"It's a planet," I said. "A little world."
"How little?" Venza demanded.
"One-fifth the of the Moon. That's what they've calculated now."
"And how is it away?" Anita asked. "I a say yesterday...."
"Newscasters!" Venza in scornfully. "Say, you can take what they tell you about any or trouble and cut it in half; and then you'll be on the side. See here, Gregg Haljan."
"I'm not you newscasters' blare," I retorted. Venza's was always refreshing. The Venus girl at me. I added: "Anita mentioned newscasters; I didn't."
Anita was in no mood for smiling. "Tell us, Gregg." She sat and tense, her in her hands. "Tell us."
"For a fact, they don't know much about it yet. You can call it a planet, a wanderer."
"I should say it was a wanderer!" Venza exclaimed. "Coming from where the stars, in here like a comet."
"They calculated its yesterday at some sixty-five miles from Earth," I said. "It isn't so the of Mars, and very nearly for the Sun. But it's not a comet."
The thing was inexplicable; for many now, had been studying it. This was early of[6] the year 2070 A.D. All of us had returned from those events I have already recounted, when we came close to Johnny Grantline's on the Moon, and our as well. My ship, the Planetara, in the when the Earth, Mars, and Venus were traveling of each other, had and from Greater New York to Ferrok-Shahn, of the Martian Union, and to Grebhar, of the Venus Free State. Now it was on the Moon.[1]
[1]See "Brigands of the Moon", Ace Book, D-324
I had been under officer of the Planetara. Upon her, I had met Anita Prince, only relative, her brother, was among those killed in the with the brigands; Anita and I were soon to marry, we hoped.
I was waiting now in Greater New York upon the of the Line officials another spaceship. Perhaps I would have of it, since Captain Carter of the Planetara had been killed.
It was a month or so that adventure, April, 2070, that this visitor from space appeared upon our horizon. A little thing, at first, a dot, a on a photo-electric star which should not have been there. It no at the time, save that some it might be another Pluto; but this was not taken to into the newscasts. None of us had about it as late as May, when the Planetara set out on what was to be her final voyage.
Presently, it was that the object not be a of our system; Coming in at speed, it daily its aspect, until soon it was not a dot, but a on every diagram-plate.
In a week or so the thing passed from an to an item of public news. And now, early in June, when it had cut through the of Jupiter and was that of Mars, was growing. The visitor was a menace. No come among us, with a as great as a of the Moon, without trouble.
The newscasters, with a skill for possibilities, were of all of events impending.
[7]
I told the girls all I of the wanderer. The was to that of Earth. The and the calculated of its now were such that a more the new would our Sun and again. It would pass a miles of us, a to Earth's orbit, a of the of our axis, our and our climate.
"So I've heard," Venza me. "They say that, and then they stop. Why can't a tell you what is so mysterious?"
"For a very good reason, Venza: you can't people into a panic. This whole thing, up to today, has been from the public of Earth and Venus. The Martian Union to it, but not. Every the worlds is censored."
"And still," said Venza sarcastically, "you don't tell us what is so about this wanderer."
"For one thing," I said, "it its direction. No normal that. They calculated the of its last April. They've done it twenty times since, and every time the is different. Just a little at first, but last week the thing actually took a turn, as though it were a spaceship."
The girls at me. "What that mean?" Anita asked.
"They're to make wild but we won't go into that."
"What else is mysterious?" Venza demanded.
"The thing isn't visible."
Venza her silk-sheathed legs. "Don't talk in code!"
"Not visible," I repeated. "A world one-fifth as large as the Moon be by our 'scopes when well Pluto. It's now Jupiter and Mars, to the eye, of course, but still it's not very away. I've been out there myself. With instruments, we ought to be able to see its surface; see it has land and water, perhaps. You should be able to an object on its surface as large as a city, but you can't."
"Why not?" asked Anita. "Are the clouds too thick? What it?"
