

"I got out," Brandon said. "And right now I'm walking around your
precious planet like a boy scout. Damn this tele-talkie! I'd give a
year's pay if you could see me now, Towers."

"We may yet spot the escape capsule," Reinhardt was saying.

"We're still continuing the search," put in Towers. "But I don't mind
telling you I'm not wasting much more fuel."

The radio operator started to say something, hesitated and finally
settled for, "yes, sir."

Brandon swore and snapped off the set. He looked at his walk-around
bottle.

"Can't stay here any longer," he muttered.

He couldn't find the capsule. He walked three, perhaps four miles. He
stopped and blotted his moist brow with his sleeve. He wasn't going to
find it. Before him stretched an endless carpet of red dust. The light
from the two moons was growing dim, as each settled toward different
horizons.

He sat down. A cloud of powdery dust settled over his legs. The
lightness in his head told him that his oxygen was running out. The
weakness in his muscles reminded him that it had been a long time since
he had walked in a planet's gravity. A distant flare lit up the horizon.
He choked off a sob, and beat his fist in the red dust. A wave of nausea
swept over him. Bitter stomach juices welled up in his throat but he
swallowed them down again.

Desperately he turned on the tele-talkie.

"Astro, this is Brandon," he said.

"Brandon, this is Astro," Reinhardt said.

Brandon's body tensed. "Thank God I finally got through to you. Listen,
Reinhardt, I must be about three--"

"Brandon, this is Astro," said Reinhardt in a monotone. He said it again
and again and again.

Brandon f