Hours passed. Apart from the mass scanners, the 
other detection instruments still indicated nothing. 
   And again it was Pandit Madhva, who had a new report. 
On her monitor the wave line flowed apart, divided. 
   Several wave lines - that meant several objects. The 
probability of a meteorite swarm became greater. 
   Finally, also, the gravitation sensors caught weak 
impulses. They registered, like the mass scanners, the 
different sources of gravitational forces, which were 
extremely weak. All together, the gravitational forces 
of the unknown space bodies would not even be sufficient 
to pull a wandering dust grain over into their spell. 
   The meteor theory now began to falter. The gravitation 
sensors determined that substantial spatial distances lay 
between the individual sources of gravity forces. Substantial 
in the terrestrial understanding, not in the cosmic, where 
millions of kilometers meant nothing. Nevertheless - the 
children of a meteor family did not draw their courses 
separated from each other by such distances in space. 
   And finally, after further long hours, the infrared 
sensors also picked up some of the objects. 
   They were spaceships. 
   Spaceships, each of a completely different design. Large 
ones, small ones,which resembled the Alphans Eagles, others, 
which looked inexpressibly strange. 
   But with all of them, there was one thing in common: they 
were not flying. Without exception, they hung completely 
motionless in the emptiness of the intergalactic area. 
   The energy tracers of the Moonbase could not detect any 
impulses. All the ships were dead. Wrecks, which were stranded 
in the nothingness. . . 
   A space graveyard lay before the Alphans. 
   And the Moon rested right on it. 

22