Part 2

"You're all right now?" he asked. I grinned and nodded an answer. I saw John as he was at the base, big and competent, sweating in the blazing sun.

I thought about the rest of the crew too. "We're heading right for a star...."

"It's been dead ahead for hours," he grunted. I leaned over and threw the intercom to open. "This is control. Listen ... everyone. I'm over it. Disregard the warning siren ... we were testing the ship."

The lab light blinked on as Paul cut in. "What was it ... hey, you said you're all right."

"John did it. He hit the alarm figuring I would react. Listen, Paul. Is any one hurt?"

"No. Carl is here too. His stomach flopped again but he's okay. What about food. We're supposed to be checked before we eat."

"We'll have to go ahead without it. Any change?"

"No, I put her to bed. Shall I bring food?"

I glanced at John. He rubbed his stomach. "Yes," I answered. "Bring it when you can. I've got to find out where we are."

We had to get off course before we ran into the yellow-white star that had been picked for us. Food was set down by me, grew cold and was carried away and I was still rechecking the figures. We were on a line ten degrees above the galactic plane. The parallactic baseline from Earth to the single star could be in error several degrees, or we could be right on the calculated position of the star. The radar confirmed my findings ... and my worst fears. When we set it for direction and distance, the screen glowed to life and recorded the star dead ahead.

In all the distant star clusters, only this G type star was thought to have a planetary system like our own. We were out on a gamble to find a planet capable of supporting life. The idea had intrigued scientists before I had first looked up at the night sky. When I was sure the electronically recorded course was accurate for time, I checked direction and speed from the readings and plotted our position. If I was right we were much closer than we wanted to be. The bright pips on the screen gave us the distance and size of the star while we fed the figures into the calculator for our rate of approach.

Spectroscopic tests were run on the sun and checked against the figures that had been calculated on Earth. We analyzed temperature, magnetic fields, radial motion, density and luminosity, checking against the standards the scientists had constructed. It was a G type star like our own. It had more density and temperature and suitable planets or not, we had to change course in a hurry. Carl analyzed the findings while we came to a decision. Somewhere along an orbit that might be two hundred miles across, our hypothetical planet circled this star. That distance was selected when the planets in Earth's solar system had proved to be barren. If the observations on this star were correct, we could expect to find a planet in a state of fertility ... if it existed ... if it were suitable for colonization ... if we could find it.

* * * * *

"So far, so good," said Carl as he laid the papers down.

"What's your guess about planets?"

Carl shrugged. "I wouldn't care to even guess that."

"Here's something," Paul shouted and we looked up at the screen.

Another mass was recorded. "It's too close," he commented. "But it's something at least."

"We'll have to head for a probable orbit and follow it," I said.

"The whole thing looks improbable up close," John said.

"I agree," Paul said.

"Consider this. We're thirty days past its probable orbit. That's quite some figuring, roughly a small fraction of one percent. Unbelievably small error considering the distance we've come. I'm willing to stake my life that there will be such a planet."

"One thing," said John, "if this planet should exist we can find it in less than a year by following its probable orbit."

"That's half our answer," Carl said. "We can still look farther out with the radar."

John shook his head ponderously. "I remember when they first tested this drive. To the moon and back in sixty hours, with the ship so hot you could fry eggs on the wall. Now with the bugs taken out we can hit two million miles in an Earth day."

"Remember Ellington talking about the speed of light within the realm of fuels and metals?"

"Yeah. We could meet some of our children's children coming out to meet us."

"Except that married men didn't make this trip," I reminded them.

When we turned and set up an arbitrary course we were within forty million miles of the brilliant sun. Opaque shields went over the portholes to keep out the blinding glare, and we settled down to the routine of resting and watching the instruments. I set up two man watches, partly to keep us from getting in each other's way in the crowded quarters. The ship, with its bulk cut in half by the engines had never been designed for comfort. There was enough room for flight operations, but little privacy. Besides the five small cabins on the upper level there was a series of equipment lockers and the larger navigation and control room.

