13. Lunar Landing

(by Lester del Rey) I

Grey’s body was covered with a cold sweat that trickled down from his armpits and collected in little round drops over his body, and he stirred in his bag, crying faintly. The sound of his own voice must have wakened him, for he came out of his dream of falling endlessly, to a growing consciousness. The falling sensation still persisted, and he made an unconscious frantic gesture toward something to stay his fall; then his hands met the loose webbing of the bag, and he grimaced.

Even without the feel of the webbing, the reaction of his motions should have told him where he was, as his body shot back against the opposite surface of the sack; this was space, where gravity had been left far behind, except for the faint fingers of it that were now creeping up from the Moon and pulling him slowly back to the top of the bag. For a few seconds he lay there, grinning slightly at the thought of the stories he’d read in which lack of gravity had set the heart to pounding wildly, or the stomach to retching. Space wasn’t like that, he knew now, and should have known before. It was simply like the first few moments of free fall, before the parachute opened;* sort of a peaceful feeling, once you realized fully there was no danger to it. And the heart was freed from some of the effort needed, and adjusted to a calm, easy pumping, while the stomach took it all in stride. It hadn’t been absence of gravity, but the shifting of it that made seasickness.

Of course, his ears felt oddthere had been a dizziness that increased slowly as the liquids inside were freed from the downward pull, but the hours in the acclimating chamber had done their work, and it soon passed. Mostly it was a matter of mental adjustment that overcame the old feeling that somewhere had to be down,

and recognized that all six walls were the same. After that, space was an entirely pleasant sort of thing.

With loose easiness of motion necessary here, he reached up and unfastened the zipper above him, then wriggled out of his sleeping sack and pulled himself down to the floor by means of the ropes that were laced along the walls for handholds. The room was small and cramped, heavy with the smell of the human bodies that hung now in other sacks along the sides, and loud with the snores of Wolff and the hiss of the air-conditioning machines.

“Is that you, Grey?” One of the bags opened, and Alice Benson stuck her head out, smiling calmly at him.

Somehow, looking at her, he could never feel the impatience he should; she was too old and fragile to be making such a trip, especially since there seemed neither rhyme nor reason to her presence, and yet the utter normality of her conduct under the conditions was strangely soothing. In the cramped, stinking little cabin of the Lunar Moth, she was still possessed of a mellowed gentility of bearing that concealed the air of urgency he’d sometimes suspected.

“Yes, ma’am.” Unconsciously, the few manners he’d learned leaped to the surface around her. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

She shook her head slowly, the faintest of grimaces showing in the corners of her mouth. “I couldn’t, lad. I’ve been living too many years with something under me to adjust as well as you youngsters do. But it has its compensations; I’ve never rested so well, whether I sleep or not. Would you like some coffee?”

He nodded, pulling himself carefully along the ropes that made handholds while she removed a thermos bottle from a locker and replaced the cork with another that had two straws inserted through it. Above her, Wolff went on snoring in a particularly horrible gargling manner, and she glanced up distastefully at his sack but made no mention of it. Grey took the coffee gratefully, drinking slowly through one straw; cups would have been worse than useless here, since liquids refused to pour, but chose to coalesce into rounded blobs, held in shape by surface tension.

“Ralston’s already gone out to the engines,” she answered his glance at the empty sack. “And June’s still in the cockpit. The rest are asleep; I put a sedative in their broth, so they wouldn’t be awakened during the landing. I’ll take a mild one myself after you start reversing, so you needn’t worry about us here.”

Grey finished the coffee and handed the bottle back to her, smiling his thanks, then turned down the narrow little shaft that led to the control pit. A pull on the ropes sent him skimming down the shaft,

guided by a hand on the walls, before he checked his momentum at the bottom and squeezed open the little door. Inside, he could see June Correy hunched over the observation window, staring down through the small telescope, making notes in a little book, but he slid in silently without disturbing her and settled himself into the padded control seat, pulling out a cigarette.

She glanced up nervously as the first odor of the smoke reached her, and for a brief moment there was more than mere contempt in her eyes. They were nice eyes, too, or could have been if she’d wanted them to be; he’d seen warmth and courage in them when the grading takeoff had unsettled the others. But for him, there was only a look that reminded him pointedly of his eighty pounds and four-feet-ten height. He grinned at her, raking over her own slender five feet and up to the hair with a hint of auburn in it, mentally conceding her beauty while knowing that she was aware of it, and chose to make the fullest use of it to gain her ends. The fact that he was outwardly immune to her charms added nothing to her liking for him.

Now she turned back with a shrug to the observation window, carefully not noticing the smoke that drifted toward her, though the corners of her nose twitched faintly. She’d been used to a full pack a day, and the five rationed out to them here had probably been smoked within as many hours.

“Smoke, Carrots?”

“I don’t chisel, Pipsqueak!” But her eyes turned involuntarily toward the white cylinder he held out.

He tossed it to her. “Landing rations, special to the head pilot. I got a whole pack bonus for the landing, to steady my nerves, if I had any. Technically, you don’t rate, but my chivalry won’t stand a suffering female. Take it and stop whining.”

“Chivalry!” She grunted eloquently, but the cigarette was already glowing, and she settled back, some of the hostility gone from her eyes. “You never found the meaning of the word.”

“Maybe not. I never had anything to do with women under sixty before, so I wouldn’t know… . ‘S the truth, don’t bug your eyes at me. As long as I can remember, at least, I’ve been poison to girls, which suits me all right… . Nervous?”

“A little.” She stared down again through the scope. “The Earth doesn’t look so friendly down there from this distance. And I can’t help remembering that Swanson must have cracked up. Wonder if he’s still alive?”

Grey shook his head. This was both an exploring expedition and a rescue party for Swanson and his two men, if any jemained alive;

but they’d set off the double magnesium-oxygen flare indicating a crack-up almost eighty days before, and their provisions had been good for a month only. “If none of their supplies were injured, perhaps. You can go through a lot of hell if you have to; probably depends on how much faith they had in a rescue whether or not they tried to make out till we reached them. … I’m going to reverse now. Staying here?”

She nodded, and he reached for the tinny little phone that connected him to the engine hold. “Ralston? Get set, because time’s due for a turn. Gyros ready? And power? Okay, strap in.” He was already fastening himself down with webbing straps, while Correy came over beside him and began doing likewise. A final glance at the chronometer, and he reached out for the gyro clutches, throwing them in.

Slowly, the Moth heeled, dipping her tail reluctantly, and through the small observation window before him, sighted out along the side of the great rocket tubes, the small ball that was Earth slithered away and out of sight. The seconds ticked by slowly as the tiny gyros reacted, one thousand turns or more to make one half turn for the Moth, since they were in a ratio of a pound per ton of ship. In space, there was no need for any sudden maneuvering, but the saving of weight was immensely important, even with atomic fuel supplying the energy that activated the tube. Then the rough face of Luna began to peek in at the edge of the window, and Grey snapped off all lights in the cockpit, sighting through the now glaring screen of the telescope. He reached for the gyro controls again, edging the great ship slowly about until the mark he had selected was squarely in the crosshairs of the screen. Satisfied, he cut out the clutches.

“Nice work, Half-Pint!” She said it with a grudging tone, but he knew it was justified, and accepted the words at face value. “For delicate work, you’re not bad!”

“Mn>hm. Suppose you get on the radio there and call Earth; once I cut in the blast, you won’t have a chance, with the field out there fighting your signal. Know what you want to say?”

“After working for the news syndicate five long years? Don’t be silly. How long can I take?” “Ten minutes about.”

“Mmm. Got any messages to send yourself? Friends, relatives? I’ll bug out a few words for you if you likesquare the cigarette.” She was already pushing the key of the bug back and forth, throwing full power through the bank of tubes and out across space on the ultra-short waves that would cut down through the Heaviside on a reasonably tight beam.

“No friends, no relatives, no messages. I had a dog once, but he died, so we’ll forget him, too.” Grey was estimating speeds and distances from the few instruments and the rough guide of the image of the Moon, knowing that the calculations made back on Earth would be far more accurate than anything he could arrive at, but still feeling the need of checking for his own satisfaction.

She glanced up from the bug, a glint of curiosity showing. “You’re a queer duck, Grey, but I didn’t figure you were a misanthrope.”

“Not. People just don’t think the same way I do, or something; maybe because nobody wrote anything on my blank pages except what I scribbled myself.” He thrust up a hand into the steel-gray hair that bushed up on his head, sweeping it back from cold gray eyes, grinning at the mental picture of himself. Even that didn’t fit in with normality, since healthy human skin shouldn’t be tanned to a dark brown that somehow had gray undertones, making him a complete monotone in harmony with the name he’d chosen for himself. “Don’t go asking personal questions, Carrots, because I can’t answer ‘em any better than you could for me. I’m an amnesiac, had a seventy-year-old psychologist for a mother, an encyclopedia for a father, and the hell of making a living for a school.”

He could see nothing of her face, but her voice held none of the expected pity or maudlin slop he’d come to expect when the facts were spilled. “Then how’d you ever decide on this?”

“Dunno even that. Hunch, or something. Finished? Good, then shut up while I start this thing gentling down. Luna doesn’t look pretty down there, but I reckon we’ll find a level place somewhere to slap down on our tripod. Ralston, here we go. Keep ‘em smooth!”

Grey’s long, sensitive fingers went out to the vernier and studs that covered the action of the single tube, cutting in the circuits, letting it warm up, then throwing in the high potential needed to start it before normal action could proceed. A small red button on the panel clicked on, and he dropped back, feeding in power slowly, while the edge of the window nearest the tube took on a faint blue glow, and a slight haze showed up near it. The blue streak of inferno that was the rocket blast was blazing out behindor ahead, really, since the so-called bottom of the ship was always directed toward the destination when decelerating power was on. Rockets at each end, or strung along the sides, would have made the weight unmanageable. The

gravitometer needle flickered upward, quarter-gravity deceleration, half, then a full gravity pounding out behind them.

The feeling of weight came back over him, setting his stomach into a belated sickness that he was totally unprepared for, but it was only momentary, and the action of his heart surged up, then settled back into the routine business of fighting to equalize pressure and circulation in spite of the downward pull. He flopped the cigarette package in front of Correy, and she lighted one for him and another for herself; words would have been wasted while the greater roar behind from the tube filtered in, drumming against their ears. Maybe a theoretical rocket should be soundless, but this one certainly wasn’t. From now on until the actual landing began, it was simply a matter of sitting quietly and waiting for the blind rush of the ship to slow down and the distance to diminish, with only a cursory attention from him. He settled back, smoking and thinking idly, stirred again into unemotional memories by Correy’s earlier words.

No child grown to manhood could remember its earliest infancy, apparently; but a newborn mind in an adult body might still soak up and remember impressions for which it had no name; the eyes still carried their training at separating objects, the ears knew still how to sort and classify sounds, meaningless though they were. And now, even as if it were but a moment before, he could remember waking there on the strange green meadow and stirring without purpose, called by the unrecognized pangs of hunger. Under him, his legs had stirred, but he’d forgotten how to walk, and had resorted to creeping toward a stream that flowed nearby, the call of thirst stronger than blank memories. The farmer had found him there, half drowning from his clumsiness, and by the time he’d been half carried to the farmhouse, his legs were again learning the difficult work of supporting him, though they had felt weak and shaky.

The doctor had turned him over to a psychiatrist. And then, days later, words began to take on meanings, and the first sentences became again familiar to him. Oh, he’d learned rapidlysome faint neural paths were still left, easing the job of learning. He’d heard that it was amnesianot partial, but complete, wiping out all memories with an utter finality; and during the year that followed, he’d stored into his unfilled mind all the information from the libraries at hand, and all the odd relations of mankind he could glean. He’d been forced to think in his own way, almost without relation to those about him, and with its own peculiar advantages. But there could be no friendships in that frantic chase after knowledge. He’d never

realized, until the psychiatrist died, that he was an object of charity, though he found shortly after that living was done by the sweat of a man’s brow.

