upposed to be. Whatever it was, it wasn't a
man's world.

The women didn't want Earth anymore. They had something better. But
what? There were other questions, and Bowren's job was to find the
answers, remain unobserved and get back aboard this ship. He would then
hypo himself again, and when the ship blasted off to Earth, he would go
through the same transition all over again.

He put on the soft-soled shoes as well as the durolene suit and crawled
through the small panel into the big cargo bin. It was empty. Only a dim
yellow light shone on the big cargo vices along the curved walls.

He climbed the ladders slowly, cautiously, through a gnawing silence of
suspense, over the mesh grid flooring along the tubular corridors. He
wondered what he would find.

Could the women have been influenced by some alien life form on Mars?

That could explain the fact that women had divorced themselves
completely from all men, from the Earth. Something had to explain it.

There was one other possibility. That the women had found human life on
Mars. That was a very remote possibility based on the idea that perhaps
the Solar system had been settled by human beings from outer space, and
had landed on two worlds at least.

Bowren remembered how his wife, Lora, had told him he was an idiot and a
bore, and had walked out on him five years before; taken her three
months course in astrogation, and left Earth. He hadn't heard of her or
from her since. It was the same with every other man, married or not.
The male ego had taken a beating for so long that the results had been
psychologically devastating.

The ship seemed to be empty of any human being but Bowren. He reached
the outer lock door. It was ajar. Thin cold air came through and sent a
chill down his arms, tingling in his fingers. He looked out. It was
night on Mars, a strange red-tinted night, the double moons throwing
streaming color over the land.

Across the field, he saw the glowing Luciferin-like light of a small
city. Soaring spherical lines. Nothing masculine about its architecture.
Bowren shivered.

He climbed down the ladder, the air biting into his lungs. The silence
down there on the ground under the ship was intense.

He stood there a minute. The first man on Mars. Man's oldest dream
realized.

But the great thrill he had anticipated was dulled somewhat by fear. A
fear of what the women had become, and of what might have influenced
their becoming.

He took o