"They don't know that," I retorted. "There is some[8]thing about the light-waves from it. Not blurred, but a distortion, a fading. It's some of the light-waves."
A on our door-grid me, and Snap Dean in.
"Hola-lo, everybody! Is it a conference? You look so solemn."
He across the room, Venza, that he was about to Anita, and at me. He was a little fellow, small, wiry, red-headed and freckle-faced, and had been the radio-helio of the ill-fated Planetara. He was a perfect match for Venza, for all the millions of miles that their native lands. Venza, too was small and slim, her manner as as his.
"And where have you been?" Venza demanded.
"Me? My private life is my own, so far. We're not married yet, since you on us going to Grebhar for the ceremony."
"Do stop it," Anita. "We've been talking of...."
"I know very well what you've been talking about. Everybody is. I've got news for you, Gregg." He and his voice. "Halsey wants to see us, right away."
I him and my mind back. No more than a ago Detective-Colonel Halsey of Divisional Headquarters here in Greater New York had sent for us, and we had been into the Grantline affair. "Halsey!" I out.
"Easy, Gregg." Snap a look around Anita's apartment. An open window was us, leading to a balcony. It was now, and two hundred above the viaduct.
But Snap to frown. "Easy, I tell you. Why about Halsey? The air can have ears."
Venza moved and closed and sealed the window.
"What is it?" I asked, more softly.
But Snap was not satisfied. "Anita, do you have a complete for this room?"
"Of I haven't, Snap."
"Well, Gregg do you have a with you?"
I had none. Snap produced his little and dial. "It's out of order, but let's see now. Shove over that chair, Gregg."[9]
He one of the room's tube-lights and with the cathode. It was a method, but as he to the floor, a little length of his wire for an pick-up, we saw that the thing worked. The on the dial-face was swaying.
"Gregg!" he muttered. "Look at that. Didn't I tell you?"
The in positive reaction. An was upon us.
Anita gasped, "I had no idea!"
"No, but I did." Snap added softly. "No one very close."
He and I the to the length of the hall. The nearer normal. "It must be the other way," I whispered.
We to the balcony. "Way there on the arcade," I said.
"We'll soon that," Snap said.
Inside the room, we with a newscaster's voice. Under of it we talk. Snap us close around him.
"Halsey has something important, and it's about this invader. It all connects. His office me on a public mirror. I to see it at Park-Circle 40. When I answered it, Halsey's man wanted me to talk in code. I can't talk in code; I have to worry about with the helios. Then they sent me to an official booth, where I got for positive legal identification, and then they put me on the official split-wave length. After all of which I was told to be at Halsey's office tonight at midnight, and told a other things."
"What?" Venza breathlessly.
"Only hints. Why take chances, by them now?"
"You said he wants me, too?" I put in.
"Yes. You and Venza. We've got to into his office secretly, by the cylinders. We're to meet a man from his office at the Eighth Postal switch-station."
"Venza?" Anita said sharply. "What in the can he want with Venza? If she's going, I'm going too!"
Snap at her and grinned. "That like a logical deduction. Naturally he must want you; that's why he said Venza."
"I'm going," Anita insisted.[10]
We left an hour midnight. The girls were in gray, with long capes. We took the public into the mid-Manhattan under the city of the district, and into the Eighth Postal switch-station where the came out of the to be re-routed and again.
A man was on the for us. "Daniel Dean and party?"
"Yes. We were ordered here."
The at the girls and at me. "It was three, Dean."
"And now it's four," said Snap cheerfully. "The one is Miss Anita Prince. Ever of her?"
He had indeed. "All right," he said. "If you and Haljan say so."
We were put into one of the and through the like of recorded letters; in ten minutes, with a that the out of all of us, we were in the switch-rack of Halsey's office.
We from the cylinder. Our us one of the metal corridors. It with our tread.
A door lifted.
"Daniel Dean and party."
The aside. "Come in."
The door us. We into the small blue-lit apartment, steel-lined like a vault.
