In this 1977 science fiction short story, a soldier in the army of Cambyses II is wandering an endless desert, lost from his company. Just as he is about to accept death, he sees a glimmer of light in the distance — and when he follows it, he finds himself in a large building full of strange machines he has never seen before, and occupied by one young girl. They cannot communicate; her words are as gibberish to him as his are to her. The girl nurses him back to health, treating hiShow more