suddenly threw a switch. The entire complex was
suddenly bathed in light. "Took a wild guess," he remarked, "that was
for the lights. There's plenty of power here, it's simply been shut
off."
17 "Let's find the power source," North said.
18 It took them nearly two hours to work their way deep into the
complex and find the thermal generator, drawing heat from the planet's
core and turning it into energy. Along the way they found strange
sights.... pyramids with holes cut in the top and sides sitting on top
of piles of sand. There were thousands of them all through the complex.
They were painted different colors and had definite symbols on them.
19 North noticed the symbols compared with signs over different
doorways that were also triangular in shape, and only about four feet
high. "You know," North announced, straightening up from examining one
of the objects, "I think we've found the occupants! I want each of
these piles carefully cleaned up, put in storage bags, and packed inide
the triangles. Bring down a crew to do it. Let's find the living
quarters."
20 It was not difficult, and here North's suspicions were confirmed.
They found computer chips and hard print outs showing the little miners
and detailing their work. They looked like little walking
pyramids with twelve legs and two arms. What North believed to be three
eyes protruded from the top, but there was no sign of any ears, nose or
mouth. Perhaps their medical records would have some note of their
anatomy.
21 They were hoping the records would give some idea of what had caused
the little peoples' destruction, but there was no hint of any trouble.
Apparently what had ever happened to them had come so quickly that they
were taken completely unaware Some of the bodies were in their bunks,
or what the searchers believed to be their bunks, and others were
scattered about what appeared to be a