Jamison declaimed, a throat-mike as Bell his camera and the ship down. It was an broadcast. The roared. With the of air about the ship, they no longer a rumbling. They a which was like the of if one were in the of the thunder-cloud. It was a noise. It was almost a noise. But Jamison talked with professional smoothness.
"This planet," he orated, while pictures from Bell's camera direct to the below, "this is the world other than Earth on which a ship has landed. It is that men have walked on Mars' red iron-oxide and its thin cold air, or for life in the of Venus, that they should look upon a world which them from remoteness. Here we descend, and all can watch our upon a world is green; prove that there is air and water in plenty, very us of its close to Earth!"
He the away from his and with his lips. "Am I still on?" Cochrane nodded. Cochrane what the carried, as this through an Dabney to Lunar City and then to Earth. He spoke close to Jamison's ear.
"Go ahead! If your voice fades, it will be the best possible sign-off. Suspense. Good television!"
Jamison let the throat-mike against his skin. The of the would affect it only as his from the sound. It would register, so.
"I see," said Jamison above the rocket-thunder, "forests of trees like the of Mother Earth. I see rivers, along their beds, taking their[Pg 82] in glaciers. We are still too high to look for creatures, but we swiftly. Now we are level with the of the mountains. Now we their tops. Under us there is a valley, miles wide, long. Here a city be built. Over it a mountain-spur, with green. One would a to be there."
He his at Cochrane. They were well in atmosphere, now, and it had been an defect—condition—necessity of the Dabney that of its plates should be in a vacuum. One was in air now. But Cochrane that which in television production-practice the actors that time to is in of seconds, and he up two fingers. Twenty seconds.
"We gaze, and you with us," said Jamison, "upon a world that will come to know as home—the site of the among the stars!"
Cochrane to time. Ten, nine, eight—.
"We are about to land," Jamison declaimed. "We do not know what we shall find—What's that?" He paused dramatically. "A creature?—A below! We off now—from the stars!"
The had been perfectly timed. Allowing for a three-second for the to the moon, and just about two more for it to be to Earth, his final word, "Stars!" had been at the to allow a four-minute by Intercity Credit, in the United States, by Citroen in Europe, by Fabricanos Unidos in South and Central America, and Near East Oil along the Mediterranean. At the end of that four minutes it would be time for station and a time-signal, and the eight-second other came on the air.
The and thundered. The ship and down. Jamison said:
"I we'd be cut off when we air!"
"That's what Jones thought," Cochrane him. He above the tumult, "Bell! See anything alive below?"
Bell his head. He at the camera out a blister-port, up film-tape for later use. There was the of gravitation, now. Actually, it was the that the ship in its descent.
Cochrane to a port. The ship its descent.[Pg 83]
"Living creature? Where?"
Jamison shrugged. He had used it as a sign-off line. An from the that there was below. He looked somehow out the port at a green ground below. He was a city man. He had what looked like of such extent, with no houses on it. In a easily ten miles long and two wide, there was not a square of or of glass. There was not a man object in view. The sky was and there were clouds, but to Jamison the of rooftops. There ought to be where ended to let light to and below. He had save on recreation-areas, not as landscaping, and not trees other than the which can on the of buildings. To Jamison this was desolation. On the moon, of was understandable. There was no air. But here there should be a city!
The ship a little as the their to the mass. The Mars-ship slowed, and slowed, and hovered—and there was and all about—and then there was a impact. The to burn, their diminished. They again. And yet again. They were to a murmur.
There was a of everything. It was the result of gravity. Earth-value gravity, or very near it. There was a pressure of one's against the floor, and a of to one's which was very different from Lunar City, and more different still from free in emptiness.
Nothing but of be out the ports. They had in a forest, of sorts, and the rocket-blasts had away underneath, to solid soil. In a circle yards about the ship the ground was a of smoking, ash. Beyond that hungrily, more vapor. Beyond that still there was only smoke.
Cochrane's Babs' voice, almost wailing:
"Mr. Cochrane! We must have landed! I want to see!"
Cochrane pressed the hand-mike button.
"Are we still up to Lunar City?" he demanded. "We can't be, but are we?"[Pg 84]
"We are," said Babs' voice mutinously. "The through all right. They want to talk to you. Everybody wants to talk to you!"
"Tell them to call later," Cochrane. "Then the working—however it works!—and come up if you like. Tell the moon you'll be away for ten minutes."
He to out the window. Al, the pilot, in his seat the bank of rocket-controls. The were alight. The ship as it had landed, on its fins. He said to Jones:
"It like we're solid. We won't topple!"
