Chapter 7

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.

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.