"01 - The Black Star Passes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Campbell John W Jr)

of the planets and of the moon, and in making spectrum analyses of the sun, time passed very slowly. Day after day they saw measured on the clocks, but they stayed awake, finding they needed little sleep, for they wasted no physical energy. Their weightlessness eliminated fatigue. However, they determined that during the twelve hours before reaching Venus they must be thoroughly alert, so they tried to sleep in pairs. Arcot and Morey were the first to seek slumberЧbut Morpheus seemed to be a mundane god, for he did not reward them. At last it became necessary for them to take a mild opiate, for their muscles refused to permit their tired brains to sleep. It was twelve hours later when they awoke, to relieve Wade and Fuller.

They spent most of the twelve hours of their routine watch in playing games of chess. There was little to be done. The silver globe before them seemed unchanging, for they were still so far away it seemed little larger than the moon does when seen from earth.

But at last it was time for the effects of the mild drug to wear off, and for Wade and Fuller to awaken from their sleep.

"MoreyЧI've an idea!" There was an expression of perfect innocence on Arcot's faceЧbut a twinkle of humor in his eyes. "I wonder if it might not be interesting to observe the reactions of a man waking suddenly from sleep to find himself alone in space?" He stared thoughtfully at the control that would make the ship perfectly transparent, perfectly invisible.

"I wonder if it would?" said Morey grasping Arcot's idea. "What do you say we try it?" Arcot turned the little switchЧand where there had been the ship, it was no moreЧit was gone!

Fuller stirred uneasily in his bed, tightly strapped as he

was. The effects of the drug were wearing off. Sleepily he yawnedЧstretched, and blindly, his heavy eyes still closed, released the straps that held him in bed. Yawning widely he opened his eyesЧwith a sudden start sat uprightЧthen, with an excellent imitation of an Indian on the warpath, he leaped from his bed, and started to run wildly across the floor. His eyes were raised to the place where the ceiling should have beenЧhe called lustily in alarmЧthen suddenly he was flying upЧand crashed heavily against the invisible ceiling! His face was a picture of utter astonishment as he fell lightly to the floor-then slowly it changed, and took on a chagrined smile-he understood!

He spun around as loud cries suddenly resounded from Wade's room across the hallЧthen there was a dull thud, as he too, forgetting the weightlessness, jumped and hit the ceiling. Then the cries were gone, like the snuffing of a candle. From the control room there rose loud laughter Чand a moment later they felt more normal, as they again saw the four strong walls about them.

Wade sighed heavily and shook his head.

They were approaching the planet visibly now. In the twelve hours that had passed they had covered a million miles, for now they were falling toward the planet under its attraction. It glowed before them now in wonderous splendour, a mighty disc of molten silver.

For the last twenty-four hours they had been reducing their speed relative to Venus, to insure their forming an orbit about the planet, rather than shoot around it and back into space. Their velocity had been over a hundred miles a second part of the way, but now it had been reduced to ten. The gravity of the planet was urging them forward at ever increasing speed, and their problem became more acute moment by moment.

"Well never make it on the power units alone, out here in space," said Arcot seriously. "We'll just shoot around the planet. I'll tell you how we can do it, though. We'll circle around it, entering its atmosphere on the daylight side, and shoot into the upper limits of its atmosphere. There the power units can find some heat to work on, and we can really slow down. But we'll have to use the rocket tubes to get the acceleration we'll need to drive the ship into the air."

There was a sudden clanging of a bell, and everyone dived for a hold, and held on tightly. An instant later there was a terrifice wrench as the rocket jets threw the plane out of the way of a meteor.

"We're getting near a planet. This is the third meteor we've met since we were more than a million miles from Earth. Venus and Earth and all the planets act like giant vacuum cleaners of space, pulling into themselves all the space debris and metors within millions of miles by their gravitational attraction."

Swiftly the planet expanded below themЧgrowing vaster with each passing moment. It had changed from a disc to a globe, and now, as the molten silver of its surface seemed swiftly clouding, it turned grey; then they saw its true appearance, a vast field of rolling, billowing clouds!

The Solarite was shooting around the planet now at ten miles a second, far more than enough to carry them away from the planet again, out into space once more if their speed was not checked.

"Hold on everybody," Arcot called. "We're going to turn toward the planet now!" He depressed a small lever-there was a sudden shock, and all the space about them semed to burst into huge, deep-red atomic hydrogen flames.

The Solarite reeled under the sudden pressure, but the heavy gyroscopic stabilizers caught it, held it, and the ship remained on an even keel. Then suddenly there came to the ears of the men a long drawn whine, faint-almost inaudibleЧand the ship began slowing down. The Solarite had entered the atmosphere of VenusЧthe first man-made machine to thus penetrate the air of another world!

Quickly Arcot snapped open the control that had kept the rockets flaming, turning the ship to the planetЧdriving it into the atmosphere. Now they could get their power from the air that each instant grew more dense about them.

"WadeЧin the power roomЧemergency control postЧ MoreyЧcontrol board thereЧhang on, for we'll have to use some husky accelerations."

Instantly the two men sprang for their postsЧliterally diving, for they were still almost weightless.

Arcot pulled another leverЧthere was a dull snap as a relay in the power room respondedЧthe lights waveredЧ dimmedЧthen the generator was once more humming smoothlyЧworking on the atmosphere of Venus! In a moment the power units were again operating, and now as they sucked a plentitude of power from the surrrounding air, they produced a force that made the men cling to their holds with almost frantic force. Around them the rapidly increasing density of the air made the whine grow to a roar; the temperature within the ship rose slowly, warmed by friction with the air, despite the extreme cold at this altitude, more than seventy-five miles above the surface of the planet.

They began dropping rapidly nowЧtheir radio-speedometer had fallen from ten to nineЧthen slowly, but faster and faster as more heat could be extracted from the

air, it had fallen 8Ч7Ч6Ч5Ч4. Now they were well below orbital speed, falling under the influence of the planet. The struggle was overЧthe men relaxed. The ship ran quietly now, the smooth hum of the air rushing over the great power units coming softly through the speaker to their ears, a humming melodyЧthe song of a new world.

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