Jones nodded. The rocket-sound cut off. Nothing happened.
"I think we have saved fuel on that landing," said Jones. Then he added, pleased, "Nice! The Dabney field's still on! It has to be started in a vacuum, but it looks like it can air away from itself once it's established. Nice!"
Babs up the stairs. She out of a vision-port. Then she said disappointedly:
"It looks like—"
"It looks like hell," said Cochrane. "Just and steam and stuff. We can hope, though, that we haven't started a fire, but have just off a landing-place."
They out. Presently they to another port and out of that. The was annoying, and yet it have been foreseen. A moon-rocket, landing at its space-port on Earth, the to red-hotness in the of landing. Tender-vehicles had to wait for it to they approach. Here the ship had in woodland. Naturally its had the spot where it came down. And there was about, which fire. So the ship was in the of a phoenix, necessarily in a conflagration. Anywhere it the same thing would apply, unless it landing on a glacier. But then it would settle into a of water, steam, and to be in as soon as its landing-place cooled.
Now there was nothing to do. They had to wait. Once the whole ship very slightly, as if the ground under it. But there was nothing at which to be alarmed.[Pg 85]
They see that this particular was mainly of two of trees which differently. One had a trunk, and it with and much black and gray-black smoke. The other was a growth—a solid, which did not touch ground at all, but was up by which supported it through very many spread. Possibly the part was on the ground and as its air-roots grew.
It was irritating, though, to be unable to see from the ship so long as the fire outside. The of for a long time. In three hours there were no longer any areas, but the still and still rose. In three hours and a half, the local sun to set. There were in the sky, all glorious. Which was logical enough. When Krakatoa, on Earth, itself to in the eighteen hundreds, it sent such of into the air that all around the were for three years afterward. On this planet, were visible. Volcanic dust, then, past description. There was not only gold and in the west. The itself and yellow, and those in the space-ship up at a sky such as none of them have possible.
The colors and changed, from yellow to gold all over the sky, and still the continued. Presently there was a deep, red, past imagining, and presently it, and they up at new constellations-some very indeed—and all about the ship there was a of white with in it, and a thin of white still away the valley.
It was long after when Cochrane got up from the communicator. Communication with Earth was at last. There was a out in space with an all its surface as a Dabney plate. The ship a itself and that plate. The another itself and another a 178.3 light-years from the system. But the of this the nearer and the ship. Jones and that the to exist, but was by the of this newly-arrived-at world.[Pg 86] Come tomorrow, when there was no solid-stone to the passage of radiation, they with Earth again.
But Cochrane was and now discouraged. So long as talk with Earth was possible, he'd at it. There was a great of talking to be done. But a good of it was unsatisfactory.
He Bill Holden having supper with Babs, on the the communicator. Very much of the talk had been over Cochrane's head. He by the of scientists who would not tell him what he wanted to know without previous he not give.
When he over to the dining-table, he that he from and dejection. Babs looked at him solicitously, and then jumped up to him something to eat. Everybody else was again out the ship's at the new, world of which they see next to nothing.
"Bill," said Cochrane fretfully, "I've just been the dressing-down of my life! You're to out of the in the and take a walk. But I've been talking to Earth. I've been the for landing on a without along a bacteriologist, an chemist, an ecologist, an epidemiologist, and a complete laboratory to test with, to take a of air. I'm not to open a port!"
Holden said:
"You as if you'd been talking to a with a reputation. You ought to know than that!"
Cochrane protested:
"I wanted to talk to somebody who more than I did! What I do but a man with a reputation?"
Holden his head.
"We psychiatrists," he observed, "go around under the of at what people try to from themselves. We have a worm's-eye view of humanity. We know than to a difficult problem at a man with an name! They're about their reputations. Like Dabney, they at the idea of them in a mistake. No big name in medicine or would tell you that of it's all right for us to take a walk in the outside."[Pg 87]
"Then who will?" Cochrane.
"We'll make what we can," said Holden comfortingly, "and decide for ourselves. We can take a chance. We're only our lives!"
Babs Cochrane a plate. He put food in his mouth and and swallowed.
"They say we can't to breathe the local air at all until we know its bacteriology; we can't touch anything until we test it as a possible allergen; we can't."
Holden grunted.
"What would those same have told your friend Columbus? On a he'd be sure to plants and animals. He'd of men and he ought to diseases. They'd have him not to it. They wouldn't!"
Cochrane ate with a of angry vigor. Then he snapped:
"If you want to know, we've got to land! We're if we don't go and move around! We'll our story-line. This is the adventure-serial on Earth in to follow! If we on exploration, our audience will be and and they'll take it out on our sponsors!"
