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Planet Mappers

<h2>7</h2> At Jak's question, Jon started. "Haven't looked yet. Let's go see." The two raced into the living room and into their parents' bunkroom. Mrs. Carver was just opening her eyes, and seeing the boys' anxious looks, struggled to sit up. They helped her, and Jak turned quickly to look at his father. To his relief, the latter's pulse was no weaker, and his breathing was regular. "We got through all safely," Jon assured his mother, and she threw her arms about him and broke into tears. "Hey, no need of crying now; it's all over." "I know." She reached down for a corner of her apron and wiped her eyes. "Just relief, I guess. Is Mr. C. all right?" she asked Jak. "Didn't seem to hurt him a bit." Indeed, just then there was a mutter from Mr. Carver's lips, and his eyelids fluttered open. The three gathered closely beside him, and were tremendously heartened at the look of sane awareness in his eyes. "Hullo?" as though surprised to find himself in bed and the others gathered about him. "Did I oversleep?" Jak reached out and took his father's hand. "No, Father. You've been a little ill and unconscious, that's all. But you're almost well now. A bit more rest and you'll be all OK." The invalid looked surprised, then doubtfully at his wife, who quickly stooped and kissed him. "Jak's right, Mr. C. You get some more sleep so you'll get strong quicker." Dutifully he closed his eyes and immediately his regular breathing told the three he was asleep once more. Quietly Jak drew the others out of the bunkroom and closed the door. Then his eyes shone and he grabbed his mother and danced her about, while Jon "tried to get into the act." "He's almost well; he's almost well!" Jak chanted. Jon yelled in honest praise. "You did a grand job, Owl." But his voice broke into a boyish treble with the excitement. After several minutes of jubilation, Jon went back into the control room and began figuring their course to Planet Three. He turned on the receiver and pointed the directional antenna. Soon the broadcast of their solar signal came in. This one about the sun had most worried him, but he could read it clearly: "This solar system was first discovered and charted by Tad Carver of Terra, on fourteenth January, 2136. It has been named 'Carveria,' and the five planets and seven satellites are being charted and named. Details will be filed with the Terran Colonial Board." Finally Jon finished his astrogation, then went back into the living quarters. "Ready to set course to Three, Folks. Strap down while I change course." "How long'll it take?" "Just under a couple of days at two G's." "Ouch! Do we have to go that fast?" Jak complained. "You want to get there, don't you?" Jon turned away indifferently, while Mrs. Carver smiled at Jak and shrugged. During the balance of that "day" Jon stayed in the control room. When either of the others looked in, he was studying intently. Right after breakfast the next morning he put in a long session at the computer and his drawing board, then after lunch went into the storeroom. After a while he came out with his arms filled with wires, cells, relays and other oddments, which he carried into the control room. The others, busy with their own work and chores, paid no special attention to what Jon was doing. Seeing him busy like this had become so commonplace they seldom bothered even asking what he was doing when he did not volunteer the information. But as they approached Planet Three early the following morning, under negative acceleration, all three were in the control room, peering intently into the visiplates. What would they find there? Would there be people of some sort? Cities? Jungles, deserts, ice fields? All three minds were busy with such conjectures as they came closer in. Their instruments had already told them Three possessed an atmosphere containing water vapor, so they knew it could not be entirely untenable, unless the air contained poisonous gases. But what real conditions they would discover there remained to be seen. They had already found, charted and photographed the two small moons that circled the planet. One of these was fairly large—about nine hundred miles in diameter, and the other much smaller, about a hundred and fifty. Three, itself, was about five thousand miles through. "There are clouds down there," Jak called suddenly as they approached ever nearer at constantly decreasing speed. "Yes, I see them." "And there's a big ocean!" Their mother was equally excited. "Three's only about thirty million farther away than Two, although on the opposite side of the sun right now. So there shouldn't be too much difference, except Three'll be colder," Jon stated. "We're about a hundred miles up now, so I'm throwing us into a descending spiral." "There's a big mountain range, and some of the peaks are snow-covered," Jak called out a few minutes later. "I see them. We're down to about twenty miles now, and I'm setting a crisscross orbit for two or three revolutions to get a better view and take our first pictures. Mom, if you can tear yourself away, I'm hungry." She stepped back from the screen, laughing. "You're always hungry." Then she glanced at her wrist-chronom and gasped in dismay. "No wonder—it's over an hour past lunchtime!" "We'll yell if