Below, the gallery and the laboratory were set forward of the air lock. Another small room where waste could be jettisoned out, broke up the pattern of equipment that was braced sideways for landing. Adequate space, if not ample, but Karen presented a problem. Scientist or not, she was a woman who hadn't realized that privacy would be hard to achieve aboard the ship.

We changed our comfortable attire for uniforms from the clothing locker, and tried to ignore Karen's brief costume. At the start of my third watch I met Paul coming out of Karen's room.

"Paul, you and John better get some rest. I'll call you in six hours if nothing comes up."

"Okay sir. I was just looking in on her."

I met his glance, knowing how he had felt about her back at the base.

"I wasn't checking on you. We all feel badly about Dr. Thiesen. Has she made any progress?" I asked.

"No," he said flatly. "Whatever it is, we'll have to wait and hope she gets better. I've tried talking to her." His face was set in hard lines as he spoke. "She doesn't know me. Talks a little about the field at El Paso. Not much sense to it."

"Why did she have to come?" I asked. It had bothered me since I first placed my background. I hadn't known her very well at the base. There had been conferences we attended together, but her clinical attitude and the shapeless white uniform she wore gave her a neutral quality. I had never seen what she was like physically until now. I sat with her and Paul at a night club one night, staring across a table at a tanned goddess in a low cut gown that shimmered in the candlelight. She had spoiled the moment when she laughed and teased me about taking time out for a drink. Later there had been a few dances, brief conversations about people and events. Nothing on a personal basis. I had been in love with her for months but preparations for the trip kept me too busy to do anything about it. Now she was here.

"You asked me that several times," Paul said. "She's a trained technician. Isn't that enough?"

"You knew her better than anyone at the base, didn't you?"

"Better than most guys. There were always plenty of guys who asked her out. I knew she could only see one guy. That's all we ever talked about."

"I'm sorry I mentioned it."

"Forget it. He didn't give her a tumble."

"Real brainy guy, I'll bet."

Paul changed the subject. "Anything of interest yet. We didn't pick up a thing."

"Carl is checking again. If we don't hit it we'll have to go farther out," I said.

"It may be out there, but the chances get down to infinitesimal percents," he said wearily.

"You said it was possible."

"Anything is possible. Find a mass that has cooled sufficiently to provide the right temperature for the accomplishment of chemical processes, maybe you'll find a system capable of supporting life."

"We may not find it, but I had to see what was this close."

Paul smiled briefly. "Whither thou goest ... I can't get sympathetic about an overcrowded condition on Earth. Hell, birth control could have helped the balance of nature, but this--this is worth looking for."

III

I drifted in to talk with Karen. She turned her head to look at me.

"How do you feel?" I asked briskly.

She had control of her emotions, after the first shock had worn off.

"I feel better ... thank you." Lines of concentration were in her lovely face.

"Would you like some water?"

"Paul brought me some."

"Do you know Paul?"

She shook her head, "No. I know your names. What did you think about when you woke up?"

"Not much of anything. I could remember a little. That's what made it so hard to take."

"I remember a part of it, I think," she said hopefully.

"You just rest. You'll be fine in no time."

She looked at me until I turned away in confusion. "Did we know each other before?"

"Yes."

"What does that mean when you say it like that?"

"I didn't know you very well. You were busy most of the time, or just not around. It means I would have liked to know you better if it had been possible."

"What do I look like?" she asked.

I could see her sitting across a small table, looking at me over graceful hands that held a wine glass.

"Don't you know?"

She shook her golden curls. "I never thought about it until now."

I found a thick, stainless metal tray in the galley and brought it to her. She looked at her reflection. She held it to her breast with hands folded over it and closed her troubled eyes.

* * * * *

We recorded the presence of an unknown mass ten days later. It was on the orbit we had intercepted. The electronic radar screen gave us the first indication, transmitting its speed and size into figures that were fed into the calculator. We set the ship on automatic control, tracking the body by instrument. For the next two weeks we were in a constantly shortening trajectory.

