Chapter II

Phillias Brownell was a tough little character. He still breathed with difficulty as Janus unstrapped him from the pneumatic seat, and his face was ashen; but he hoisted himself up to his full stature of five feet five and his gray hair bristled. He went to work over the control console, jabbing hard at gleaming buttons and adjusting the complex set-up. By now Jupiter was fast fading in the darkness behind them.

"All right," he announced finally, "we're on robot control. We can rest easy for a while." He sneered in the direction of Jupiter. "We showed 'em some speed, eh? So they want my Frequency Tuner, do they? Let them come and get it! The dolts, the moronic interfering meddlers!"

Janus plainly showed his relief, as he winked at Mark, who said, "That was some chance you took. Suppose it hadn't worked?"

"But it did work! That was the final test, and it was necessary. I had to know how it would react against the beams."

Mark ventured a question. "Frequency Tuner? Is that what gave you the acceleration? I knew it wasn't rocket power!"

Brownell turned piercing black eyes upon him. "Eh? Janus, who is this?"

Janus vouched for Mark, explained his presence aboard. He added: "The Bureau's after an invention of his, too. A camera."

The Professor was startled. "Did you say a camera? Since when do they--"

"Ah, but Mark's is a very special camera." Janus smiled maddeningly, but in the next instant was clapping a friendly hand on Mark's shoulder. "Don't worry, Travers, your secret's safe with us. We don't ask questions. You've a right to know our destination, though; come on, I'll show you."

They repaired to the chart room, where Janus indicated a moving red line on a glass-encased chart of the solar system. Other lines were being traced, too, at various angles to their trajectory.

"The red line is our present trajectory. The others are the orbits of the planets. See, there's Jupiter behind us; notice how close we came."

Mark nodded. Already in his mind's eye he was extending their present parabola. Distances between these outer planets were vast beyond imagining! Saturn was just in sight, but at their present speed they would probably cross its orbit far in advance of the planet. Then came Uranus, and next Neptune. The space between Neptune and Pluto was vaster than all.

Mark felt just a little staggered. There was no known record of men having come this far! Not beyond Jupiter, in fact.

He turned to Janus. "How far do we go?"

"All the way."

"Pluto?"

"Beyond."

Mark thought that over. "There's no planet in our system beyond Pluto!"

"But there is. Planet X. An eccentricity in the orbit of Pluto indicates there must be a planet beyond. For years astronomers have known this, but no telescope has been able to pick it out."

Mark grinned weakly. "So that's where we're headed. I guess you know it'd be awfully easy to overshoot a mark like that!"

"Not with the Frequency Tuner. I understand very little of it, but the Professor assures me it's a directional finder as well as a power unit."

"Sure, sure. And assuming we locate Planet X and manage to land--what do you expect to find there?"

* * * * *

Janus' eyes were flecked with dancing lights. "What do we hope to find? George Ketrik! And if you know the man at all, you know that means adventure and riches."

Ketrik! Mark's mind went back. He began piecing together things he had heard, fragments and rumors. The man Ketrik and his amazing exploits had become almost a legend!

"But I have heard," Mark voiced slowly, "that Ketrik died! Plunged into the sun while trying to negotiate a landing on Vulcan."

"You don't really believe that? Sure, every few years you hear those stories, but Ketrik always shows up again." Janus sighed. "You know, I've almost come to believe that he's not human. Where other men go--men like us--they find that Ketrik has been there first. I've personally made two fortunes, and lost them, in following his trail!"

Mark was skeptical. "But even he wouldn't dare try for Planet X! He hasn't the speed that we have. It would take him--"

"Ketrik would dare anything! Why, six months ago I heard that he was planning this venture; that's why we're here. We five men pooled our savings to finance Brownell's Frequency Tuner and build this spacer, in secret, of course. Sure--it would take Ketrik maybe three months to reach Planet X in some dilapidated little rocket-powered craft. We'll make it in three days--but I'll wager he's already there!"

"With the whole populace kow-towing at his feet, most likely." It was Driscoll who spoke as he entered the room, followed by the other men. "Sure, I'll back the luck of Ketrik every time!"

Dethman shook his head. "Planet X is probably uninhabitable. But I'll bet my last pair of socks Ketrik's located a cave of diamonds, or maybe a platinum vein. Toss him in a Venusian sink-hole, he'd come up wreathed in swamp pearls!"

"He's that sort," Janus agreed. "It was platinum on Mars, cinnabar on Mercury, plumes on Venus. By the way, I got in on the plumes--made a fortune. And the other time I saw Ketrik--"

"I recall the time he showed up at the Venusian Prison Swamp," Driscoll put in. "One day he wasn't there, the next day he was--just like that. Inside a week he had organized a group of us for a getaway attempt. Hundreds of others had tried it and failed. Well, he led us safely across two hundred miles of swamp, supposed to be impassable. Know what was on the other side? A spaceship, all waiting and ready. He just wanted to prove it could be done, I guess."