Babs said softly, to Holden:
"That's my boss!"
Cochrane at her. He didn't know how to take the comment. He said to Holden:
"Tomorrow we'll try to out some of test and try the air. I'll go out in a space-suit and the face-plate! I can close it again anything in. But there's no use out into a of tonight. I'll have to wait till morning."
Holden at him. Babs him with intent, eyes.
Neither of them said anything more. Cochrane his meal. Then he himself without an occupation. Gravity on this was very nearly the same as on Earth. It like more, of course, all of them had been only to moon-gravity for nearly three weeks. Jones and the pilot had been in one-sixth for a much longer time. And the of had their to by just about the amount that the same time in a hospital would have done. They physically out.
It was a healthy tiredness, though, and their muscles[Pg 88] would come to normal as as one after illness—rather faster, in fact. But tonight there would be no night-life on the space-ship. Johnny Simms disappeared, after of to those of an over-tired small boy. Jamison gave up, and Bell, and Al the pilot asleep while Jones was trying to discuss something with him. Jones himself and and when Al in his he gave up. They retired to their bunks.
There was no point in over the ship. If the of did not it, it was not likely that an up and out its would do much good. There were minor, of the ship from time to time. They would be temblors—to be expected. They were not alarming, certainly, and the was of no great to be anticipated. The trees and tall. There was no worry about the ship. It was perfectly practical, and necessary to turn out the lights and go to sleep.
But Cochrane not relax. He was by the of his muscles. He was by the picture him of the as a group of who'd taken off without star-charts or equipment—without to test the air of they might land on!—and who now were not to make any use of their achievement. Cochrane was not by the itself, though less than eighteen hours since the ship and all its company had been on Luna, and now they were on a new world twice as from Earth as the Pole Star.
It is that Cochrane was not he had a television-producer's point of view. He this entire as a production. He was in the of it across. He looked at it from his own, narrow, professional viewpoint. It did not him that he was by a wilderness. He the the set on which his production belonged, though he was as much a city man as else. He to the control-room. With the ship on its that was the point, and as the out and the it was possible to look out into the night.
He at the dimly-seen trees the burned[Pg 89] area, and at the dark of which out the stars. He them, without it, in view of what they would look like on a television screen. When light objects in the control-room slightly, he paid no attention. His rehearsal-studio had been rickety, home.
Babs to be sleepless, too. There was next to no light where Cochrane was—merely the monitor-lights which that the Dabney still existed, though for use by the of a planet. Babs in the almost-dark room only minutes after Cochrane. He was moving from one port to another, out.
"I I'd tell you," Babs volunteered, "that Doctor Holden put some from the air-purifier in the airlock, and then opened the door."
"Why?" asked Cochrane.
"Algae's Earth plant-life," Babs. "If the air is poisonous, it will be killed by morning. We can close the door of the lock, pump out the air that came from this planet, and then let air in from the ship so we can see what happens."
"Oh," said Cochrane.
"And then I couldn't sleep," said Babs guilelessly. "Do you mind if I here? Everybody else has gone to bed."
"Oh, no," said Cochrane. "Stay if you like."
He out at the dark. Presently he moved to another port. After a moment he pointed.
"There's a in the sky there," he said curtly.
She looked. There was a which the stars. Beyond it there was a glare, as if of some burning. But the color was not right for a fire. Not exactly.
"A city?" asked Babs breathlessly.
"A volcano," Cochrane told her. "I've that to on other planets—funny how we've been of such things, on Earth—but it isn't likely. Not since we've actually the stars."
"Why since then?"
"Because," said Cochrane, ironically, "man was over all things. I don't think we'll for that dominion. I can't we'll another of who be—persons. Heaven[Pg 90] we try to each other of dignity, but I don't think there's another to us when we them!"
After a moment he added:
"Bad that we're here there are and and dog-foods and such that people want to to each other! We wouldn't be here but for them, and for the that some people are and some don't like their and some are in other fashions."
"Some aren't bad," Babs.
"I've a out of them," Cochrane sourly. "But I don't like them. I have a that I better. I know I couldn't, but I'd like to try. In my own small way, I'm trying."
Babs chuckled.
"That's you are a man. Women aren't so foolish. We're realists. We like creation—even men—the way is."
"I don't," Cochrane said irritably. "We've something terrific, and I don't a out of it! My is full of that have to be to tomorrow. I ought to be uplifted. I ought to be gloating! I ought to be happy! But I'm for that this is going to our audience!"
Babs again. Then she to the leading to the below.
"What's the matter?" he demanded.
