Publisher's Synopsis
The new life was bitter and difficult and as their resources were depleted so also did their numbers diminish. Huddled at their last retreat the Rell watched the ever smaller ice cap annually diminish and lived with the knowledge they faced extinction. A mere thousand years more would see even this trifling remainder gone. . . .
Captain Leonard Brown, USAF, hunched over the instruments in the cramped control cabin.
"Just another half hour," he whispered to himself. "Just thirty more minutes and I'll land. It may be just a dead planet but I'll still be the first."
Thus Brown's entire active contribution to the flight consisted in watching the dials (which recorded everything so even watching them was unnecessary) and in pressing the button which would cause the ship to start its return journey.
All the same, two great races of the solar system were about to make first contact. If they noticed one another.