Well, it hadn’t been too hard, all things considered. He’d been analyzed before and told that he had an ability for mechanics, so the job in the airplane factory had followed almost automatically. The other men had stared at his strange little figure, and had laughed in well-meant kidding that turned slowly to sullen dislike at his lack of response to what he could not understand; but the work had gone well. Then, the call to run these ships he built had grown in him, and the flying school that followed had grudgingly granted his ability. Learning, to him, was the only known pleasure, and he’d tackled all new things with a set purposefulness that brooked no obstacles.

Three years of flying the great ships had won him a certain half-respect, and even an outward familiarity with the other pilots, as well as a reputation for courage which he felt unjustified; it wasn’t recklessness, but a lack of any feeling that he had anything to lose. Life was oddly unvaluable, though he reacted automatically to the old law of self-preservation when faced with trouble.

He’d been flying two years when the first news of Swanson’s rocket appeared in the papers. There, he’d thought, was something worth trying, and for the first time he’d felt the common stirrings of envy; Swanson had been a name to conjure with among flying men, and his selection as pilot by the mysterious company building the rocket had been entirely fair, yet Grey had been almost jealous of the man. There was magic in the idea of sailing out beyond the Earth toward the Moon that stirred odd feelings in him, unfelt except in the fantastic dreams he sometimes had.

And then, when Swanson had set off the two flares to indicate a crack-up, there’d been announcements of a second ship on the way, which would be used in a gallant, although almost hopeless, attempt to rescue the three men in the first one. But this time, they had no handpicked candidate for pilot, and it had been conducted on a severely practical series of competitive tests among the pilots flying commercially or privately who volunteered. In the long run, it was his size and weight, along with the smaller amount of air and food he needed, that had turned the scales in his favor; others were as good pilots, as quick in their reactions, and as clever at learning the new routine. But none had been as economical to ship, and the small balance had gone in his favor, just as the same factor had helped all of the rest of the crew’s selection, with the exception of Bruce Kennedy, designer of the Moth. He stood almost six feet tall, but of the others, June Correy was the tallest with her exact five feet of height; and even among them, Grey was the smallest.

Not that it bothered him; he was apparently lacking in the normal human self-consciousness about such things, and for the weeks that followed, the grind of preparing himself as best he could for the task ahead was to give him no time for thoughts. Swanson and two men were up there on the Moon, short of food and water and the all-important air needed for life, while the mysterious sponsor of the ships operated through its trust company with a frenzied drive that could rush the Moth through in too long a time at best, but had to hope that the men would somehow survive.

It had impressed Grey at the time, the struggle to save those three men who’-d already managed to accrue more glory than a normal lifetime could give them. He’d felt more hopeful for this strange mass of humanity. But to him, the important factor was that the Moth must get through, since there could be no morethat had been made clear to them; ships cost fortunes, and not all people were willing to spend the money needed. Now, here he was, and under his fingers lay perhaps the future of all space travel; certainly the life of the queer crew with him. Below him, the hungry pits and craters of the satellite seemed to reach out jagged teeth to swallow this presumptuous bug that insisted on daring what men had never been created to try.

“Strange,” Grey muttered, leaning forward beyond the screen to stare directly at the black and white selenography under him. “Logically that stuff down there should be queer to me, but it isn’t. Not half as strange as old Earth looked the first time I really saw her. I… Huh?”

Correy was clutching his shoulder, gripping at him and trying to attract his attention. The ship’s combination radioman, reporter, and assistant pilot was indicating the headset, and he grunted, adjusting the ill-fitting thing reluctantly; there was a lot of equipment on the Moth that indicated both the frantic last-minute rush and the depletion of funds, though the important things were well enough done.

Her voice came driving in through the phones, now that some of the thunder of the tube was muffled out. “Wake up from your dreams, Squirt! Listen to that tube! Hard, it isn’t obvious; I’m not sure I hear anything, but I think I do, and don’t like it!”

He yanked back one earpiece and listened, screwed up into a small bundle of concentration, but at first there was nothing wrong. The

thunder came rushing in like an overgrown bee against a microphone, a tumultuous Sh-sh-sh, gradually resolving into something faintly but distinctly different, a slightly changing Sh-sh-zh-zh-sh-sh-zh-zh, almost unnoticeable. The change had no business there. And even as he strained to catch it, it seemed to become more pronounced.

“Damn! I do hear it, Correy! How long’s it been going on?”

“I don’t knowI only just noticed it, but that was because I was listening deliberately, trying to find some nice description to write up if we ever get back. What is it?”

“Dunno, but I’ve got suspicions. Ralston! Hey, Ralson, cut in! Notice anything funny about the tube sound?”

There was a long pause from the engineer, then a grunt came over the phones, which might have indicated anything. Grey called again, but got no answer, and his skin began to feel tight with the one sensation he could clearly recognize as an emotional response to danger. Correy started to get up from the straps, obviously intending to go in person after little Ralston, but he shook his head, and something about him made her sink back quietly. Finally, a faint noise came over, followed by the boy’s excited voice, its normal bitterness washed out.

“Yeah, Grey, something’s damned funny. I’ve checked over everything here, and it isn’t in my province. Nothing I can do about it. Motors are feeding perfectly, voltage and amperage aren’t off a hair, ionizer’s perfect, and the whole hookup’s about as good as anything can be. Any ideas, or you want mine?”

“I’ve got ‘em, but I’m hoping I’m crazy. That tube’s control field tested out one hundred percent, didn’t it?”

The boy’s voice caught faintly. “So you’ve been thinking the same! Yeah, it tested okay, and Kennedy told me it was theoretically perfect, but Grey, do you think that’s why Swanson crashed?”

He hadn’t thought of it, but it was an idea. “Mmm, could be. But look, how can we check on it?”

“We can’t. If it gets worse in geometrical progression, then we’re right, and ions are eating through, in spite of the field, working on their own controls, and the more damage they do, the faster it goes. Of course, if you can shut off the rocket, give it time to cool off where there’s almost no convection, and let me get out into the tube in a suit, maybe I can fix it; maybe not. I doubt it.”

“No use trying. Luna’s too close, and we’d hit before you could get inside. Think we could ease up a little? Umm, no. Won’t work, same amount of damage in the long run, and we’d have to take a course to

make an orbit; that’d give us a longer trip and probably do more harm than good. At this rate, how long should it last?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Grey, but I’d say about an hour and a half.”

June cut in, her voice somewhat relieved. “Then we won’t have to worry until we land! We’ll be down in half an hour more!”

“At this rate, I said,” Grey reminded her brusquely. “If this keeps up, we’ll begin to lose efficiency, and fast! Then we’ll have to cut in more juice, more damage, more juice, and so on. Right, Ralston?”

“Right. It’ll be nip and tuck, though I think you’ve got leeway. Swanson made it, even if he crashed, and our tube figured against weight and things with a minutely higher safety factor than he had, so we should be good for a little better luck, if that’s what failed him. Look, June, you still there? … Mm, well, if you can … The others”

Grey chuckled a little, amused at the odd quirks of human thought that could be embarrassed about its other twists, even now, and answered for her. “They’ll be all asleep, unless Mrs. Benson’s still awake. No use waking them up to worry; nothing they could do. And if you’re thinking about Helen Neff, the doctor was snoring a nice soprano when I left. She’s as safe as she can be. Go back to your engines and let me worry about the others.”

He cut Ralston off, still grinning, and looked across at Correy’s frowning face. “Heart’s on his sleeve, eh, Carrots? Sometimes I can guess why you women don’t like little menthey’re too darned intense and obvious. She knows she’s got him, so she chases big Brace Kennedy.”

“You’re no giant yourself, Pipsqueak,” she reminded him absently. “And since when did you take over command of the ship?”

“But I don’t feel like a little manI don’t bother thinking one way or the other. That’s the difference. As to the command, I took that over when we took off, by my own consent; nobody thought to figure out that somebody had to be boss here, so I’m it. If you’ve any objections, let’s have them, and then I’ll forget them.”

“You get us down, and I’ll argue about it later. Listen, it’s worse already.”

For a moment, Grey put it down to imagination, but then he realized she was right; it was an obvious whishing now that had no business there, and steadier. He grunted, feeding in slightly more power, and watched while the gravitometer settled back where it should be. The moonscape on the screen was still too far away to suit him

though it might soon be too close. Be a pity if anything happened to the Moth, with all the hopes and dreams that must be in her. Alice Benson’s gently faded face with its hidden purpose flashed through his mind, then the perverse warmth he’d seen in June Correy’s face, but they were less than the ship to him.

He looked again at the screen, then back to the girl. “I’ll get us down somehow, June: I give my word on that, if I have to climb out in the tube and swear against gravity.”

“Somehow … somehow I can picture that right now.” She nodded slowly, a puzzled mixture of worry and surprise on her face. “Nemo Grey, I never believed those stories about your rescue of the group in Canada, but I do now. Don’t you know what fear is?”

He shook his head slowly. “Not exactly, I guess. But watch it, Carrots, you’re getting soft. You’ll be clinging to my shoulder in a minute, just another woman trusting in a man. Scared?”

“Yes. That sound out there, getting worse. And then when I look at the screen Could I have another smoke, Grey?” She took it, sucking in eagerly on it, suffering from too good an imagination, he guessed. But her sudden about-face surprised him, and aroused a ghost of another emotion he couldn’t place. Women were a strange species to him, and his little knowledge of them came mostly from books. “You know, right now I am just another woman, I guess, and that scrawny shoulder of yours may look pretty good to me, before we land. You seem so damned sure of yourself and so unruffled.”

“Cling if you want; I won’t hold it against you after we land. But right now, I’d rather you used that telescope and tried to hunt out the wreck of Swanson’s ship, if you can spot it. Reports of the flare indicate it’s about there, I think.” He pointed to a dot on the screen, now showing a greatly enlarged version of the Moon’s face, or part of it.

She seized on the chance, and more confidence came back to her with something to occupy her mind besides the mental picture of a crash. Grey had his hands full, trying to keep the indicator where it should be, against the slowly tapering-off thrust of the rocket. And they were close enough now that another factor began to enter, one on which he’d counted, but for which no amount of “tank” work could fully prepare him. The ship was top-heavy, its center of gravity located a good many feet above the center of thrust, and the feeble gravity of the Moon was beginning to act on that; the top showed an alarming tendency to swing over toward the Moon, away from the straight line of fall.

No rocket impulse could be exactly centered or exactly balanced on both sides at all times, and the faintest off-center effect was enough to start a list. He swore, watching the slight movement of the window over the moonscape, working the gyro clutches to correct it and bring them back to dead center. As long as the tilt was only a slight one, the gyros could do it, but the moment he let it get beyond a degree or two, they’d be too feeble to do the work, and his only chance would be to cut the rocket and let them work without the thrust; that had happened on the takeoff, but there’d been time. Now, with the closeness of the Moon and the deterioration of the tube, he’d have no chance to try it successfully.

Again the tube sound was worse, and there was a rise in temperature inside the room, coming from the rocket side that formed one wall; that meant considerable loss of efficiency. Grey dropped his hand from the gyro clutch, stepped up the power, and jerked it back, just as the tilt decided to take advantage of the one uncontrolled moment. But he was in time, by a slight margin. Correy’s face had jerked from the scope and tightened as she took it in, but she nodded, caught herself, and went back to searching.