Our course was navigated by the slower moving stars beyond the planet as the sleek ship carried us closer, day by day. The discovery of the planet had snapped Karen out of the lethargic condition she had come to know as her existence.

Carl worked with her in the lab while we installed the deceleration cots in the navigation room. The padded chair in the control room was positioned so I could check our rate of fall in the radar when we came in tail first. The last two days sleep was forgotten as we spent our time in front of the screen, watching the image grow larger and larger, processing the constant readings into the automatic equipment that gave us specifications on our new world.

It was slightly larger than Earth, with a mass six times heavier than water. On the last day we began to perceive the variations in the surface. It was mostly covered with water, with a large land mass cutting diagonally from the tipped polar cap to the high south latitudes. Other lands masses were revealed as the planet revolved in thirty earth hours.

"Look at this," Carl said.

He thrust a rough map towards us. "Here's the distribution of land and water. It's probably in a stage like the Cenozoic era. These mountains are rugged, not worn down by wind or weather. Here, this looks like glacial activity down into the temperate zone."

We studied the penciled map he had drawn. There was no resemblance to Earth, but when the spectrograph analysis showed vegetation we began to think of it as home.

How shall I describe what we felt when the ship thudded on solid ground? My ears were still pounding with the echo of the roaring jets, as I lay on my back in the chair and watched the radar pip off point zero. Gravity was a new sensation, pulling me back and making my head ache as blood rushed to it. The engines had cut out, yet I still felt the vibration going through it. It was daylight on the planet and golden brightness poured into the ship.

There was an air of dulled emotion in the others as if they could absorb only so much newness and no more. I felt it too as I climbed down to them. We crowded around the porthole talking excitedly.

"What do you make of it," John asked.

I stood by Karen, looking out in silence. We were three hundred and fifty feet in the air. Below I could see the fin of the tail. Out from that a carpet of vegetation sloped up to a jungle-like forest of leafy trees. Everything was blue in color as far as I could see.

"I'd like to walk around down there," Carl said.

"Anything moving?" Paul asked.

"Not that I can see. A few clouds, sort of low over those peaks."

I had the eerie sensation that it looked familiar. All but the color.

"It looks like an unexplored jungle," Karen said.

"I wonder what's out there," Paul said. Far away to the left of the ship, a series of raw mountains thrust up like hackles into the thick clouds. "We may as well run some tests now. Maybe we can go outside while it's still light," Carl suggested.

"Or maybe we won't go out at all," I remarked. The valley where the ship had landed looked too peaceful.

* * * * *

We climbed down the wall ladder to the laboratory. Captive air filled a pressure tank while I watched them set up the testing equipment. We had picked a region near water in the temperate belt of the planet, and the temperature recorded seventy degrees with the sun overhead as Carl started to analyze the gas structure of the atmosphere.

"What are you doing?" Karen asked. She had found a skirt to wear. Her blonde hair was long, tied back with a ribbon. I would have felt more at ease if she hadn't groomed herself while we went ahead to the lab.

"Testing the air, Doctor," Carl grunted.

She thrust her hands into the pockets of the skirt, standing with her feet wide spread, man fashion.

"Are we going outside?" she asked.

"We're not going to a picnic," I blurted sharply, thinking about the equipment we would have to lower from the ship. I was sorry I had spoken forgetting for an instant the rough time she was having. She stepped back at the loudness of my voice, crimson spreading to her cheeks. She bit her lip, blurting, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. We're all getting jumpy I guess," I said.

Paul stepped to her and put his arm around her shoulders in assurance. "We will know in a few minutes."

"I just wanted to walk in the sunshine," she said. "It was always so hot at El Paso. The heat used to make the mountains shimmer."

Paul straightened up. "Do you remember the base?"

She nodded, "Yes. I used to work in a white building. We had a radio in lab but it never played when they tested the engines."

