back, apprehensive, but still held to the spot by their intense curiosity.

Phillip grabbed for his analysis equipment and did some rapid tests.

"No radiation!" he said quickly, "No gasses escaping, all clear on x rays, gamma... the lot! Its

's safe!"

The square had sunk a minute amount, but it was enough to make visible indentation in the flat polygon surface. Phillip punched the measurements into his keyboard and got a readout instantly.

"I'll leave this to Sensors, and we can watch from a safe distance," he said. Just what a 'safe distance' was, he had no idea, but it sounded reassuring.

Phillip placed a winking vid-cam on the sinking square, set it to auto, and got back into his vehicle. He waited until the other three men were on the foot-rails and drove slowly away to where their other machines were parked.

"Each of you watch this on your screens," lie said.

The men obeyed.

"Comments?" asked Phillip.

"What can we say?" countered Paul. "Here we are, on the edge of the most important discovery of the century, perhaps on any century, and we are expected to say something intelligent!"

"I don't care if you come up with something dumb!" said Phillip, "We have to respond to this. We have no choice. Just because we are witnessing something out of our normal experience doesn't mean we have nothing to say about it. We have brains, so we ought to use them!"

"I have a comment," ventured John,

"I'm all ears."

"Suppose we were the first apes who ever came across an automobile. We would not know what it was, we would walk right across the bonnet and not think about it."

"Thank you John, but need I point out to you that we don't all believe we are apes here? I happen to believe we are not related to animals at all, except in basic morphology and certain physical attributes. Similarity in structure does not prove similarity of origin. Need I point out that apes are still apes, but humans have made it to the moon?"