His estimate indicated their fall was faster than safe, and he snapped his eye from the window to the gravitometer, setting the thrust up to a tenth over one gravity, as corrected against lunar drag by the radio indicator that was now working, giving altitude by signal echo time. Again he had to jerk back to the gyro controls. And the rocket was behaving abominably now, wasting a large part of its energy in fighting itself, while the temperature continued to rise.

June motioned suddenly, switching the scope back to the screen at full amplification, pointing to a tiny spot that gleamed more brightly than the rough ground around it. It was located in the oddly shaped crater to which he was headed, and a careful inspection seemed to show the shape of a broken rocket. “Must be, don’t you think, Grey?”

“Must be. Wrong side of the crater, of course. Damn! Leave the scope on and make sure all your straps are tight. We may hit hard. Mmm. Men should have three arms. Yeah, that’s it, all right. I caught a gleam of metal that’s been polished then.” He bent forward, catching the toggle switch in his teeth. “Ralston, get set. Landing in ten minutes. Tube’s raising hades, but I think it’ll last.”

“Okay, Grey.” The boy was scared, but determined not to show it. “I’ll keep my hand on the main motor switch, try to cut it off as we hit, so that won’t get out of control. Luck!”

“Luck, Phil!” The use of the first name was deliberate, since he seldom used one, but it should sound familiar. He released the toggle again with his teeth, his eyes screwed to close focus on the indicators, then slid back. Slowly, cautiously, he let the ship slip over two degrees toward the direction of the wreck, and the ground in the window slid sluggishly aside as it drew nearer. But he couldn’t keep it up; too much risk of the tilt getting out of hand. He straightened again, and moved the switch over almost full way; now nearly the last amount of available power was coming from the rocket. Suddenly the tendency to list stopped, and a whine growled out from somewhere in the center of the ship.

“God bless Ralston!” Grey realized what had happened; during the trip, the boy had been piecing out extra gyros, crude and unsafe, from anything he could lay his hands on, knowing that the regular ones had been almost inadequate for the takeoff. Probably they’d burn out his rough bearings, blow up from centrifugal force, or overload their motors in a few minutes, but for the moment they’d work, and it would be long enough. “That’s real courage for you, Carrots! The kid’s scared sick, but he still bucks it through in time. Well, she’s steady, she’s pointing to the best spot I can locate, so all I have to fool with is the power control, and I think it’ll last… . Hey!”

The glance he’d shot at her had spotted her white knuckles and clenched teeth, her eyes set on the screen that showed ground rushing up at them, growing like the face of a monster in the stereoscopic movies, seeming to swallow them up. On an impulse that he recognized as probably normal hut still surprising, he reached around her shoulders with his free hand, pulling her over against him, and turning her face from the sight. “Hey, it isn’t that bad, Carrots. I said we’d get through, didn’t I?”

She nodded, burying her face against him, and her voice was almost too faint to hear. “I’m scared, Grey! I’m scared!” Her arms came around him then, pulling hard at him for the purely animal comfort his solidity could give, and he recognized it as something not related to him personally, but there was an odd pleasure in it, all the same.

He kept his voice level, one hand on the control lever, trying to match the erratic thrust against the gravity, the other patting her shoulder. “Easy, June. It’s all right!” But he knew it wasn’t. An irregular fading blast was complicating his calculations until a smooth landing would be impossible. Then the ion stream struck the ground below, and the screen became a blue glare. On a guess, he set power to counteract their motion.

For a seemingly endless quarter of a minute or less, he held it there, then jerked his hand away and struck the cut-off switch savagely, just as something caught the tripod landing gear, and his stomach seemed to drop through the seat.

“Landed!” The word leaped through his head as a lance of pain struck and ended in blackness.

H

Grey stirred mentally, his hand groping up to the painful lump on his forehead, and his mind was straining for something that he couldn’t reach. The perversely calm part recognized the impulse and the frustration of it, though. Whenever any shock hit him, he unconsciously expected the amnesia to lift, as it did in the books; but it never happened that way, though it wasn’t the first time he’d gone through a mental blackout. A hand brushed the thick hair off his face, and he looked up into the troubled eyes of June Correy.

“Hi, Carrots, you got through?”

“We all did.” She’d jerked her hand back, and now something like embarrassment passed over her face. “It wasn’t a bad landing, Grey; but the combination of me hanging onto you and your own loose strapping threw you against the control panel. Sorry I got so soft.”

“Skip it!” He wasn’t sorry.

Alice Benson’s frail hands were adjusting a cold compress on the lump that ached, and he looked around then to find himself in the main room of the ship where most of the others were making preparations of some sort. She poured something onto a cut that stung sharply, smiling at him. “It was a very fine landing, lad; we hardly felt it through the springs holding our sacksjust enough to waken the others. Feel better?”

“Fine, thanks.” His eyes located the bitter little Philip Ralston, and he turned to him. “Did you tell the others?”

“Left it to you.” The kid’s blue eyes flicked away from Helen Neff, then back again, while his hands went on pulling out the spacesuits. “Go ahead and tell them, Grey.”

Grey pushed aside the hands of Mrs. Benson, and pulled himself to his feet against the light gravity, surveying the others as they turned to face him, watching their various reactions. “Okay, then, here it is in a nutshell. We’re here, and we spotted the other spaceship quite a ways off. But right now, I wouldn’t risk a ten-foot hop with that tubeit’s shot! You might look it over, Kennedy, but I don’t think there’s much we can do unless there’s enough left of

Swanson’s tube to put the two together and make one good one.”

“Shot?” Kennedy scowled, his heavy sullen face looking more aggressive than usual. “Look, Grey, that tube was rightit tested for double the time we took. What’d you doforget to warm it up? If you ruined it, I’ll”

“Yeah?” Ralston jumped up facing the bigger man, a little blond bantam defying a brunet giant. “You got two to clean up then, Kennedy. Grey did a damned good job and it wasn’t his fault your theories couldn’t take the actual work.”

Grey put a hand to the boy’s shoulder, pushing him back gently. “It’s okay, Phil, forget it. Kennedy, you know darned well you can’t say that tank tests are the same as actual workouts; anyhow, Swanson cracked up, probably the same way. But we can’t stop to fight about it now. We’ve got to get out there, locate the other ship, and find out whether we can work it up from the two tubes. Otherwise-well, there won’t be any otherwise. Now get out and into that tube; find out what happened, and how we can fix it. The rest of you get into space togs so we can start outside. Orders! I’m taking command.”

“By whose consent?” The ship’s designer stood rooted, unmoving, his eyes challenging the pilot, and something unpleasant on his face.

Grey grinned, turning toward the others. Correy made a face at him, along with an overly humble bow, but she nodded and stepped to his right, just as Ralston’s quick steps carried him to the left. With a little smile, almost of amusement, Mrs. Benson joined them, leaving Neff and Wolff on Kennedy’s side.

Ralston jerked his head savagely. “Come over here, Helen, or I’ll drag you back with us!”

The sharp-featured doctor opened her enormous eyes in hurt surprise, her hand going to her thin hair. Grey never had seen what at-bacted the boy to her. She stared at the big man slowly, found him not looking at her, and back to Ralston. Then, like a spoiled child being forced to its duty, she obeyed. The kid should try those tactics more often, maybe.

Wolff was a dwarf. Now he bobbed his immense head, shrugged his shoulders, which seemed hunchbacked, and ran his tongue over his thin lips. “I… ah … of course I side with the others, Mr. Grey. I… I’ll obey orders, to the letter. But… umm … I’d rather not go out, if”

“You’ll come. It’ll take six of us to carry back the three men out

there, if they’re still alive. We’ll get them first, make a second trip for the tube parts needed. Well, Kennedy?”

Kennedy shrugged, his face expressionless, picked up the suit, and began climbing in. Satisfied, Grey reached for his own suit, wondering about Alice Benson. But she was in her cumbersome outfit before any of them, her voice cheerful over the phones as she offered to help Neff. It might have been a pleasant little picnic from her reactions, though there was a suppressed eagerness to her voice that he could not explain. He donned his own outfit, turning to Correy.

“Carrots, what about the radio?”

“Still workingor was when I sent back a report; but two tubes were weakened and they blew out when I switched over for the acknowledgmentthe big special ones for which we only stocked one spare. So that’s out now, not that it’d do us much good… . You know, you look almost like a man in a suit, Half-Pint.”

He grinned. “So do you, Redhead, so don’t count on feminine wiles out there. Okay, let’s go. This is serious business, so no foolishness from anyone. Swanson, Englewood, and Marsden may be dying any minute in their ship; and we’re looking out for our own lives, too. Take it easy, remember you’re dealing with only a sixth-normal gravity here, don’t turn on too much oxygen, and stay together. We’ll go over your findings when we get back, Kennedy, and report on the other tube. See you.”

“Right.” The big man had decided to take it with outward pleasantness, at least, and he managed a smile through his suit’s helmet “Luck!”

Grey should have felt strange as the little lock opened finally and he stepped out, his suit ballooning in the absence of pressure. There was an odd feeling inside, but it was one of homecoming, as near as he could place it. The harsh black shadows and glaring sunlight, with no shadings, looked good to him, and the jagged ground seemed friendly now. He stepped back out of the others’ way and let them climb down carefully, staring with them at the ship and the scene around.

They were in a queer valleylike crater, at one side of which a seemingly topless cliff rose upward, sheer and colossal. The great ship thrust up seventy feet from the floor on its three legs, a pointed cylinder that ended finally in the rocket tube and the observation window. Above, the sky was black with a harsh sun shining at one side, a swollen Earth on the other, glowing by the reflected light. It was beautiful in a coldly impersonal way, and he breathed deeply,

relaxing. Then, with a shrug, he turned off toward the spot that had shown on the screen, marking the other ship.

Ralston and Correy were having troubles in adjusting to the light gravity, both putting too much effort into it. They bounded along, struggling to keep their balance, fighting where they should have relaxed, and only slowly gaining a mastery of the situation. Neff minced primly, not efficiently, but with fair success, while Wolff hitched himself over the ground with an apparent expectation of instant death. Alice Benson alone seemed to take it easily, relaxed and quiet, staying at Grey’s side. They halted, ahead of the others, and he could see her smiling.

“I like this, Grey. It makes me feel young again to walk without effort and actually see myself making progress instead of creeping along… . Where are your shoe plates, lad?”

He looked down quickly, then realized he’d forgotten to put on the heavy lead plates that were to compensate partially for gravity. He hadn’t noticed the lack, though; the feeling of walking here had seemed completely natural to him. “I guess I don’t need them; why not take yours off? You’ve been taking it easy enough to be safe, I think, ma’am.”

She put her foot out, and he found himself stooping to remove the plates. Then she tried it, a little uncertain at first, but soon moving easily. “This is lovely, Grey. It’s like those dreams of sliding along above the ground without effort. Do you think perhaps men have been here before, leaving memories with usthat falling dream and this other?”

“Doubt it, ma’am. I’m afraid that’s romanticism, though I can’t prove they haven’t. Next thing, you’ll be expecting to find people here.”

She smiled again, but he wondered if she didn’t expect just that Oddly, it wouldn’t have surprised him either. Then the others were with them, and they began moving down a comparatively gentle slope to the smooth floor of the valley’s bottom. Progress was rapid, now that even Wolff was catching the swing of the loose motion needed; they were traveling along at a sort of lope that must have covered ten to twelve miles an hour, and the long decline shortened rapidly.

June tapped on his shoulder and pointed as they neared the bottom. “Look, Pipsqueak! Is that green down theregrowing green?”

He stared. It was greenthe same green as grass would have been. But it meant nothing, he knew. There were plenty of rocks that

could give the same color, and without an atmosphere how could chlorophyll-type plants grow? Then out of the corner of his eye, he caught something, and a crazy hunch formed in his mind. “Bet a cigarette against a kiss we find animals, too!”