"Do you remember the little bar?"

"I think so ... where I danced and a funny man made faces when he played the piano," she mused. Paul shook his head at us. We had stopped watching the colors change in the tubes. I could picture the squat concrete buildings that sat on a checkerboard of dusty roads.

"Karen, try to think. Do you recall when we went to the ship. It rained for the first time in months that night. We drove in the rain."

"I was afraid of the ship," she said.

I remembered the lights of the truck, dim in the glare of the flood lights that criss-crossed through the driving rain. I hadn't known who the new replacement would be as they climbed out of the car and ran to the shelter. I thought she had come to say good-bye to Paul, using her father's influence to break regulations. Someone had thrust a watch in my face and I went out to the ship without talking to her.

Seventeen minutes before blast off I had gone to the small cabin where I would spend the next century. Karen was there checking the master control.

"You aren't going along," I had shouted in fear. The area was being cleared and I knew she was the replacement.

"You cannot change the orders, Captain Corbin."

She had been right. We were sealed in and the official voice on the radio cut me short, repeating the order only once. We would leave on schedule.

"Why?" I had shouted. "You're young and beautiful. You're risking your life in this."

"I have my reasons, as I'm sure you do."

"You cannot come because of Paul."

"It isn't because of Paul," she answered coolly. I was still trying to get the officials to change it when the ten minute warning sounded. Then it was too late. I was still wondering why when we switched to automatic drive, far out in space. Then it was time to press the button that operated the suspension. The others were all ready in a dreamless sleep as I watched my arm fall back. The room grew dim. The last thing I remembered was counting the dials on the panel, saying her name over and over.

"I was afraid of the ships," Karen said to Paul. "I don't know why I came."

John nudged my arm. "We can go out, Dave. It's all right."

This was better to think about. It was easier to follow routine, giving orders about equipment and planning.

"We go out in twos. John, you and I first. We'll stay by the ship and move fast if we spot anything. Paul, you and Carl exit in ten minutes on signal."

"What about Karen," Paul asked.

"Dr. Thiesen stays in the ship," I answered. "John, break out the ammunition. We'll lower the scout car if everything looks all right."

"I'm going too," Karen cried. She doubled her small hands into fists.

"You stay here. That's an order. I'm responsible for the safety of this ship. We don't know what's out there."

"Responsible to whom?" she said angrily.

"Every man on this ship."

"You just ordered them to go out."

"Look, they have work to do."

"I won't stay here alone."

"I can lock you in a storeroom if I have to."

Karen turned away blindly and started to cry. The room was suddenly filled with tension.

"Karen, stop that crying," I said.

"I'm not," she said, but she couldn't stop the flood of hysteria that shook her. I turned her around and slapped her face.

"I'm sorry I had to do that," I said humbly. Her wide eyes didn't believe me.

"Aren't you taking your job rather big," Paul said tensely.

"I didn't enjoy doing that, Paul. I think you know that."

"Karen is part of this crew. Why single her out for rough treatment?"

John rubbed his hands together and moved to my side. "Dave knows what he's doing," he said gruffly.

"Forget it, John. Don't make me pull rank, Paul. You may be out of military jurisdiction but I'm still in charge of this mission. If I thought you were responsible for bringing her...."

"Don't threaten me, Captain," he said. They were all specialists in their respective fields, enjoying a loose immunity from the routine of the base. Here they were even more independent and my job was to get them here, nothing more.

"Don't argue because of me," Karen said abruptly. "Go out and claim your blue world in the name of science."

"Thank you," I said. "We'll be back for you."

* * * * *

John's bulk was a comforting presence. We stood on the rim of the scorched circle of thick vegetation watching the unbroken monotony of the bluish growth. Nothing moved except the bushes as the wind skipped across the flowery tops of the plants.

"I've never seen anything like this," John said.