anything especially interesting shows up," Jak called as she was leaving. By circling the planet from east to west they kept to the daylight side most of the time, and as the hours passed they were able to get most of their pictures and reports on the geography, climate and other conditions. Their spectro-analyzer showed considerable mineral deposits in many of the places over which they passed. They saw plenty of vegetation and Jon exclaimed about its coloring. "Must be fall here," Jak explained. "Unless, of course, those plants don't contain chlorophyll, which I doubt." But nowhere did they see anything that looked like the works of intelligent beings. Like Planet Two, there was no sign of people anywhere. When they became so tired they could no longer keep awake, Jon set the ship into a higher, safer orbit, and they all went to bed. Their father had awakened only once during the day, and then only for a few minutes, nor had his wife allowed him to talk, greatly as the boys, especially, desired it. <hr class="tb" /> After breakfast the next morning Jon maneuvered the ship down closer to the surface and they completed exploring the planet, taking their pictures and recordings. Jak made tests and reported the atmosphere not poisonous, although so scant they would have to wear suits most of the time when outdoors. "It's lots better than Mars, but not near as dense as Terra or Two back there," he told Jon. "Temp's below freezing, but I imagine it'll get warmer when the sun's nearer noon here." "Humans can adapt themselves to living here, then." Jon's voice was joyful. "They've already colonized planets worse than this, as far as temperature and air are concerned." "Yes, the human animal seems to be marvelously adaptable to almost any conditions not actually poisonous," Jak said admiringly. "There's even a colony of people from the High Andes of Souamer living on Mars now, without domes." "They could transport those Andean Indians to Mars direct because they were used to living in the rarefied atmosphere of the high mountains, eh?" "That's right. Those Indians would have suffocated at sea level back on Terra. Indeed, they seldom went down the mountains below ten thousand feet because of the discomfort. On Mars, they had some difficulty at first, but I understand the second generation born there are perfectly at home." Jon's blue eyes had been watching his detectors, even while his ears had been listening to Jak's explanations. So far he had not discovered any of that strange fuel-metal—if it was fuel—they had found on Two. He spoke of this now to his brother. "Wonder if those people didn't leave any caches here on Three, or what?" "Maybe they didn't like cold weather." Jak grinned. "More likely, though, either we haven't come close enough to detect it, or else they may only have made a cache on one planet in a system." "That's probably it. I've been watching for it all the way in, and 'Annie' didn't chirp at all. Well, do we land and see what the joint is like?" "Don't know about you, Chubby, but I sure want to. How about closer to the equator? Ought to be warmer there, and more comfortable. I want to study that plant life." "OK by me—if you don't try to load the boat with your specimens." Jon laughed, and Jak joined in sheepishly. "I promise not to go hog-wild like I did last time." "Going to land, Mom. Strap down," Jon called into the intercom. Jak reached for the sheet of landing instructions, but Jon shook his head. "Don't think we'll need those. Tighten your belt, here we go." "Hey, what gives?" Jak's eyes widened as he saw his brother throw in one switch and then take his hands off the controls, although his eyes were alertly watching his many dials and lights, and his body was tensely ready for emergencies. Jon did not answer, and Jak watched in the plate as the ground below appeared to rush closer each second. It almost seemed to him they were not slowing as fast as was usual on landings, but he was not unduly worried—he trusted Jon to know what he was doing ... even if he didn't! But apparently Jon was not satisfied—for when the ship was only a few hundred yards above ground, he suddenly worked frantically at his controls, and the nose of the little yacht came up sharply and she zoomed into the upper air with a push from her stern tubes. Thirty-some miles up, Jon set the ship into a circular orbit, then got out of his pilot's seat and began tinkering with some of the controls. "What's wrong?" Jak asked. "How come you went down without following the manual, and then came up again?" But Jon was tight-lipped and uncommunicative. Their mother's voice came over the intercom, asking why they had not landed, and Jon answered her question. "Just a slight miscalculation of height, Mom, so I came up to try again," he answered. "Stay strapped down—I'll be going down again in a minute." Soon he was back in his seat, scanning his various instruments, then again Jak saw him throw that one switch. Once more the little ship began settling toward the ground beneath, without any handling of the controls. This time the landing was smooth, soft and even. Still without any move by Jon, Jak could feel the various generators and engines stop, the landing props go down, and finally the board show a clear green "neutral" condition. "How ... how come?" Jak gasped, and