Chapter III

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

"How do you feel?" I asked briskly.

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

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

"Would you like some water?"

"Paul brought me some."

"Do you know Paul?"

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

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

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

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

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

"Yes."

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

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

"What do I look like?" she asked.

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

"Don't you know?"

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

"Look at this," Carl said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Anything moving?" Paul asked.

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

"Testing the air, Doctor," Carl grunted.

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

"Are we going outside?" she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Do you remember the little bar?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You cannot change the orders, Captain Corbin."

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

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

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

"You cannot come because of Paul."

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

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

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

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

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

"What about Karen," Paul asked.

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

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

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

"Responsible to whom?" she said angrily.

"Every man on this ship."

"You just ordered them to go out."

"Look, they have work to do."

"I won't stay here alone."

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

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

"Karen, stop that crying," I said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Then what will you do?"

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

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

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

"Karen?"

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

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

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

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

"How do you know?"

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

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

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

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

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