"I don't think there is anything like this," I breathed. It was hard to believe the color and delicate structure of the landscape was not a setting, painted with bright blues and greens, daubed with light and darks of all colors where clusters of flowering plants shone in the sunlight.

"It's good, very good," he said.

"Yes. I think fairy tales were written for a view like this. It's a pity we won't get back to tell about it."

John frowned and rested the rifle on the ground. "She was better in the ship. You heard her talk about the base."

"But she doesn't remember what we need. I'm afraid it's useless," I said glumly.

He scuffed up scorched earth with his foot. "Then why are we going ahead with all these plans?"

"To keep from thinking about the other, I guess. I know what you've all been thinking. So have I. I even thought we might stay here and hope someone else would try in our lifetime. That's out. There are four men and one girl."

"Then what will you do?"

"I don't know yet, John. I haven't thought about it because it isn't good."

"There's nothing moving yet, sir," John said. "You remembered when you had to. We can wait until she thinks of how to operate the suspension."

"The longer we wait the more chance of another kind of trouble."

"Karen?"

"Yes. Or you or me, Paul or Carl. Anyone of us can start trouble."

"Sure. It's tough having her around all right," he said. "I always thought she was a cool number, all study and no play. It's different when you can't help seeing that kind of beauty."

I moved around the area restlessly, not watching the landscape as much as I had. "You in love with her, John?"

"I suppose I am. Not in the way you are," he said. He was studying the black ground intently, not looking up at me.

"How do you know?"

"I knew back at the base. You showed it in your eyes every time she was around."

"Everybody looked when she came into a room," I said.

"That isn't the same either." He stood up, grinning at me. "This climate is bad for us. It's got us talking like school children."

I signaled the others and we went back in to get equipment. The power-crane swung the tank-like scout car down, and we spent busy minutes loading it with the testing facilities we would take with us. I didn't share Paul's enthusiasm as he fidgeted to get started. The sun was down near the top of the mountain range when we roared up the valley for our first look past the forest.

We rode for several miles up a winding valley, heading for higher ground. We kept looking back at the silver ship until it slipped out of our view. Carl sang an old Viking ballad as the tracks of the car dwindled out behind us. The blue was changing into deep purple hues in the shadow of the mountains, an incredible, breathtaking shade of color that made me feel like singing too. We stopped on a high rise of ground and got out. Paul and Carl worked in a circle, setting the portable equipment down, taking samples of the plants and soil. John and I sat on the top of the armored car, watching the alien landscape for movement.

IV

The high powered rifle in my hands felt out of place in the peaceful looking land, but we kept watching back to back, while the two men worked and talked quietly. John spotted our visitors first. We turned at his shout, looking in the direction of his outthrust arm. Five or six small creatures bounded through the vegetation that grew to our knees. They came towards us in bouncing leaps, and we were so quiet in frozen motion, we could hear the swishing as they approached. John still held his rifle in his lap. When he raised it, I whispered.

"Don't kill anything." We were intruders here. I thought about unseen Gods watching this scene unfold. The creatures were about a hundred feet away when they saw us. They stopped, as if by command, vanishing into the thick grass. Nothing moved for a minute. Carl still held a spade in his hand, bent over in the act of digging. Paul was kneeling, holding a thick plant in gloved hands. Then we saw the creatures again, bounding closer. They were bigger than rabbits, fat and furry in appearance with large round eyes. As they came over the tops of the grass, I followed the first in the sights of the rifle until it was close enough to distinguish the brown fur and short legs. The others, there were six in all, hopped cautiously behind the leader and stopped in a comical straight line.

Carl straightened his back and they were gone. I stood up on the hood and watched them reappear.

"Here they are," I said quietly, pointing in front of the car. The creatures were twenty feet away, watching us with eyes that never blinked.

"Hey," shouted Paul to relieve the tension. They stood their ground.

"What's the idea of you six fat clowns scaring us?"

"I forgot to breathe," Carl said, sucking air into his lungs.

"They got us outnumbered but they look harmless," John chuckled.