this time Jon chose to answer. "Just rigged up a series of photo-electric cells and relays, so now all I have to do is throw one switch and it takes care of all the little details of landing, just as this other one does of take-offs." Jon tried to make it sound like an offhand comment. "My height-to-descent-speed ratio was off a bit, and that was what I had to fix." "But ... but that's something brand new, isn't it? I never heard of such a thing before." Jak still could hardly believe what he had just witnessed. "Oh, it wasn't so much a much." Jon looked down as he guessed that his brother would soon realize what a remarkable thing he had done. "Boy, you're good!" Jak applauded, and as their mother came into the control room, he almost shouted, "Jon's gone and...." "Landed so we could go out a bit and make a fuller report in our log," Jon cut in sharply, with a warning look at his senior. "How's Pop?" "Been moving about some, although he hasn't wakened fully yet today. His breathing is much easier. He still makes noises—but then, he always did sort of snore when he slept." The boys went with her into the bunkroom to look at their father before they started outside. There was a flush of color on his skin, although it was paler than its usual state. When Jak examined the side of his patient's head he could see that it was practically healed. Also, the broken leg seemed in fine shape, as seen through the clear plastic of the cast. "He'll be waking up for good any day now, I'm sure," he said thankfully. "Gosh, I hope so," Jon said. "I feel like a fish out of water without my Pop." "You seem to be doing fine, anyway," his mother cheered him. "And so is Jak," she hastened to add, fearful her elder son might think her prejudiced. The boys went out to get ready for their outside trip. "What's the big idea, not letting me tell Mother about your new dinkus for landings and take-offs?" Jak railed. "Aw, she wouldn't understand it, and it'd worry her for fear it wouldn't work." Jon was clearly uncomfortable about the praise he could not help seeing in his brother's eyes. "I'll tell Pop, when he wakes up. Come on, I'll race you into our suits." The boys donned their spacesuits, and examined each other to make sure they were "tight." They saw to it that their guns and bandoliers were fully loaded; that they had with them what tools and other equipment they felt might be needed. Then they opened the lockdoors and went outside. They started off in a predetermined direction, having made plans to go about five miles. Then they would swing in a circle around the ship. If they saw anything they thought exceptionally interesting, they would make short side trips, and if necessary, complete their circle on another day. In any event, they had promised their mother to be back by dark. The first leg of their journey was completed without any excitement, although Jak was continually finding new plants he wanted to collect for future study. "Nix, Owl, not this trip," Jon kept protesting. "You promised, remember?" "Oh, all right, killjoy. But there's so much here I want to find out about." "Yes, so much you couldn't even make a dent in it in a lifetime. Want us to leave you behind to do it?" "You just try that, and I'll knock your teeth loose." "You and what platoon of space marines?" Jon jeered good-naturedly, knowing that with his greater size and strength Jak could not make good his threat—even if he had really wanted to. Bickering in more or less friendly fashion, they covered their first five miles, then turned to the left and started circling. About a mile of this and they entered a fairly large wood. The trees here were so strange the boys looked about them with a growing excitement. Unconsciously, they drew closer together, and finally Jon voiced what was in both their minds. "I'm beginning to get scared, Jak. Ought we to keep trying to go this way?" "I'm not sure," slowly. "I'm getting a feeling there's something here that seems to be unfriendly—perhaps dangerous. But there isn't a thing we can see—not even animal life." "Maybe it's only because this forest is so unlike either those on Terra or the ones on Two." But Jon gripped his rifle more tightly, and his thumb unlocked the safety catch. The two boys finally came to a dead halt in a small clearing perhaps a hundred feet in diameter, and examined more closely the few trees and bushes about them. The ground on which they were now standing was bare and sandy, although beneath the trees it had been more like black loam. "This sand must be why there's practically no vegetation here," Jak said. He dug into the ground a bit, and found it to be sand as deep as he went. Rising, he looked even more closely at the trees about the edge of the clearing. Not one of them was the straight, slim type with which they were familiar. These were ungainly and appeared stunted, although many were actually close to thirty feet tall. Even so, they looked too large in diameter for their height. None of them had more than five or six twigless, leafless limbs, and those were almost as large in diameter as the trunks from which they grew. These branches twisted and curved, although in most cases the curve was upward, so that the leafless limbs often ended at a higher point than the main trunk of the tree. Suddenly Jak began laughing—but