“Done! Now you’re being silly.”

The others had heard, of course, and the stirring of excitement was good for morale, at least. They hurried down, Grey, Correy, and Mrs. Benson in the lead, taking it in long easy jumps of twenty feet at a time, a sort of run that lifted from one foot to the other, as a ballet dancer seems to. A few minutes more found them at the bottom, staring at the ground.

It was covered with domes of some thick cellophanelike material, varying in size from a few inches to several feet across, and under them, definitely, were plants. “Lichens, highly complicated ones, too,” Neff said. “They’ve adapted somehow.”

Grey nodded. “Probably four or five different types of life together in symbiosis. One must form the domethat greenish-brown ring they spring from. Another probably cracks raw material from the rocks, another takes energy from sunlight, and so on. Looks to me as if they grow by budding out a small cell from the main one, and they seem to follow this particular type of rock formation. Carbonates, nitrates, probably gypsum, containing water of crystallization. I suppose they could get all the elements of life that way; the lichens of Earth managed to come out of the water and make soil out of our rocks before the other plants got there. Life insists on going on. Only question is how they evolved to begin with.”

He bent down, pricking open the tough skin of one of the smaller domes, watching it deflate rapidly. The air in them was under considerable pressure, probably equal to five or six pounds. “You know what this means, don’t you? Well, if worst comes, we could probably pump out a fair quantity of oxygen from these thingsthere are miles of them. Squeeze water out, too, and maybe they have food value. We couldn’t live indefinitely, I feel sure, but they might help.”

Wolff stared at them unbelievingly, but with a flicker of interest. “Until… ah-“

“Yeah.” It was foolish. “Until we died anyway. There’ll be no rescue ship for us. Well, Carrots?”

“Animals!” she reminded him, grinning.

“Coming up!” He pointed across the lichen-covered ground toward the motion that had first attracted his attention. At the time it might have been a falling rock, but now, as it approached, it obviously

wasn’t. Rather it resembled a cross between a kangaroo and a bal-loonlike bird, two long heavy legs under it, and an elongated beak in front. “Watch!”

The thing had been traveling at a tremendous rate, sailing in bounds. Now it stopped a few yards in front of them, ducked its beak down into one of the bigger domes, and rooted around, gulping up some of the growth there, while the dome deflated slightly as it took up all but a little of the air, leaving enough, probably, for the lichen to continue, and no more; the creature should have swelled up enormously, but there was no outward difference.

“Must have some tricky way of absorbing the oxygen into a loose chemical compound, unless it’s got a magnificent pressure tank inside it somewhere. More likely something like a whale uses to store oxygen in its body for a long trip underwater. Notice how he exudes a cement out of that beak as he draws it outsealing the dome so he won’t kill the lichen completely?”

June grunted. “Okay, you win, darn it. Look at him go!”

“Has tohe can’t stay on the dark part of the Moon, I’ll bet, so he has to travel fast enough to equal the rate of rotationonce around the Moon in a month. It can be done here, rotation, size, and gravity considered. The lichens must spore up during the two weeks of night, grow during the day. And probably that dome has heat-filtering powers, like no-heat glass; he’s carrying a bright shell on top to reflect heat, you notice. ‘Smarter?”

“I was just thinking of his love life.” She giggled again, watching the vanishing creature. “No long courtships hereunless he’s like a bedbug, sufficient unto himself.”

“Probably is. Okay, gang, we’ve wasted enough time, though we should make a study of all this. I’ll collect later, Carrots.”

They turned on, winding among the domes that were everywhere, bits of conversation going on over the radios among the others. The finding of life here had cheered them all, somehow, made them feel that the satellite wasn’t as unfriendly as it had seemed. There was a kinship to protoplasmic life, no matter how distant. Grey accepted the fact as a matter of course, wondering if he hadn’t expected it, and led on, his eyes peeled for a sight of the other ship.

Mrs. Benson beat him to it, though. She stopped, and pointed to the small part showing, a mere speck across the rough ground. “Grey, June, Philip! See!”

Now their leaps increased, and they straggled out. Correy ripped her sole plates off, dropped them, and staggered before redoubling

her efforts to keep up with Grey. But ahead of them, the seemingly feeble legs of Alice Benson sped along, covering the ground with a fluidity of motion that indicated the dancer she must have been once. There was a faint sound of her voice in the phones, and it sounded oddly like praying, but the words were too muffled for understanding. They stopped as she lifted herself to a slight projection and looked down.

“Bill!” It was a shout and a prayer, and the thinness of her voice was suddenly gone, leaving it strong and young. Grey stared at June, shaking his head. There were no Bills in either his or Swanson’s crew. But again the cry came. “Bill! Oh, God!”

Then they were beside her, staring down at the ship lying below, on its side, and Grey caught her as she slumped forward. But he had eyes only for the object ahead. It wasn’t Swanson’s ship. Thirty feet long, or slightly less, it was an even cylinder, blunt fore and aft, one great rocket at one end, and little muzzles stuck out athwart, somehow fragile, but apparently with no damage. Whoever had set it down had done a magnificent job of space jockeying, coming in at an angle and sliding forward on steel runners, instead of making a tail landing. He glanced at Coney, but her look was as dumbfounded as his own.

Mrs. Benson struggled to her feet, a red spot showing under the pallor of her cheeks. “I’m sorry, children. I’m afraid I was overcome for a minute. You see, I know that ship. I helped build itthirty years ago!”

“Thirty yearsjust before the Great War?” June looked at her carefully, searching for hysteria and finding none. “But they didn’t have fission motors then, nor ion releases. Howfuel rockets?”

“Bill had a fission motor, June; oh, it wasn’t a good one, but it worked. And he wasn’t using an ion release. He broke water up into monatomic hydrogen and oxygen, then let them explode again. They worked better than any normal oxy-hydrogen jet could have. Thirty yearsand I’m finally here. Now do you see why an old lady forced herself into your crew, lad? Come, let’s go down!”

They fell in beside her, and now she moved leisurely, telling them the story as she went, while the others caught up. It could have been a colorful story, a great one, but she told it simply, giving only the highlights, and letting them fill in the rest with their imagination. More than thirty years before, about the time the Great War was starting, when the first uranium fission was discovered, she’d married a boy with a dream. It must have been a wonderful dream, for he

wasn’t the type, otherwise, to use his wife’s fortune, but he’d done so, burning it up carelessly while he applied his own rather remarkable genius toward extracting the elusive U-235 isotope and using it; and he’d succeeded, while others were groping toward the solution. He’d even managed to work out a motor light enough for the dream he had, and to construct two ships, using an adaptation of the monatomic release already known and used in welding, now that he had a reliable source of energy.

“Two ships?” Grey cut in quickly.

“Two, Grey. He had to.” She went on quietly. One ship had been fitted for himselfit was impossible for her to accompany him, though they’d tried to make it that way. The other was radio-controlled. Then he’d taken off in one, secretly at night, and she’d sent the other up near him, up until he could fall into an orbit around the Earth, high enough to have conquered part of the drag of gravity. One ship couldn’t hold enough supplies for the voyage. But using his own radio controls, he’d somehow brought the second one beside him, joined them, and transshipped supplies and fuel, released it, and waited until his orbit brought him in position for a try at the Moon. She’d seen his supply ship explode into tiny fragments that could fall back to Earth or drift harmlessly in space, and her watcher in one of the observatories had thought he detected the flare that indicated success where Bill had chosen to land.

“There were two other ships being built,” she went on. “I was supposed to follow, and we hoped that from the two, and what fuel was left, we could escape the Moon’s lighter gravity and return, risking a parachute fall in spacesuits to land on Earth; it might have worked. I think it would, since we could bake our needed water out of the gypsum here. But the war cameand metal became harder to get, and finally unavailable. Our helpers went off to fight, mostly, and the months slipped by”

Hearing her, Grey could imagine the desperate months going, while she fought vainly to go on, stumbling against the impossible, afraid to tell too much and release the horror of atomic energy for war, unable to get supplies or help otherwise. Three years had been spent in a sanitarium, to come out and find fire had destroyed their shops and the notes that had contained Bill’s precious secrets. By then, even she knew that saving him was hopeless. But she’d promised to meet him there.

“Some money remained. And I could remember part of the secrets. New engineers, working from my memory, finally managed to

separate the isotopes again, and Wohl perfected the motor for me. After thatwell, money wasn’t a problem any longer. You see, I own Atomic Power. Nobody knows it, save a few, and Cartwright, who handles it all for me… . That’s right, Wolff, I’m really your employer, though you didn’t know why Mr. Cartwright instructed you to watch over me, as well as report on commercial possibilities, if any. I didn’t want it that way, but he insisted, so you know now… . Anyway, it took time to work out the problems again, differently this time, but money can hire brains and what has been done can be done again, perhaps better. I wanted to go with Swanson, but it was impossible. Now” She put out a hand, touching the ship they had reached. “Now, I’ve kept my promise to Bill, finally. I wish”

Grey nodded, holding the others back. “Go ahead, ma’am, we’ll wait.” “

She smiled faintly, thanking him silently, and opened the little lock of the ship that bore her name on its side, her hands fumbling briefly. Then she was inside, and the others clustered around, forgetting for the moment even their own and Swanson’s plight. Wolff stirred, and Grey snapped at him. “Shut up!”

Alice Benson’s low voice came over the phones this time, and the few words should have been consecration enough for even the soul of her Bill. They heard her at the lock again, and she came down, calm and collected, a little book in one hand, a thin sheet of paper in the other.

“His body isn’t there. It’s all here in his diary, which you can read. Bill waited as long as he could, until he knew something had happened; he never thought we’d failed him! Then he went out in his suithe wanted to see this world he’d found. I think we needn’t look for him.” She’d labored under no delusions of finding him living, and it had been no shock. Now she shook her white-haired head and smiled at the crew. “Well, shouldn’t we try to find Swanson, Grey? I shouldn’t have taken up so much time when they might be dying, and so much depends on our finding the other tube. I’m sorry.”

Grey stirred, such emotions as he had retreating before her self-possession. “Right, Mrs. Benson. But there’s no use searching from herethe ship we saw was this one, and we’ll have to get up to higher ground to spot the other, so we might as well go back to the Moth. From on top of her we should have a fair view of the area nearby. We’d never find the ship in searching around from here.”

She agreed, apparently, and they started back, this time in a solid bunch, exchanging idle comments about the sights around them. By common consent, the story of Alice Benson and her Bill was un-mentioned. Slowly, the conversation picked up, mostly in a discussion of the lichens as they came to them again. Others of the birdlike creatures were speeding across the ground now, stopping occasionally, then driving on in their never-ceasing march around the Moon.

Grey caught one, and there was no fear about it, only an impatience to continue. The flesh was abnormally firm, but was obviously protoplasm, covered with some thick, rubbery skin, and it might have weighed forty pounds on Earth. He dropped it again, and it went leaping off after its fellows.

“They have sex,” he commented. “Odd, according to our standards, but there are two kinds. See, the females have a pouch, and if you noticed, that one was full. I’d guess they were egg-laying, with the eggs hatching in the pouch. Then the young cling to the little tubes there, drawing air from the mother. She must feed them with lichens drawn from the domes. Nature seems to stick to fairly familiar patterns.”

“Wish I’d brought a camera, at least,” Correy muttered ruefully. There was one in the ship, but the quarrel before leaving must have jostled it out of her mind, or else she’d figured on being unencumbered during the rescue attempt.

Then they were out of the valley of the lichens, going up the slope, and the rocket ship began to show up above it, climbing slowly into view until they could make out the tube, and finally see the tripod resting on the rocks under it, in the little pit the blast had scoured. Grey flipped a switch outside his suit, and pointed the beam antenna toward the Moth.

