The Planet MappersEvans, E. Everett (Edward Everett)
Science
The Planet Mappers
Evans, E. Everett (Edward Everett)
Families -- Juvenile fiction; Science fiction; Space flight -- Juvenile fiction; Space pirates -- Juvenile fiction
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?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account