with a high-pitched, mirthless laughter. As Jon looked at him in surprise, the elder tried to calm himself. "I know what makes them look so scary," he finally said between gasps. "It's that weird look. But remember those pictures we've seen of the Zona and Newmex deserts in Noramer, back home? Remember the Josha trees growing there? They're as alien-looking as anything on Terra, and these look something like them." Jon, too, began grinning as remembrance came. "'Most let ourselves get scared over nothing, didn't we? Come on, let's travel." And he started forward. Yet the strangeness persisted, and before the boys had passed through the fringe of those tortured trees on the other side of that wood they started to get that queazy feeling again, in spite of their realization of what caused it. They began going more slowly, cautiously; ready for a quick turn and run, yet both inwardly hating themselves for the fear, and each determined not to let the other know he was afraid. But it was with a distinct sense of relief that they saw the end of that forest ahead of them. Unconsciously they hurried their steps until they were almost trotting. For the balance of their trip Jon was strangely acquiescent as Jak became more and more engrossed in the strange plant life of this world Three. He knew that this was Jak's dish, and he was perfectly willing to defer to the elder's knowledge and desire to learn. His main concern was to keep his brother from overloading himself with specimens, or from loitering too much. Jak had been especially studying the soil here, Jon noticed, and finally he asked about it. "Notice one peculiar thing about this planet?" "What's on your mind?" "The total absence, as far as we've seen, of any sort or type of protoplasmic life," Jak reported. "Hey, that's right, though I hadn't thought of it before. Our examination from the air, I remember now, showed no animals, birds or people. Plenty of vegetation, though." "Yes, it has everything in that line. I wonder, though...." He paused, and he grew thoughtful. "Wonder what?" "How those plants can grow, without any worms or ants or anything to loosen and irrigate the soil, and no animals or birds to make fertilizers, or bees or butterflies or anything to carry pollen?" Jon shrugged. "Wouldn't have the foggiest. That's your line, not mine. But they must do it some way—there's sure lots of plant life here." But Jak was still shaking his head in puzzlement as they finally returned to the ship. It was quite dark outside when the boys went into the control room after dinner. Jon went over to the window-ports, while Jak began working with his plant specimens. "Jak, come here," Jon called after a moment or two. The elder, prompted by the curious urgency in his brother's voice, left his specimens and ran to the other's side. "What're those things?" Jak stared through the port in amazement. Outside, drifting across the clearing, were nearly a dozen large, spherical things like ghostly white balloons. They must have been almost a yard in diameter, and by straining their eyes the boys could see tentacles or tendrils of some sort depending from the bottom surfaces. "Gosh, never saw anything like those. Let's go out and see what they are." "Let's not and say we did," Jon retorted. "I want to find out more about them first." He went over to the control panel and switched on the searchlight, as well as the pilot's visi-screen. Looking into the latter, he was able to direct the light so it shone on a couple of the floating balls. Jak was studying the plants—for so he believed them to be—more carefully, now that they were lighted. But after a moment he yelped excitedly, "Hey, they're deflating. Must be the light does it." Jon was watching them in his screen. "Yes, I see now. What causes it?" "I don't know," Jak answered sadly and absently. "But I sure want to know. How's about covering me while I go out and see if I can get one?" "Well, maybe in your suit you'd be safe." Once suited up, Jak went outside and across the short distance to where the balls seems to be slightly closer together. He tried first one way and then another to catch one, but at his lightest touch they burst and deflated. After several unsuccessful attempts, though, he called excitedly through his suit-sender. "Jon, you read me?" "Coming through." "I'm going to try fanning one toward the air-analyzer. I want to see if we can get an idea of what's inside. I've got a screwy hunch." "Right, I'll switch the light away from them, up into the air." Carefully Jak herded one of the globes near the ship, and was finally successful in getting it close to the hull-vent of the air-analyzer. When it was almost touching the ship's side, he reached out and touched it, and it promptly broke. "Get anything?" he yelled. "Yes, gas of some sort. Taking the reading now. It seems to be mostly nitrogen." "Hah, that's it, then! I'm coming in." When Jak was back inside, Jon helped him remove his helmet, then demanded curiously, "What's it all about, Owl?" "I'm not positive, of course, but I bet those things take the place of bees for pollinating, and also furnish the fertilizer for the ground when they burst and their nitrogen gets into the soil some way." <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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