“Come in, Kennedy. Grey calling Kennedy. Come in.”

There was no answer, though he tried again. It wasn’t important, but it was odd. Those radios were supposed to be on at all times, and with full power running through the directional antenna, it should have reached in clearly. Or, if the man was inside the tube, the metal might blanket out the signal. In the ship proper, the outer antenna would have shot it through a speaker; the short-distance tubes had been sturdier than the trick experimental ones in the space set, and should still be working.

The little company loped up beside the ship, and Ralston slid under the tube, looking up it, and pounding. There was no response, nor could Grey find anything inside when he flashed the beam of his

headlight in through the inky blackness of the shadows, here where no air diffused the light.

“Funny, he must be inside, but why doesn’t the fool answer a CQ?” Ralston asked.

Helen Neff glared at him resentfully. “Bruce is no fool, Phil Ralston, and he’s probably busy fixing that tube of yours. Don’t be so aggressive about everything.”

“Urnm.” Grey didn’t like it. Kennedy was supposed to answer-that was one of the rules posted, that all sets should be on when anyone was outside, and answers should be prompt. It might mean life or death, and if the designer was taking things into his own hands, there would be an accounting, pronto. “Okay, inside, all of you!”

They climbed the ladder, slipped into the lock, and let air come in, then out of the suits and removed helmets rapidly. At a gesture from him, they left the suits stacked in the lock, breathing the much fresher oxygen-helium mixture of the ship; here with light gravity demanding smaller energy from them, the ten-pound pressure of the air was ample, though it had seemed thin when he first dropped the pressure in space.

“Kennedy!” The voice boomed through the room, down into the engine well and the cockpit, its echo sounding back metallically. Ralston slid down to the engines, and was up again. “Not there, Grey!” “Nor in the cockpit,” June reported. “Where is the stubborn idiot?”

Alice Benson came back from the hampers, her face tight. “I’m afraid even he doesn’t know, now. His suit’s in the locker, and he’s nowhere in the ship!”

Dumbly, they stared at each other, fear climbing into their faces. The ship had been searched thoroughly, and he wasn’t on it. Yet his suit was, and there had been only seven of them, of which six had been used by the rescue gang.

“He couldn’t have gotten far enough away from the ship without a suit not to be seen by us. We’ve got a clear view for hundreds of feet. Phil, get out there and search!” Grey watched Ralston slide through the lock, his skin tight again, but his mind troubled only by the paradox presented.

The boy was back again in fifteen minutes. “Not there! I scoured the whole area.”

Bruce Kennedy couldn’t go a thousand feet without a suityet he had. How?

Ill

They were no nearer a solution as Mrs. Benson and Neff cleared up the food and disposed of the thin paper plates. It couldn’t have happened, but it had. Of course, it was conceivable that Kennedy might have rigged a sort of oxygen flask and breathing nozzle and gone out, but it was utterly reasonless, in the actinic glare of the sun; he wouldn’t have gotten far, anyway, and there was no use speculating about it

“Madness,” June suggested, not too positively. “There’s life here, so there must be bacteria.”

Neff shook her head. “Anything that would affect such life as we saw wouldn’t be likely to hit at men; too much difference in body organization. Of course, gangrene attacks almost any flesh, but the more complicated diseases are choosy about their hosts.”

There was no answer to that, beyond the useless speculation of a possibility among improbabilities. Grey thrust back and shrugged. “Okay, let’s face it. Kennedy didn’t leave. He was taken!”

“But-“

“No buts. When there’s only one simple solution to a problem, that solution is to be taken as the correct one, unless something else comes up. We found life hereplant and animal life. Neither form would have hurt Kennedy, but we don’t know what kind we failed to find. Granted, there’s still the problem of that life getting into the air locks and finding Kennedy, without the suitand the answer to that is intelligence of some sort. So we’re dealing with intelligent life pretty highly intelligent, tooand apparently inimical. We don’t have weapons; nobody thought they’d be necessary. Well, we’d all hoped to find intelligent life on Mars, I guess, but we find it here instead.”

Wolff licked his thin lips. “When we get back, the government’s going to hear of this!”

“Yeah? Why? We ship in a space navy and kill off the natives, I suppose, to pay for Kennedy. What makes you think the government’ll be interested?”

“They will. I… ah … I’m a fair metallurgist, Mr. Grey. There’s plenty of raw materials here, just as Mr. Cartwright suspected. These craters and things … umm, whatever caused them forced the rarer metals up out of the inner strata; Mr. Cartwright thought it might, even if the Moon is made of much lighter stuff than Earth. We’ll tame

down these Moon creatures, all right; we’ll put ‘em to work digging out ore, that’s what.”

Ralston bristled. “Slavery went out with the Fourteenth Amendment, you slimy snake. Sure there’s metal hereI spotted some pretty rare stuff myself, in scouting over nearer the cliffs. But you won’t get far in dealing with any natives on that line.”

“They’re not exactly… ah … human, you know.” Wolff flinched away from the boy’s eyes, but held firm. “It isn’t exactly slavery to make horses work, is it?”

The boy took a step toward him, to be halted by Grey. “I agree with you, kid, but you can’t convince that sort of man; he doesn’t know about little things like ideals, such as you have. This whole problem isn’t newWolff and Kennedy were talking about it back on Earth, and there are plenty who’d agree with them, with that plenty having most of the money for something shown to be commercially worthwhile. To you and some of the rest of usperhaps even to me interplanetary trips are an ideal, sort of a dream; to them, it means money, and it doesn’t matter how they get it.”

“I’m afraid you’re right, lad. Bill used to worry about that, too… . Wolff, I’m paying your salary, still. You’ll tell no tales of what we find here.” Alice Benson gave the order firmly, and the man nodded; but Grey saw the look on his face, and knew how much obedience she could expect. There were people who’d pay for information, and Wolff wanted the money.

“Anyhow, that doesn’t settle the problem. Right now, the main thing is to find out where Swanson came down and try to get his tube. Ralston, can you make repairs, do you think? Good. Then suppose you go up to the emergency lock at the top and see if you can spot the other ship from there? We’ll hope we don’t meet any of these hypothetical natives until we get off this place, and the sooner we do it, the surer we’ll be. The rest of you might as well get ready to go out again.”

Ralston was already swarming up, a small telescope in his hand. Wolff wriggled in his seat. “I … ah … don’t you think someone should stay here?”

” ‘Smatter, afraid to go out and face those natives you’re all set to subdue? Well, Kennedy stayed on the ship. Like the idea?”

“There are locks. I…umm… that is, if it’s locked inside”

Grey looked at him, his eyes colder than usual, but he shrugged. “Okay, stick around and whimper, then, and if they do get you, I’ll be darned sure nobody looks for you!… See anything, Ralston?”

“Spotted it in a few seconds, almost in the shadow of the cliff. Must have been too dark when we landed to show up on the screen. About three miles off, is all.”

That was better luck than Grey had hoped, for a change. He supervised their entry into and out of the lock, listening to Ralston’s description of the location, then sent the boy on ahead, holding Correy back. She looked surprised as he moved toward her.

“You owe me something,” he reminded, grinning.

“Darn you! I thought you’d have forgotten. The nerveless wonder, eh? Okay.” She turned her face around, the expression halfway between a grimace and a smile. “Collect, Shylock!”

He’d never done it before, and his skin was tighter than when finding Kennedy gone, but movies are instructive, if one is curious enough about human habits. Also he found he had instincts that guided his arms and tightened them for him. Her lips were tense at first, but her own instincts softened them, until some of the analytical calm went out of his. Finally, he drew back to find her face faintly flushed.

“Woof! For a nerveless guy, you do all right, Pipsqueak! Where’d you hide those muscles, anyway?” She shook back her hair, seemingly surprised at herself. “Now I need that darned cigarette.”

“For an encore” His grin wasn’t as mocking as it should have been, he felt. He was growing soft himself. But it was worth it. Afterward, she dragged at the smoke, studying him with an expression he hadn’t seen before, then sharing it with him in a hasty consumption of the cigarette. Outside the lock, someone was pounding out a signal for them to come on, and they moved out, both looking foolish. Alice Benson smiled, and the others were grinning, amusement temporarily stronger than their worries. June avoided his glance and slipped back, leaving the older woman beside him as they started.

It was rougher ground this time, and almost impassable from Earth standards, but they skimmed through easily enough here, leaping over the heavier boulders, or moving from one high spot to another. Going was comparatively slow, since Grey had to pick the trail, but progress was entirely satisfactory. No sign of life showed on any side; there were no trails, no indications of intelligent construction. Only the forbidding cliff loomed up closer, jagged edges of it unshaped by wind or water.

Grey waited for Alice Benson, his eyes admiring her as she made the spring to his side. “I wonder what sort of a girl you were, ma’am? Right now, you’re the best man in the bunch!”

“Thank you, Grey. It’s nice not to be a nuisance.” Then she smiled.

“As a matter of fact, I was a little imp. Just about the same sort as June Correy. That girl’s got good stuff in her; all she needs is a bridlel”

June’s grunt came in scornfully. “Don’t get ideas from her, Half-Pint. It’ll take a man to put that bridle on!”

He started to answer, then caught the older woman’s warning head-shake, and left it to her judgment. The girl looked up, expecting a reply, frowned when none came, and seemed surprised. Mrs. Benson winked at Grey, as they picked up their way again, leaving him wondering why. Maybe he was soft, but he wasn’t fool enough to think he’d have a chance with the girleven if he wanted to.

Finally, the ship became visible, lying close to the cliffs. It had been hard hit, there was no doubt of that; apparently it had landed on only one leg of the tripod, and had been falling too rapidly. The leg had crumpled under it, letting the whole side of the ship slip over and come crashing down. Where the engines were located, the walls had broken in, though the tripod leg must have soaked up most of the initial shock, leaving a comparatively small blow from the crash.

The fact that the two flares had been set off, however, indicated that the air within must not have been lost; the ships were designed to take a fair blow on their thin outer skin without it breaking the walls of the living quarters. He flipped the switch over, beaming in his call. “SwansonI Englewood! Marsden! Ship Lunar Moth calling spaceship Delayed Meeting! Come in!”

They hung waiting for an answer, but none came. It meant nothing, though. Any one of numerous reasons could have existed for the lack of response. The men might be dead, or nearly so. Or the antenna outside the ship might have been broken; more probably, the whole radio outfit was smashed, since no signal had been pushed through to Earth. He shortened the distance in long bounds until he was directly under it

As it lay, the air lock was within reach, and he stretched up and twisted the handle. It came open easily, letting the four climb into the lock behind him; it closed smoothly after them with a sudden hiss of air. He flipped open his helmet, sampling it; he’d expected it to be overused and stale, but beyond the smell of too much passage through the filters, there was nothing wrong, and the others followed his example in taking off his helmet.

Then the inner lock opened to show the living quarters, smaller even than those of the Moth, and in wild disarray. Seals had been

clamped down over the engine and cockpit tubes, indicating both had lost their air. Inside, there was no one!

Grey shook his head, glancing into the food and water tanks and noting that they were still half full, jerked open the paper drawer, spilled the log out into his hands, and riffled through its pages quickly. The first entries were about the routine preparations, the takeoff, and the coast through space after killing the blast. Then trouble, just as it had appeared on the Moth, but worse.

June 29: Landed somehow last night, expecting the blast to cease entirely every moment. It was crooked, and we tipped side-wise, breaking open the engine room. Poor Englewood didn’t have a chance. Buried him today after finding the radio ruined and setting off our flares; doubt they’ll be visible from Earth, but we hope somehow they’ll be noticed. Marsden is quite confident of a rescue by the second ship. With two of us, we can hold out some time. First men on the Moon!

