Answer Came There None

The title derives from Alice Through the Looking-Glass: “But answer came there none/And this was scarcely odd, because/They’d eaten every one.” Jan and pater are a married-couple Terran searchship crew making their second visit in umpteen years to an unfortunately lon-dead extrasolar planet. They eventually get some half-answers to the question of why long-lived, stable, and technologically advanced civilizations so often come to a hard end. I can detect a strong, if gender-transposed, link between them and J(ames) and P(eggy) White. “Suddenly they were hugging each other, a ridiculous and senseless thing to do considering the thickness of their suits. But it did not matter.”