"After all, I'm going to you alone," said Babs cheerfully. "You're always very not to talk to me in any personal fashion. I think you're I'll tell you something for your own good. If I here, I might. Goodnight!"
She started the stairs. Cochrane said vexedly:
"Hold on! Confound it, I didn't know I was so transparent! I'm sorry, Babs. Look! Tell me something for my own good!"
Babs hesitated, and then said very cheerfully:
"You only see the way a man sees them. This show, this trip—this whole doesn't you you don't see it the way a woman would."
"Such as how? What a woman see that I don't?"
"A woman," said Babs, "sees this as a place that men and will come to live on. To live on! You[Pg 91] don't. You miss all the of people actually here. But they're the a woman sees of all."
Cochrane frowned.
"I'm not so I can't to somebody else. If you've got an idea—"
"Not an idea," said Babs. "Just a reaction. And you can't a to somebody who hasn't had it. Goodnight!"
She the stairs. Some time later, Cochrane the minute of a door on one of the three in the space-ship.
He to his of the night outside. He to make of what Babs had said. He failed altogether. In the end he settled in one of the over-elaborately chairs that had this ship so to investors. He to think out what Babs might have meant. She was, after all, the most he'd had, and he'd been aware of how he would be without her. Now he to what in one's view the of among would involve. He out some points. But it was not a occupation.
He asleep without it, and was by the of voices all about him. It was again, and Johnny Simms was at something he saw outside.
"Get at it, boy!" he enthusiastically. "Grab him! That's the way—"
Cochrane opened his eyes. Johnny Simms out and from a blister-port, his arms. His wife Alicia looked out of the same port without to his approval. Bell had a camera across the control-room and was in the act of it through a particular window.
"What's the matter?" Cochrane.
He out of his chair. And Johnny Simms' abruptly. He nastily, viciously, at something the ship. His wife touched his arm and spoke to him in a low tone. He upon her, foulnesses.
Cochrane was him, and Johnny Simms' of out instantly. He looked and amiable.[Pg 92]
"The stopped," he offhandedly. "It was a good fight. But one of the wouldn't and take his licking."
Alicia said steadily:
"There were some animals there. They looked like bears, only they had ears."
Cochrane looked at Johnny Simms with eyes. It was to be so chivalrous, perhaps, but he was enraged. After an he away and to the port. The burned-over area was now only ashes. At its edge, showed. And now he see trees and on beyond. The trees did not strange, no trees would have familiar. The did not him as exotic, his with plants was restricted to the plants on television sets and the plants on rooftops. He let his on the at all. He for movement. He saw the moving of a dozen unknown as they into as if they had been frightened. He looked and see the of the ship and two of the three take-off on which it rested.
The door was opening out. It wide. It against the hull.
"Holden's making some of test of the air," Cochrane said shortly. "The animals were when the door open. I'll see what he out."
He down. He Babs the door of the airlock. She looked somehow pale. There were two of soup-like on the at her feet. That would be, of course, the from the air-purifying-system tanks.
"The were alive," said Babs. "Dr. Holden in the lock to try the air himself. He said he'd be very careful."
For some Cochrane ashamed. There was a long, a long wait. Then of machinery. The door closing. Small whistlings—compressed air.
The door opened. Bill Holden came out of the lock, his surprised.
"Hello, Jed! I the air. It's all right! At a guess, maybe a little high in oxygen. But it good to breathe! And I can report that the trees are wood[Pg 93] and the green is chlorophyll, and this is an Earth-type planet. That little about is familiar—and I'm taking that as an analysis. I'm going to take a walk."
Cochrane himself Babs' face. She looked relieved, but Cochrane—who was looking for something of the without it—could not read anything but in her expression. She did not, for example, look admiring.
"I'll borrow one of Johnny Simms' guns," said Holden, "and take a look around. It's either perfectly safe or we're all anyhow. Frankly, I think it's safe. It right outside, Jed! It right!"
"I'll come with you," said Cochrane, "Jones and the pilot are necessary if the ship's to to Earth. But we're expendable."
He to the control-room. Johnny Simms to them with arms. He no to them. In twenty minutes or so, Cochrane and Holden into the and the door closed. A light came on automatically, like the light in an electric refrigerator. Cochrane his a little as the came to him. Seconds later the door opened, and they among the of tall trees. Cochrane winced. There was no and the him. But Holden out the sling. He and Cochrane descended, dangling, fifty of unscarred, shining, metal hull.
The ground was still underfoot. Holden off the and moved toward with an haste. Cochrane him.