"I only saw him once," Kaarj shrilled eagerly. "That was on Deimos. He had discovered the secret shrine of the Deimian ancients. He came out of that shrine decked from head to foot with blazing jewels--but the Deimians were waiting for him. They're a blood-thirsty tribe, and they were plenty angry...."

"I never heard this story before," Janus said. "What happened?"

"I stayed a safe distance away in my spaceship, watching and this is what happened. Ketrik made them a speech! I swear it! He climbed up on a block of stone in full range of their weapons--and do you know what his speech consisted of? The entire first chapter of the 'Advanced Principles of Space Navigation'. He quoted it most violently. Those Deimians didn't understand a word of it, but I swear to you, when Ketrik had finished they weren't angry any more! They cheered him! He walked calmly over to his space-cruiser and blasted away, jewels and all!"

"I came across him once on Mercury," Dethman contributed. "The barbarians from the dark side were warring on the race inhabiting the twilight strip. Well, if it hadn't been for Ketrik, the whole colony would've been wiped out. They almost made a superman out of him, wanted him to marry a thousand wives to make sure he'd leave plenty of his descendants there. And by Jupiter, he almost did! When I left he was still there, married to ten wives--or was it twelve?"

Mark was enjoying all this. He looked to Ferris, who seemed to be the only one without a story to tell. Ferris lit a venomous Venusian cigar, and sneered:

"I don't hold with all this hero-worship, and I don't believe more'n a tenth of it. Don't think we'll find Ketrik out here either. I've sunk a year's takin's from my placer on Mars into this venture--"

"And afraid you won't get it back, is that it?" Driscoll snapped. "Why, that placer you're yapping about was Ketrik's in the first place, and you know it! Sure, you'd rather hide out some place and manufacture more Frequency Tuners."

"We'll do that, too, once we make a strike," Janus said thoughtfully. "We'll equip a whole fleet with 'em, and really exploit the outer planets. That should give that addle-brained Earth Council something to really think about!"

* * * * *

On the third day they crossed the orbit of Pluto. Mark was in the control room with Janus and the Professor. The latter pointed to a thin thread of liquid helium in the directional-finder, surging slightly off center.

"Pluto's the nearest body now. It must be heavy, to drag us that way." He gave a touch to the Tuner's impellator, and the helium line came back to center as their acceleration increased.

The Sun had long since been a pin-point of light. The darkness ahead was no different from the darkness behind, but the men felt infinitely more alone. Behind were the known planets. Ahead was X--the unknown. It might be days more, or merely hours. No one slept now.

It was only hours later when the Finder began acting erratically again. Brownell, who seemed indefatigable, took over the controls from Janus. But he didn't try to adjust direction now.

"It's Planet X," he said. "Has to be! We'll let the Finder take us right there!" He switched on the visipanel and adjusted the lens to fullest power.

"It must be a dark planet," Mark pointed out. "Certainly the Sun's light doesn't reach it. How do you hope to see it in the panel?"

"Ordinarily I'd say you were right," Brownell nodded. "But look! There it is!"

Barely discernible on the screen, they saw a vague pin-point of light. Brownell glanced at the proximity indicator and gasped.

"Over three million miles--it can't be! Not the way it's pulling us now. Unless," he added thoughtfully, "it has a gravity grab equal to that of Jupiter at half the distance! Good Lord!" He tested instruments, gave experimental side thrusts with the Tuner, but they came back irresistably into the pull of the planet ahead.

Hour after hour they came nearer. The planet resolved into a dark disc with a peculiar surrounding halo.

"I don't like it," Janus reflected the thoughts of them all. "That light--where does it come from? Not the Sun! The Sun doesn't even touch Pluto!"

"Maybe it has a Sun of its own," ventured Kaarj. "On the other side."

"If it does, the sun moves right along with it in it's orbit!"

"You can tell from here that the planet has no axial rotation," Brownell announced. He looked a little worried. "This gravity drag is getting worse. We're accelerating. Better get into your harness." He set the example, and the men followed. "I think I can control it with the Tuner in reverse, but it pays to be safe. You never can tell, out here; these are strange conditions."

The planet was looming fast. The Professor's hand on the deceleration lever revealed the strain he was under. Below them now they glimpsed vast dark plains, and as they came nearer, huge stretches of forest. Mountains loomed. Far ahead was faint light, a few miles of "twilight strip" much as that on the planet Mercury.

The Professor was heading for this strip but Mark didn't think they'd make it. They were losing altitude with sickening speed. Mark had a final vision of the little Professor tugging desperately on the deceleration lever, of huge greenish-gray plants coming up beneath them.

Then a rending crash, a confusion of flying legs and arms. Just before Mark blanked out he knew their ship was still ploughing forward.