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.The first thing we look for is a big, diamondshapedcontinent.there's only one of that shape.there it is, over there.Notice that oneend is biggerthan the other-that end is north.Strike a line to split the continent in twoand measurefrom the north end one-third of the length of the line.That's the point we'rediving at now.see that crater?""Yes." The Virgin Queen, although still hundreds of miles up, was slowingrapidly."It must be a big one.""It's a good fifty miles across.Go down until you're dead sure that thebox willland somewhere inside the rim of that crater.Then dump it.The parachute andthesender are automatic.Understand?""Yes, sir; I understand," and Samms took off.He was vastly more interested in the stars, however, than in deliveringthebroadleaf.The constellation directly beyond Sol from wherever he was might berecognizable.Its shape would be smaller and more or less distorted; itssmallerstars, brilliant to Earthly eyes only because of their nearness would bedimmer,perhaps invisible; the picture would be further confused by intervening,nearby, brilliantstrangers; but such giants as Canopus and Rigel and Betelgeuse and Deneb wouldcertainly be highly visible if he could only recognize them.From Trenco hissearch hadfailed; but he was still trying.There was something vaguely familiar! Sweating with the mental effort, heblocked out the too-near, too-bright stars and studied intensively those thatwere left.Ablue-white and a red were most prominent.Rigel and Betelgeuse? Could thatconstellation be Orion? The Belt was very faint but it was there.Then Siriusought to beabout there, and Pollux about there; and, at this distance, about equallybright.Theywere.Aldebaran would be orange, and about one magnitude brighter than Pollux;andPage 102 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlCapella would be yellow, and half a magnitude brighter still.There they were!Not tooclose to where they should be, but close enough -it was Orion! And thisthionite way-station, then, was somewhere near right ascension seventeen hours anddeclination plusten degrees!He returned to the Virgin Queen.She blasted off.Samms asked very fewquestions and Willoughby volunteered very little information; nevertheless theFirstLensman learned more than anyone of his fellow pirates would have believedpossible.Aloof, taciturn, disinterested to a degree, he seemed to spend practically allof his time inhis cabin when he was not actually at work; but he kept his eyes and his earswide open.And Virgil Samms, as has been intimated, had a brain.The Virgin Queen made a quick flit from Cavenda to Vegia, arrivingexactly ontime; a proud, clean space-ship as high above suspicion as Calpurnia herself.Sammsunloaded her cargo; replaced it with one for Earth.She was serviced.She madea fast,eventless run to Tellus.She docked at New York Spaceport.Virgil Samms walkedunconcernedly into an ordinary-looking rest-room; George Olmstead, fullyinformed,walked unconcernedly out.As soon as he could, Samms Lensed Northrop and Jack Kinnison."We lined up a thousand and one signals, sir," Northrop reported for thepair, "butonly one of them carried a message, and it didn't make sense.""Why not?" Samms asked, sharply."With a Lens, any kind of a message,however garbled, coded, or interrupted, makes sense.""Oh, we understood what it said," Jack came in, "but it didn't sayenough.Just`READY-READY-READY'; over and over.""What!" Samms exclaimed, and the boys could feel his mind work."Did thatsignal, by any chance, originate anywhere near seventeen hours and plus tendegrees?""Very near.Why? How did you know?""Then it does make sense!" Samms exclaimed, and called a generalconference ofLensmen."Keep working along these same lines," Samms directed, finally."Keep RayOlmstead in the Hill in my place.I am going to Pluto, and-I hope-to PalainSeven."Roderick Kinnison of course protested; but, equally of course, hisprotests wereover-ruled.CHAPTER 10PLUTO is, on the average, about forty times as far away from the sun as isMotherEarth.Each square yard of Earth's surface receives about sixteen hundredtimes asmuch beat as does each of Pluto's.The sun as seen from Pluto is a dim, wanspeck.Even at perihelion, an event which occurs only once in two hundred forty eightTellurianPage 103 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlyears, and at noon and on the equator, Pluto is so bitterly cold that climaticconditionsupon its surface simply cannot be described by or to warm-blooded,oxygen-breathingman.As good an indication as any can be given, perhaps, by mentioning thefact that ithad taken the Patrol's best engineers over six months to perfect the armorwhich VirgilSamms then wore.For no ordinary space-suit would do.Space itself is notcold; the onlyloss of heat is by radiation into or through an almost perfect vacuum.Incontact withPluto's rocky, metallic soil, however, there would be conduction; and themagnitude ofthe inevitable heat-loss made the Tellurian scientists gasp."Watch your feet, Virge!" had been Roderick Kinnison'sinsistent last thought."Remember those psychologists-if they stayed incontactwith that ground for five minutes they froze their feet to the ankles.Notthat the boysaren't good, but slipsticks sometimes slip in more ways than one.If your feetever startto get cold, drop whatever you're doing and drive back here at max!"Virgil Samms landed.His feet stayed warm.Finally, assured that theheaters ofhis suit could carry the load indefinitely, he made his way on foot into thesettlement nearwhich he had come to ground.And there he saw his first Palainian.Or, strictly speaking, he saw part of his first Palainian; for nothree-dimensionalcreature has ever seen or ever will see in entirety any member of any of thefrigid-blooded, poison-breathing races.Since life as we know it-organic,three-dimensional life-is based upon liquid water and gaseous oxygen, such life did not and could notdevelopupon planets whose temperatures are only a few degrees above absolute zero.Many,perhaps most, of these ultra-frigid planets have an atmosphere of sorts; somehave noatmosphere at all.Nevertheless, with or without atmosphere and completelywithoutoxygen and water; life-highly intelligent life--did develop upon millions andmillions of suchworlds.That life is not, however, strictly three-dimensional
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Tematy
IndexHieber Leanna Renee Percy Parker 02 Walka œwiatła i mroku o Percy Parker
Swann S. A. Wilczy miot 02 Wilczy Amulet
Benzoni Juliette Fiora 02 Fiora i zuchwały
Kaplan Andrew Skorpion 02 Zima Skorpiona
Anne Stuart Czarny lód 02 Zimny jak lód
Gauze Jan Brazylia 02 Brazylia mierzona krokami
Bidwell George Michał i Pat 02 Synowie Pat
Stuart Anne Czarny lód 02 Zimny jak lód
Cremer Andrea Cień nocy 02 Blask nocy(1)
Munro Alice MiłoÂść dobrej kobiety