That, Grey knew now, was wrong, though Swanson and Marsden had every right to believe it at the time. There followed pages of their estimates, their minor activities in going outside, and a gradually dimming hope as they figured more carefully on the length of time needed to complete the other ship.

July 11: Marsden and I talked it over this morning and decided that one man can easily last until rescue, two almost certainly cannot. We agreed to draw lots tomorrow. Tonight, while the boy’s sleeping, I’ll go out; I’ve already seen a fair sample of life, and I’m content. Keep a stiff upper lip, Bob, and when you read this, I hope you’ll realize I was right in going.

July 12: Poor Bob Marsden. He must have drugged my food, for I lay down expecting to wait for him to sleep, then slept myself. When I awoke, he was gone, leaving only a note wishing me good luck. I went out of the lock searching for him, but on this ground there is no spoor, and I failed. A fine assistant, a gentleman, and a great guy! God rest his soul. Somehow, I’ll last until rescue comes, to make sure he gets the credit he’s earned.

After that, entries became rarer, though they were still hopeful. A stray biblical quotation showed how Swanson was filling his time. Then Grey came to the last brief entry.

July 23:1 miss having someone to talk to, but I’m fairly cheerful. Tomorrow I must clean up the mess I’ve made of my living quarters. I took some of the litter out and buried it today. My spade turned up golda rich vein of it; thank God, it isn’t worth carrying back to Earth, or the Moon might see another bloody chaos such as the other gold rushes have been, and the gold reserves be flushed beyond all value as a monetary exchange. I suspect there are more valuable ores, though.

Beyond that there were only blank pages. Grey looked for any small note, but none was present. “Wish I knew how many suits they had.”

Mrs. Benson answered. “Twothey were supposed to leave one man inside at all times, so only a pair of suits were provided. You mean”

“Probably. There’s a well-used suit in the locker, and Marsden must have worn the other. Get all the pictures you can to confirm it, will you, Correy? And we’ll take the log along. Something must have taken Swanson out without a suitagain with no sign of a struggle.”

He clapped his helmet back on and headed for the lock, out of the way while she snapped the pictures and pulled the finished negative roll out. Then they filed back again toward the rear of the Delayed Meeting. Neff, he noticed, was shivering and sticking closer to Philip Ralston, who seemed almost glad of the troubles that confronted them. June was frowning, looking to him for instructions.

He had none. Hunting the missing men was worse than senseless. All they could do now was to remove the necessary parts from the big tube, if possible, and proceed back to the Moth. He motioned to Ralston, and the two rounded the ship, proceeding to the tube.

Only the shell was left! The lining had been entirely removed, and as he flashed his light inside, he could see that a few bolts were left, all wires and connecting pipes cleanly snipped off. Someone had removed it before them. “God!” Ralston stepped back slowly, his face falling back to its former bitterness. “Now what?”

Grey dropped to the ground beneath, his light on, searching for some faint clue as to the ones who had done it, but there were none; the hard rock held no imprints, and the coating of dust was undisturbed, though there was no wind to blow it about and remove

prints. The whole lining would have been a staggering load for all five of them, even here, but there was no sign as to its removal.

“Now, I suppose we go back to the ship empty-handed again! Six of us left, and with the provisions and air from this ship as well as the Moth, we can live for at least two months, by taking it easy. Then, or rather before then, we’ll have to try getting air and food from the lichens. Maybe those bird-things are edible, too, though I doubt it. Perhaps we can find ores and materials to make a repair on that Moth that will work.” He looked at the boy, who made no answer; it was just as well, since Grey knew they had no tools for all that work. But it would leave some faint hope for the others, perhaps.

They spread out again, going slowly this time. Grey wondered whether there was any hope of finding the natives, if such they were. If so, they might not be inimical, but only different, and some contact might be made that would enable an understanding. To himself, though, he still doubted the existence of intelligent lunarities; the birds could exist by keeping in motionbut could intelligence appear from such a life? And it would take a pretty fair civilization to reach the stage where they could survive the long night in one place; until that stage was reached, intelligent evolution seemed out of the question, and without intelligence, the stage was impossible.

Correy was beside him, and he noticed her flip her switch, addressing him over a beam that left the others out. “Curtains, do you think? Give it to me straight, Half-Pint.”

He beamed his own answer. “Probably, though we may be able to stave it off for quite a while. Andblooey goes space travel; it was bad without two accidents, but now they’ll be surer than ever it won’t work! Just the same, we’ll try to get back, somehow. Maybe we can get Bill Benson’s old machine to working, since it’s in good condition, and send one person back with the straight of it, maybe to lead a rescue trip. We’ve got the fuel he needed, and we can bake out water for his jets. Willing to try it?”

“Me? Chivalry getting the best of you again?” But her eyes carried the same speculative glint he’d seen before. “I’d risk it, if necessary, of course.”

“No, but you’re the official reporter for this trip, and you’ve got the connections to put it across; I haven’t. The others aren’t acceptable, either, that seems like the answer, so far. Anyhow, if I don’t get you out from under my feet, I’m likely to find myself beginning to get used to you, sort of. Then you’d probably be insufferable.”

“Think so?” He could read nothing in her remark, and put it down to devilishness that wanted to make more of a fool of him. “I’m afraid you’d be, Pipsqueak. I like men, but”

She snapped back to nondirectional sending, dropping back beside Mrs. Benson and leaving him to lead on alone. But if he was supposed to think about her, she was mistaken. He had other worries, and he turned to them. Right now he’d have been just as happy without the responsibility of the command he’d assumed, though he knew that there was more need of it now than ever. Ahead loomed the Lunar Moth, and the best observatory from which to survey the surrounding moonscape for some sign of life.

He leaped ahead of the others, flipping the switch and calling the ship. His fears were justified; there was no response, and Wolff would have been-too glad to have them return not to answer. So now Wolff was among the missing! Not that it was any loss, but it added somewhat to the mystery. How did the things know when to strike?

Obviously their method was shaping up. They apparently made no move to seize a group, but chose to pick them off one by one. Bill Benson and Bob Marsden were accounted for. But they’d taken Swanson after waitingeither because of the lock or for reasons of their ownthen Kennedy at the first opportunity, and now Wolff. Seemingly, then, if they all stuck together, they might be safe. And again, they might not.

He gripped the outer lock, relieved to find it still unlatched; if they whoever they werecould unfasten it from the outside, they could fasten it againand he had no means of forcing his way in. A relieved look came to the others, who apparently assumed that Wolff was opening it, but Grey said nothing, waiting until he was inside and the facts were confirmed before adding to their troubles. Then his suit was off and he was pushing open the inner seal to finish inspection.

A gentle snore answered him, and the body of Kennedy rolled back from the door as Grey pushed it, the man sleeping heavily, but apparently untouched! Wolff was nowhere to be seen, and there was no answer to Grey’s shout. Kennedy did not awaken, but went on snoring easily, relaxed, sliding slowly aside as the pilot pushed the lock the rest of the way and stepped into the room.

Neff stared as Grey picked up the big designer and dumped him into a more convenient place, her mouth open and her eyes threatening to pop out of her head. “He’s back!”

“That’s right, so he is! Suppose you see why he’s still asleep after

all the pushing he’s just received.” Grey made way for her, wondering how such an old-maidish child could ever have decided on a trip like this one, or how she’d ever become a first-class physician with her ideas untouched. “He’s either been injured pretty badly or it’s drugs.”

She began fussing over the man then, and Grey watched, wondering how alien life could know the physiological effect of drugs on a human being, unless they’d decided to give him something harmless, and this had happened. That might possibly account for his return; if they were curious rather than unfriendly, they would have decided to bring the man back to where his own kind could minister to him and correct their unexpected harm. On the other hand, this sleep might be the exhaustion following some peculiar mental torture, and his return a warning to get away and stay away.

It was up to Neff, now; if she could revive him, they’d soon find the answers from the man himself. Now she was injecting some colorless fluid into him, watching the reaction. Then she turned to the crew. “I’m sure it’s drugs. But I can’t guess which one would produce this result; those that show so few marked signshe seems almost normally asleepshouldn’t have such a strong effect. But I think the stimulant I gave should overcome it.”

Apparently she was right, for Kennedy began twisting, his mouth working loosely; it wasn’t a pretty sight, and the girl turned away, avoiding it. Then he grunted in purely involuntary sounds. She bent again, giving him another shot, and waiting for it to take effect.

The reaction was stronger and faster this time, and the man sat up abruptly, staring at the others. “Uh … Grey, Ralston, what are we doing here? Won’t be takeoff for hours. Say, how’d I get here?”

“That’s what we want to know. What happened? Did you see the other life, and what’s it like? Any message of any kind sent back with you?”

Kennedy shook his head, puzzled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Say, it feels funny here… . Where the deuce am I, anyway?”

“Still on the Moon, of course; the tube’s missing from Swanson’s ship-“

“The Moon!” His face contorted, and he looked from one to the other in amazement. “You kidding? … No, guess not. It feels like a light-gravity effect should, and things look funny here. How’d we get up here, though? Last I remember, we were told to lie down and to

catch up on sleep before the takeoff. Don’t tell me I slept through the whole thing?”

“Hardly. You were supposed to be fixing the tube. Then you were gone when we came back.” Grey could make no sense of it; Kennedy had an excellent memory and a clear mind, whatever his faults. “Pull yourself together, will you, and try to recall what happened? There’s a lot depending on it, especially since Wolff’s gone.”

“Uh, I dunno … Lord, I’m sleepy!” He was yawning and fell back, his eyes closing. “Can’t remember a thing, Grey. Go ‘way and lemme sleep. Lemme sleep.” The other words that he started to say faded out into an indistinct mumbling, followed by the same even snoring Grey had first heard. Shaking him had no effect, either.

Neff shrugged thin shoulders. “If he can sleep with all that injection in him, I give up. It might not be safe to wake him again. No drug acts like that! Do you think”

“I don’t think anything. At first, he was clear-headed enough, it seemed, and he didn’t remember a darned thing; he wasn’t fooling us. Well?”

The others had no suggestions, though they obviously had imaginations that were working overtime. Grey’s was quiescent; the facts as he now found them fitted into neither of the possibilities that had occurred to him, and he was no nearer a solution of the intentions of the other life than before.

“Wolff’s gone, as you’ve probably noticed. I can’t say I consider that a great loss, but I’d look for him if I had any idea where to search. Until one of you can figure that out, I’m going outside, over to Benson’s little ship. I want to look the motor and other things over. The rest of you stay here and keep an eye open for anything suspicious.”

June frowned at him. “You can’t go out there alone, Runt! These things seem to pick out anyone who’s by himself, and they’re likely to get you. Don’t be a fool!”

“Maybe I want them to get me, Carrots.” He headed for the lock, screwing on his helmet. “I’ll be back when I get here, and if I don’t come back, you’re no worse offyou’ve got that much more provisions to divide among you. See you!”

The inner door closed behind him, and he passed out and down the ladder. Correy’s yells had disappeared with the closing lock, and now only the sound of his own feet striking the rocks beneath him reached his ears, carried up through the air inside his suit. If there

was life waiting for him, it could approach soundlessly, but he refused to spend his time looking back over his shoulder.

He sped along, through the valley of the lichens, up the rise, and across the rocks to the Mice, seeing no hint of life other than what he’d already seen. For a moment, he hesitated, wondering if they had guessed his purpose and were waiting for him inside the ship; then he shrugged and reached up for its tiny lock.