The were commonplace. Scorched wood. Smokiness. There were noises. Occasional from tree-trunks not consumed. High-pitched, notes. And in and among the there was an in the of the air. Cochrane was to notice it he had in a city on Earth, and had four days in the moon-rocket, and then had the Lunar City air for eighteen days more and had just come from the space-ship air was of the variety.
He did not notice the noise of the again in motion him. He was all and ears and of the environment. He was the more[Pg 94] of a he was so an product. Yet he and Holden were less aware of the about them than men of previous would have been. They did not notice the of sounds, like frogs, from the tree-tops. When they had their way among and came to green and all around, Cochrane a sweet, high-pitched which came from a half-inch in the ground. But he was not by the place from which the came. He was at the itself.
There was a them.
"Mr. Cochrane! Doctor Holden!"
They about. And there was Babs on the ground, just herself from the sling. She had them out, after waiting until they had left the and not protest.
Cochrane to himself. But when Babs joined them breathlessly, after a over the ground, he said only:
"Fancy meeting you here!"
"I—I couldn't it," said Babs in apology. "And you do have guns. It's safe enough—oh, look!"
She at a which was with flowers. Small in the air about it. She approached it and again at the of its scent. Cochrane and Holden joined her in admiration.
In a they were unwary. This was territory. It have anything. Earlier would have approached every with and moved over every with suspicion, creatures, monsters, and and designed to the unprepared. Earlier explorers, of course, would have had from famous men to prepare them for all possible danger.
But this was a snow-clad mountains. The river that ran its length was by glaciers. This was a climate. The trees were either or something similar, and the well but not with the of a region. There were fruits here and there. Later, to be sure, they would prove to be mostly and unpalatable. They were[Pg 95] broad-leafed, low-growing plants which would turn out to be of soft-fleshed which were almost for purposes. There were some plants with and upon them. But they no danger.
By and large, wild animals are only when desperate. No natural setting can be so that being will be they appear. An area in which is is one in which there is so much killing that there is no food-supply left to maintain its predators. On the whole, there is a limit to how any place can be. Dangerous have to be rare, or they will not have to eat, when they will thin out until they are and do have to eat.
So the three moved safely, though their was that of ignorance, trees nearly as tall as the space-ship on end. They saw a small biped, some twelve tall, which in the exact line of their progress and with no of them. They saw a with legs. It from one tree-trunk to another, to on each in turn. Once they came upon a small animal which looked at them with enormous, panic-stricken and then with a on so that they flippers. It into a and vanished.
But they came out to clear space. They look for miles and miles. There was a of which to a swift-running river. The grass—if it was grass—was green, but it had of rose-colored flowers the of each leaf. Nearby it the color of Earth-grass, but it into an old-rose in the distance. The mountain-scarps on either of the were and tall. There was a great out above the lowland, and there was at its top and two thousand sheer. And up the valley, where it narrowed, a out from the and hundreds of in an of purest white, until it was to view tree-tops.
They looked. They stared. Cochrane was a television producer, and Holden was a psychiatrist, and Babs was a[Pg 96] secretary. They did not make scientific observations. The of the their notice. They weren't to that the around mostly to be of feathered, and that and and fragile,—and they did not notice that most of the plants appeared to be deciduous, so that this had seasons. But Holden said:
"Up in Greenland there's a hospital on a like that. People with of sometimes just by looking at something that's so much and more than they are. I'd like to see a hospital up yonder!"
Babs said, shining-eyed:
"A city be in this valley. Not a tall city, with and gardens on the roofs. This be a little city like people used to have. There would be little houses, all separate, and there'd be all around and people flowers if they wanted to, to take inside.... There be families here, and homes—not living-quarters!"
Cochrane said nothing. He was of the others. They saw, and they according to their natures. Cochrane somehow forlorn. Presently he said depressedly:
"We'll go to the ship. You can work out your woman's with Bell, Babs. He'll it, or you can give it to Alicia to put over when we go on the air."
Babs no reply. The of was almost pointed. Cochrane that she wouldn't do it, though he couldn't see why.
They did go to the ship. Cochrane sent Babs and Holden up the sling, first, while he waited below. It was a to there. He was the only being on a the size of Earth or larger, at the of a of metal which was the space-ship's hull. He had a in his hand, and it should him from anything. But he very lonely.
The came for him. He at as it him. He had an of incompetence, though he not detail the reasons. The rope him up, swaying, to the of the[Pg 97] air-lock door. He not elated. He was for humankind's to date. But he had not the that would let him its contemplation.
The ground very as he rose. It was not an earthquake. It was a temblor, such as anyone would to occasionally with six in view. The green all around was proof that it be disregarded.
[Pg 98]
