Jerry would have joked about acid or magic mushrooms. He hadn’t done them, but he knew plenty of people who had. He had a pretty fair notion of what they did. Steve seemed even straighter than he was. And they said it couldn’t be done! he thought wryly.

After they’d both gone through more rolls and stashed film cassettes in various pockets, Steve wrote, We’d better head back. About time, yes?

Yes, Jerry agreed after checking his watch. He didn’t want to leave, but he saw the need. And his mind was spinning in overdrive. Cold sleep? Some other kind of suspended animation? Could they revive those two centaurowls? Would doing that be smart or completely insane? He had all kinds of questions and exactly no answers.

Another one was what had gone wrong in the unit that didn’t hold a perfectly preserved alien? Whatever else it was, it was another reminder that the beings who’d crewed Humpty Dumpty could screw up just like human beings. That might be worth remembering.

Reluctantly, he backed out of the chamber with the preservation units. He and Steve made their way up the corridor, rewinding their twine as they went. For all Jerry could tell, the airlock door would cleanly slice the nylon when it closed or reappeared or did whatever magic trick it did. But he and Steve didn’t know that for a fact. The twine might make the door stay open just a crack, which might lead to Humpty Dumpty’s air mingling with Earth’s more than it had already, which might lead to … who the hell had any idea what?

Nothing dramatic happened on the way out. As he had before, Jerry left the starship first and helped Steve follow him. As before, the airlock door came back before he could see how.

Four men in suits and masks and air tanks waited not far away. Jerry wondered whether they were happy or sad they hadn’t needed to charge in there on a rescue mission.

One of them spat out his mouthpiece. “You are all right?” he asked. He had a heavy German accent—he was the ex-U-boat engineer Jerry had heard about, one of the new men from the B crew. On the Glomar Explorer, he went by Manfred Krause. He seemed to like the handle—he said it was easier for Americans to pronounce than the last name he’d been born with.

Jerry shed his mouthpiece, too, and breathed in humid, subtropical air. “We’re fine. We’re great,” he said, and gave a thumbs-up.

“What did you see?” Manfred asked.

“Wonderful things,” Steve answered before Jerry could say anything. In a low voice, he added, “That’s what Howard Carter said when they asked him what he saw in King Tut’s tomb.”