IV

They were all waiting when he returned, or rather picking at food that had been placed before them, and in the few minutes he’d stood outside the inner seal, he’d heard no words spoken. They jumped as he threw back the door, varied expressions crossing their faces. Ralston mirrored frank relief and admiration, Correy’s face lighted momentarily. Grey reached back into the lock.

“Any disturbances while I was gone? Hear anything?”

“Not a sound, Grey. We were peaceful enough, waiting to hear something from you come over the speaker. Another ten minutes and I’d have followed you.” The boy was tackling his food now with a much better appetite.

“Umm.” Grey drew in the figure of Wolff, flaccid and snoring faintly. He dragged it to the middle of the floor. “Little present for you! Found him between the outer and inner seals, just like that. Lucky I spotted him at once and got in before the air rushing out had time to do him any real damage. He was quiet enough for you not to hear him, but I can’t figure how they pushed open the lock and carried him in without sounds reaching you. Look him over, Neff.”

Her diagnosis was rapid this time. “Exactly the same as the other! Do you think I should try to revive him?”

“Don’t bother. You’d get the same results. Notice, though, that he isn’t wearing a suit of any kind, and that means they either had suits for humans or else they carry their customers in some kind of airtight vehicle. A man can stand a little vacuum if he doesn’t panic but only for a few seconds. Nice little game, isn’t it? Only it isn’t a game … there’s a good sound reason behind this, somewhere; practical jokers don’t work that hard. Find the reason, and maybe you’ll have the clue to them.”

They put the sleeping Wolff in his sack, for want of a better place for him, and Grey shook his head as Mrs. Benson began putting

down paper dishes for him. “Not now. I’m going up and have a look through the top emergency lock.”

“What did you find at the other ship?” Coney asked, still looking at the sacks that held Wolff and Kennedy.

“Guess! I should have expected it, but I didn’t.”

She glanced around at him, curiosity giving place to sudden suspicion. “The motors had been removed. Is that it?”

“That’s it. They’ve been gone a long time, too. There was still some air in the shipnice construction thereand the metal was dulled on the bolts, showing the nuts had been removed long before this. No hope there.” He pulled down the little ladder leading up to the escape hatch and began climbing. June brushed back her hair, following him up the long climb and into the little lock that was just big enough for the two of them. Four little quartz windows gave a view of the crater around them, once the shutters were pulled back; it had been intended as a lookout station as well as an escape.

As he swung the telescope from one side to the other, nearly all of the crater was visible, stretching out to the abrupt horizon on one side and to the towering cliffs on the other. He was looking for a trace of a trail, a cleared section among the rough rocks, or any sign of life, but he found none. No buildings, no piles of trash, not the faintest hint of intelligence; then he caught sight of a long stretch of the bird-creatures hopping in a stream from some point beyond his vision to eat and replenish their air before rushing out of sight again.

“Maybe they don’t live here,” Correy hazarded. “They could come from some other part, only visiting here to take away or bring back somebody.”

“They could, but I don’t believe it. They’re somewhere near, or they wouldn’t be so quick to know when we’re all away and spot our weak moment. Well, that leaves only one placethe cliff!” He swung the telescope then, studying the rugged wall, until she took it from his hand and looked herself.

“It doesn’t look like home to me, Half-Pint. If people lived there, you’d expect them to have some structure outside their entrance.”

“But these aren’t necessarily people. They might have different ideas.”

“I suppose.” She put the telescope down, rubbing her eyes. “I can’t see anything, but I’ll try again when my eyes clear uphurts too much to look across this glare… . You wouldn’t have any of those cigarettes left, would you?”

He grinned, holding up the package that was still half full. “Mm—

hmm. I’m no pig, Redhead. Look nice? … No, now wait a minute don’t get so hurried about it. There should be some kind of ritual to using this reserve, don’t you think? Any suggestions?”

“Darn you, Grey! Keep your cigarettes, then!”

“As you like.” He selected one deliberately, running it back and forth over his thumb, tamping down the end, and lighting it. The little end glowed in the semidusk of the cubbyhole, and the thin wash of air that came in through the pipes only served to stir the smoke around, letting it cloud the air before drawing it out. Grey grunted in animal comfort, doubling his legs under him and sprawling out on the floor. “Our favorite brand, too! Seems a pity to think of their being gone so soon.”

She held out longer than he’d expected, knowing how thoroughly tied to the habit she was. Then she shrugged and flopped down beside him. “Okay, okay, be a cad if you want to. What’ll you do when they’re all gone?”

“Use the two whole cartons left on Swanson’s shipEnglewood and Marsden left quite a supply, and Swanson never used them, apparently. Since we’re the only ones who smoke on this scow, they should last quite a while. Don’t go looking for them, though; they’re all locked up in my hamper. Hey!” He sat up, rubbing his face, and grabbed.

She ducked, grinning at him. “You’re a rat, Nemo Grey, and you deserve worse. That’s the lousiest trick I’ve heard of!”

“It is,” he admitted cheerfully, beginning to understand why men who work under a strain devote so much of their free time to horseplay, partly amused at himself, and partly amazed. “What are you going to do about it, though?”

“Slit your throat when I’m sure there are none left, I suppose… . Now, do I get that darned smoke?”

There were four butts on the floor when he finally picked up the telescope again, and he was less amused, more amazed. She brushed her clothes, rising. “This is a lunatic world, all right, Half-Pint. People go crazy here… . Did you know that NefFs decided somehow Phil’s her heartthrob, after all? Well, she has, and he’s half delirious about it; doesn’t care whether he gets back or not.”

“Dunno what he sees in her; he’s a swell kid, though, and I’m glad he’s happy… . Umm! Take a look over therebetween the green-black stuff and the crack beyond it. See what I do?”

She looked, her forehead wrinkling. “A hole, maybe? Looks something like one.”

“Must be. They have to have some place to live, and I’ll bet they’re oxygen breathers. Wish me luck, Red-Top!” Grey caught the rope and was down hand-over-hand, moving toward the lock, with her at his heels. “Uh-uh, you stay here. I think I’ve spotted their hideout, Ralston, and I’m going scouting. Take command while I’m gone.”

Correy caught the inner seal and slid through. “I’m protecting the cigarette supply, you usurer! You’re not running off and leaving me without a smoke. Don’t say it! It won’t do any good.”

He knew she meant it, and nodded, climbing into his suit and helping her with her own outfit. At that, taking someone along might be a good idea, since at least one of them would stand some chance of getting away and back to the ship with information. They jumped from the lock and went leaping across the rocks, heading toward the cliff, each selecting a path separate from the other, but fairly close. Swanson’s ship was half a mile to their right as they passed it, then the ground grew rougher, breaking into jagged gullies and humps of rock, and they were forced to slow down.

“Plenty of minerals here,” he called over the phones. “I’ll bet the bottom of that cliff is a treasure house; may even contain radium in fair quantity. Hey, where are you?”

She was out of sight, but her voice came back instantly. “Left, down the gully; it turns and it’s narrow, but it looks like the best way. Come on.”

He saw the place she meant and headed down after her. Freakishly, the floor was fairly smooth, and his bounds carried him along at a brisk pace. Correy wasn’t waiting for him, apparently satisfied that nothing could jump on them here. Then the crack straightened out and he could see her ahead, passing through the narrowest section. He glanced to his right, wishing he knew something more of metals and their ores, and back in time to see her sprawl on her face.

“June!”

“I’mall right, I guess. Jarred a rock loose, and it hit my back. I … Grey! Help! My air tube’s cut!” Her voice was frantic, and he could see the suit collapsing. She wriggled and her voice was sick and weak. “Grey!”

“Steady!” He was leaping toward her now without caution. “Hold your breath, if you can. I’ll be there in a second. Don’t waste your energy. There.” He caught the rock that was still on her, tossing it aside, and looking down at the lacerated tube that led the oxygen into the helmet from the tank. It was short, and normally protected,

but a jagged edge had slit it neatly and the last air was rushing out as he watched, faster now that the rock no longer plugged the hole.

With desperate haste, he jerked his mittens from his hands, snapping the wrist bands closed to save his air, and his naked fingers swept down onto the scorching metal of the tube, wrapping around it tightly, covering the damaged section. The air rushed back into the suit as he twisted the valve, and he could hear her breath catch. “Take it easy, now. Breathe deeply a few timesempty your lungs after each. That’s right. I’ll have to take a couple of minutes to screw in the spare one… . Thank the Lord, there is one… . And you’ll be forced to hold your breath again. Nowa normal breath and hold it!”

The sun had been glaring down on the metal, heating it, though part of the trip had been through pools of shadow. But he had no time to worry about burns as his fumbling fingers screwed out the old tube and fastened in the replacement. The ten pounds of pressure in his body made his hands seem puffy in the vacuum, though it was insufficient to cause serious damage. Finally, though, the new tube was in, and he turned on the valve again, letting oxygen feed in to her.

She came to her feet shakily, looking at his reddened hands, over which he was drawing his mittens. “I’m Sony, Grey. I shouldn’t have been so careless. You’re”

“Forget it!” He was breathing heavily himself, ashamed of the shakiness of his legs, and his voice was brusque. “Nothing serious. We stick together hereafter, that’s all. Come on!”

“Wait!” It came over the phones, without directional sense, but they both swung around to see Alice Benson coming toward them. “Wait, please. I’ve had the hardest time following you two from the little I could see of you. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Ralston had no business letting you come, ma’am,” Grey told her. “Why’d you do it?”

“Because I’m tired of waiting for things to happen, lad. I want to know what’s going on, just as much as you do. And here, I’m almost young again, so I didn’t think I’d be a nuisance. Besides, what’s the difference, really? If you get caught, I’d be stranded here, anyway, to die slowly.”

“Let her come, Grey?” June asked. He thought it over briefly and nodded, starting again toward the cliff.

As she’d said she was agile enough here to be no handicap, and the chances could be no worse. They slipped through the end of the

cut, and were against the bottom of the cliff; above them, the dark circle that must be a hole could be seen clearly, sixty feet up the steep side of the rocks.

He wasted no time in explaining his methods, but made a running leap, rising nearly twenty feet off the ground, and managing to catch an outcropping above the smooth bottom part. Somewhere, his feet found a place to hold on, and he spotted another hold within reach before removing a small coil of rope carefully and lowering it to the other two, who swarmed up quickly and caught the same jagged tooth of rock.

Actually, what had looked hard because of Earth memories proved surprisingly easy, their bodies in the suits weighing less than a quarter Earth weight, and the cliff being covered with sharp, uneroded cracks arid projections. There was a little shelf beneath the hole, and they were standing on it in a matter of seconds, staring into absolute blackness.

“We’ll have to feel forward,” he ordered. “No lights!”

The utter black was eerie, having none of the usual slight hints of light found in an atmosphere; he tested each step, one hand held to the cold rock wall, the other above and in front to locate something that might bump against his helmet. Foot by foot, they advanced, the breathing of the other two heavy in his phones. Then his hand found a flat obstruction, felt along it, and revealed it as a smooth, rounded end to the tunnel. He put his hands over his lamp, leaving only a slight hole, and switched the beam on and forward. In front of him, a metal door was set into the rock, a handle projecting from it, and a row of odd characters beside the handle. On the other side, English letters showed whitely: “WELCOME!”

June gasped, but his own mind found a hint of a solution. They’d had Swanson for days now, and some kind of communication might have been set up. Whether the sign was actually a greeting or a trap, he had no way of knowing. Nor could he be sure that its meaning was anything beyond a bit of grim humor on Swanson’s part.

He tried the handle, found that it turned easily, and stepped in, a glare of light springing down as he did so. The two women cried out, but followed, and the door closed automatically, while a sudden hiss of air spilled in. Seconds later, another seal opened by itself, leading out into a long, smooth hall of white stone, lighted softly from the sides and ceiling. Grey’s skin tightened, but he entered, the others behind him, and the inner seal swung softly shut.

The air, as he tested it, was sharp with the smell of ozone, and

slightly thinner than even the mixture in the ship, but it was breathable, and rather pleasant after a minute. He debated leaving his suit on for an emergency escape, then decided against it; those automatic doors could undoubtedly be sealed against him at any time. He was in it now, and had to see it through.

“We might as well be comfortable,” he told the others. “Let’s take ‘em off and go ahead to meet our hosts in suitable style. Wonder why they haven’t shown up yet? Here, Carrots, light up!”

“Thank you, kind sir,” she said, mock amazement on her face. “If I didn’t see it, I still wouldn’t think there weren’t strings to the offer somewhere. Where to? Down the hall?”

“All we can do. Want to try it, Mrs. Benson?”

“I do, Grey. People who can design these soft lights and cut such rock to make walls can’t be all bad. This is culture, and a well-developed one, too.”

Their steps were muffled by some form of carpeting on the floor as they passed down the hall and rounded the corner into a room beyond it. Then they stopped, staring.

Bob Marsden tossed aside the strange roll of writing he was studying and bounded forward, a grin on his homely face, with Swanson at his heels. “Earth people, finally! Howdy, folks. I see they didn’t bring you in asleep?”

Swanson was pumping Grey’s hand, grinning. “So they picked you for this trip, eh? Good. Heard you did better than I did, too. How about introducing the ladies, fellow? … Hey, Burin Dator, you’ve got guests!”

Into the room, a creature walked, resembling a man somewhat in general formation, though only three feet tall and slightly built. The features on the head spread wider apart, the nose lying under the mouth instead of above, and the skin was thick and leathery, entirely devoid of hair. He resembled a rough rubber caricature of a human being, but his appearance was somehow civilized and pleasant, as any well-formed and graceful animal is pleasant.

“Mike!” It was a low rumbling voice, oddly at variance with his size, but the intonation was hearty and genuinely glad. “Mike, boy, you finally returned. We’ve missed you around, been wondering why you didn’t make the first trip. Swanson here explained you couldn’t, so we were pretty sure you’d make the rescue ship, but we didn’t get close enough to see you, and the description we wormed out of that man, Kennedy, wasn’t exact enough to make sure. I was just about to go out and meet your gang… . Welcome home, boy!”

Burin Dator slid his delicate “hand” into Grey’s, his eyes warm and an expression Grey knew to be meant for a smile on his face. “Sound general assembly! Mike’s come home! Lursk, some of that synthetic wine! This calls for a celebration!”

V

It had been quite a celebration at that, with others of the Martians trooping in and joining quietly, all regarding Grey with the same look of familiarity. Finally Burin Dator shoved back his seat and led them into a comfortable room where padded seats were arranged gracefully around a low table and along the walls, his wrinkled face beaming. The Earth trio followed in growing surprise, somewhat annoyed by Swanson and Marsden, who chose to answer no questions; they were still unsure that this was real, eager for explanations that had been hinted at. Grey was clutching his sanity grimly, unconsciously sticking close to June for a straw of normality to cling to.

The little Martian selected a seat leisurely. “Comfortable, everyone? I sincerely regret the unpleasantness of our first contacts with you, but it was necessary that we find out what type you were. Unfortunately, the two men whom we first obtained were both of a type we’ve been forced to take measures against, so they were returned in good health, but somewhat restrained.”

June stirred. “Just what did you do to them?”

“Nothing permanently unpleasant, I assure you. We removed some of their memories, after determining that their words on your Earth would have bad results for usthey were filled with a desire to exploit this world, you know. They’ve forgotten the last few days, with the help of a little surgery, and now are under a drug to keep them from knowing more. We’ll give you an antidote to counteract it before landing again. … It was rather ticklish work, removing some memory, but leaving all except the very recent events, and I’m a little proud that we didn’t have to blank their whole minds.”

“Earth surgeons can destroy memory,” Grey agreed; he should know something about it, since the whole subject naturally interested him. “But they can’t do that, certainly not to another race. You’ve got good reason to be proud.”

“It was difficult. But remember that our hands are somewhat more delicate than yours, and that we’ve studied the mind of human type with great care, only recently realizing how it sorted its memories and what nerves controlled them. Also, where your race leads ours immeasurably in mechanics and inventiveness, we are much further

advanced in medicine, psychology, and the general study of life-chemistry and thought than you. Swanson wasn’t our first, nor Marsden; we met our first Earthman much before that.”

Alice Benson leaned forward, her eyes gleaming. “That man, Mr. Datorwas his name Bill Benson?”

“It was, lady. And I gather you’re his wife, so we’ll turn over his manuscript work to you before you leave. He believed you were dead when you didn’t come, not knowing of that war you had, or he would probably have gone back… . But, to begin, we on Mars had a better medium of observation than youour air is thinner, causing less loss of detail in astronomical observation. We saw his flare on the Moon by chance, observed and analyzed it carefully, and decided that it indicated there was life on your world, and that you had successfully bridged space. At the time, we had completed, by a fortunate coincidence, a spaceship upon which our peopleor at least our group had been working some two hundred of your years; we are slow at such things, as I said. It used a simple oxygen-hydrogen jet, since it was barely possible from our light-gravity world to your Moon, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the crew. Then, when we finally located Bill Benson, it took us nearly a month to repair the injuries to his health from his wanderings outside the ship and his exhausted air. Tracking him was very difficult here, and he was nearly dead when we finally located him. It took time to establish a common understanding, but while our people and yours differ surprisingly, their similarity in social behavior and thought is much more surprising.”

The Martian paused, thinking before resuming. “Like you, we have a practical type and an idealistic one. From the former, there could be only trouble in a meeting of races; it would be a struggle for supremacy, and would go ill for both. Unlike you, our idealists recognized the fact when the first attempts at constructing a rocket were begun and organized a small, secret group. It is from them that all our people here are drawn, and only that group knows of our success. We are forced to deceive the others. Bill Benson agreed that only the idealists of his race must know, also. You are such, so are we. The two men asleep in your ship are not, and they cannot know, nor must your world.

“Because this world is rich in things we both need, ores and materials that are immensely precious, even in small loads. World-shaking fortunes are to be made from them, and from the secrets gleaned by each from the other. We’ve already begun using them

your engines, your gadgets, the other things Bill Benson could describe, and especially your atomic energy, which is the real key. They’re infiltered slowly, outwardly the result of individual luck or skill, and you must do the same.

“What we envision, then, is a small group on each planet, controlling gradually larger amounts of that world’s wealth, seemingly with no connections here, until such a company holds the balance of power. It would be composed, quite naturally, at the head, of men who know and sympathize. Then, when the idealists have paved the way, we can open the gates between the races, controlling the opinions carefully so the mobs will agree with us. We can never live on your heavy planet, and you would find ours most uninviting, but hereyour Moonwe find a common ground for the future of both races. The other way, we fear destruction. Can it be done?”

Grey nodded, his mind filled with that huge plan for a future perhaps centuries later. “It can be done, I think. Certainly the men who control the finance of a nation can do a great deal to shape its thoughts and laws.”

“And the nucleus of the company already exists,” Mrs. Benson pointed out eagerly. “I own Atomic Power, which itself is a powerful instrument. At the moment, my liquid assets are depleted, but that is only money; the real wealth is still untouched. Cartwright, who runs it for me, probably is not to be trusted, but he is due to retire soon. Then my nephew is supposed to take over, and he’d know to organize better than anyone else. If we were to land on a desolate place, damaging our ship afterward and radioing for help, then represent the Moon as completely unprofitable, a dangerous, useless place”

“Precisely, lady.” Burin Dator favored her with another of his toothless grins. “Those two men were mentally impaired by some kind of radiation, as you would have been yourself, of course, had your age not kept you within the shiponly the very young can withstand it and the others of you all can be made to show severe suffering, by certain drugs we have. Such pictures as have been taken will show nothing. Then you organize secretly, forming mining companies, small inventive groups, and so forth, and building a very small but efficient fleet of space freightersbased on some remote island, I believeto carry the idealists and the refined metals that are valuable in tiny quantitiesjewels, too, to be found in the cratersand we can safely trust the future from there.”

Grey could agree with it, and could see how the company could operate quietly, not as one, but as many. It still left the big problem

on his hands, however. “How do we get back? Our tube’s shot, and you probably use something different that won’t fit the Mothl”

“We use a type of propulsion similar to yours now, perfected by Bill Benson, and much more efficient; it does not destroy itself, either. One can be fitted easily. We are visionaries, Mike, but not foolish ones.”

“What’s all this ‘Mike’ business, anyway? Don’t tell me I’m a Martian, transformed somehow?” The calm use of that name was beginning to wear on his nerves, coupled with the fatherly interest shown by the Martians.

Burin Dator laughed, an obvious imitation of Earth emotions, but one that had become natural to him. “Not at all, boy. I said we were far advanced in life-chemistry. When Bill decided to stay here, he wanted a son, if our methods worked as well as we claimed. We made nine failures, and one that was almost a failure, but we learned, and you’re our eleventh attempt at exogenesis; I’m afraid it wasn’t perfectly adapted for Earth life, since you’ve always shown some peculiar features, but you’re the … ah … foster son of Mrs. Benson.”

“And how’d I come to Earth then, carrying no memories with me?”

“We’d promised your father before he died that you’d be returned, but we knew it was unsafe to trust a boy who knew nothing of his native planet, so we were forced to remove your memory first. We hoped habits of thought and emotions would develop a similar character in you, and that certain wordless suggestions we planted after the operation would bring you back, if possible. It seems we were right, fortunately.”

“Can you give back the memory, then?”

“No. It is final when performed, though we can show you records of your life from its beginnings that are almost as good.” Dator hesitated, glancing from one to the other. “We hope, naturally, that you will remain with us when the others go; they can explain it as lunar madness, how you walked away and were never seen again. Mr. Swanson can pilot the ship back. You found him near death, of course, but saved by the fact he’d never left his ship. Something of that idea. But we need at least one representative from your planet to remain.”

Grey considered it slowly. Earth had never been particularly kind to him, a freak among normal men, and it was only here that he had found friendsMrs. Benson, Ralston, these Martians; perhaps even

June Coney. Back there, they’d be swallowed in their work, and he’d be alone again. But

June broke in, settling the matter. “Of course we’ll stay. It’s the only solution.”

He jumped at her voice, swinging to study her face, but it remained calm. “We? Naturally, I’m the one to stay, but you”

“Stick. That is, if you don’t mind. I’m being honest, now. Here, you’re a man, and one that suits me under these conditions. Size doesn’t count. On Earth, I’d be ashamed to walk down the street with you. I’d erase you from my life so fast you’d never know what happened! But I’d rather not do that.”

Grey didn’t care to think of it himself; maybe it was a lunatic world, but insanity such as this was better than his normal life had been. He’d been afraid to think of such things, even here, but now”Do the Martians have some ceremony, Dator?”

Burin Dator nodded, beaming. “Indeed yes, or we have a copy of the Earth one. In the morning, then, my engineers will fix your ship, and you can say good-bye to your friends. Tonight, after you phone them to attend, why not the ceremony?”

Alice Benson had eyes that were filled with a hunger that had already accepted Grey as her own son. “That would be kind, Mr. Dator. And someday I’ll be back. This is my world… . What will you have for a wedding present, Michael?”

It was his world, too, the only place where he fitted. But new world or not, his emotions were finally flooding in on him, too fresh for him to express adequately. It was June who answered, her grin somehow sweet, mocking though it seemed.

“Cigarettes, Mrs. Benson. That boy gets more mileage out of a package than your rocket ever can.”

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