Planet of Dread

ly died, but it continued to writhe senselessly. He turned to see other horrors cra

in formal conference on the space-yacht Nadine, with Moran present and allowed to take part in the discussion. From the viewpoint of the Nadine's ship's company, it was simp

the sun of this solar system had been a vast glaring disk off to port, with streamers and prominences erupting about its edges. Now it lay astern, and Moran could see the planet th

ould have to be sulphuric-acid or hydrochloric-acid ice. But the ice-cap was simple snow. Its size, too, told about temperature-distribution on the planet. A large cap would have meant a large area with arctic and sub-arctic temperatures, with small temperate and tropical climate-belts. A small one like this meant wide tropica

etary drive. He was to be left here, with no reason ever to expect rescue. Two of the Nadine's four

look too b

heard something. It was a thin, wabbling, keening whine. No natural

at I do?" he as

. It wasn't an identification beacon, such as are placed on certain worlds for the convenience of i

eigh

l the other

to do anything drastic. These people on the Nadine were capable. They'd managed to recapture the Nadine from him, but they were matter-of-fact about it. They didn't seem to re

have bought a ticket, but he'd tried to get off the planet Coryus on the Nadine. The trouble was that the Nadine had clearance papers covering five persons aboard-four men and a girl Carol. Moran made six. Wherever the yacht landed, such a disparity between its documents and its crew would spark an investigation. A lengthy, incredibly minute investigation. Moran, at least, would be picked out as a fugitive from

in the engine-room. So the ship's location was in doubt. It could have travelled at almost any speed in practically any direction for a length of time that was at least indefinite. A liner could re-locate itself without trouble. It had elaborate observational equipment and tri-di star-charts. But smaller craft had to d

ame into the control-room. Burle

ste

, whining sound among the innumerable random

at sound in it. It marked a first-landing spot on some planet or other, so the p

ed Burleigh. "We'll

Underground people, fighting the government of their native world, and they'd gotten away to make it seem the revolt had collapsed. They'd go back later when they weren't expected, a

up the transmi

kly. "Calling ground! We pick

and hissings came out of the speaker as before, and the thin and reedy wabbl

eigh

el

e. If they left a beacon, they may have left an identification of

proper company watched as the planet's surface enlarged. The ice-cap went out of sight around the bulge of the globe, but no markings appea

r enough to the ice-cap to have an endurable climate. I've been figuring on food, too. That will depend on where we are f

. If somebody were wrecked on an even possibly habitable planet, the especially developed seed-strains

g. Moran wondered, momentarily, what sort of world they came from and why they had revolted, and what sort of set-back to the revolt had sent

the reason for what Moran had done. But the dead man had been very important, and the fact that Moran had forced him to fight and killed him in fair

e engine's gate. He duly took the plastic receipt-token the engine only then released, and he drew a blaster. He'd locked two of the Nadine's crew in the engine-room, rushed to the control-room without encountering the others, dogged the door shut, and threaded in the first trip-tape to come to hand. He punched the take-off button and only seconds later the overdrive. Then the yacht-and Moran-was away. But his present companions got the drive disma

yed with the direction-finder. From time to time he gave readings requiring minute changes of course. The

ed atmosphere a

ur heigh

ould be particles of ice so small that they floated even so high. Then clear air, then lower clouds, and lower ones still. It was not until six thousand feet above the surface th

could see the ground, at least, but there was no horizon. There was only an end to visibility. The yacht descended as if in the cen

few very small hills of most unlikely appearance. It was the ground, the matter on which one would walk, which was strangest. It had color, but the color was not green. Much of it was a pallid, dirty

from the dire

oming from that

rse in descent. Except for the patches of color, it was the only considerable

tact. The yacht hovered, and as the rocket-flames diminished slowly she sat down with practically no impact at all. But around her there was a monstrous tumult of smoke and steam. When the rockets went

s from the mound which was the source of the space-signal. That mound shared the peculiarity of the ground as far as they could see through the haze. It was not vegetation in any ordinary sense. Certainly it was n

outside microphones. Instantly there was bedlam. If the landscape

nded very much like a small boy trailing a stick against a picket fence, only much louder. Something hooted, maintaining the noise for an impossibly long time. And persistently, sounding as if they came from far

e a nice place to live," s

swer. He turned dow

We burned it away in landing. I've seen something lik

ke a garden in. Of evenings I'll stroll among my thrifty

arper flicked off t

from that hillock yonder

said b

o hillock, th

rty-yellow-dirty-red-dirty-blue-and-dirty-black ground-cover hid something. It blurred the shape it covered, very much as enormous cobwebs made solid and opaque would have done. But when one looked caref

elp. None came, or they'd have turned the beacon off. Maybe they got the lifeboats to work an

h said

are doing if you w

n, "but a man can

u everything we can spare. And meanwhile we'll take a look at that wreck yonder. There might be an indication in it of

with irony. "Very kind of yo

igh g

ural

oran, "I suggest that I take a torch. We may have to

rol, you'll keep ship. The rest of us wear sui

lar helmets. Non-stretch fabrics took the place of metal, and constant-volume joints were really practical nowadays. A man could move about in a late-model space-suit almos

id Carol suddenly, "Moran might

that the ship hit hard enough to kill e

urleigh, "because they set up a beaco

!" snapp

sanity on an unknown world. Moran, though, would not be permitted a weapon. He picked up a torch. They filed into the airlock. The inner door closed. The outer door opened. It was not necessary to

They looked dubiously at the scorched, indefinite substance which had been ground before the Nadine landed. Moran moved scornfully forward. He

had wing-cases. It had six legs. It toppled down to the stone on which the Nadine rested. Agitatedly, it spread its wing-covers and flew away, droni

the de

s squirming to view in obvious panic. They popped out everywhere. It was suddenly apparent that the top of the soil, he

came over the

hey're twenty times the size of the beetles we humans have

d move in. A complete ecological complex had to be built up; microbes to break down the rock for soil, bacteria to fix nitrogen to make the soil fertile; plants to grow in the new-made dirt and insects to fertilize the plants so they would multiply, and animals and birds to carry the seeds planet-wide. On most planets, to be sure, there were local, aboriginal plants and animals. But still terr

is a seedling world. It didn't have any life on it, so somebody dumped germs and spores and bugs

ce one mentioned yeasts and toadstools and fungi generally, the weird landscape became l

unpleasantly. "Maybe you can find out where y

as elastic. The parchment-like top skin yield

, "or else we'll break through that s

" said Burleigh shortly. "But

ooting was uncertain, as on a trampoline. They staggered. They

not see more than a quarter-mile in any direction. Beyond that was mist. But Burleigh, at one end of the uneven li

ong, and it had a group of stumpy legs at its fore end-where there were eyes hidden behind bristling hair-like growths-and another set of feet at its tail end. It progressed sedately by reaching forward with its fore-part, securing a footho

elmet-phone as the others tried to

matter? What

with savage

any longer. It's a yard-worm." Then he said harshly to the men with him; "It's not a hunting

ers followed. It was to be noted that Hallet the engineer,

as the ship. Moran unlimbered

brupt thickening of the cylindrical hull at the middle. There was an equally abrupt thinning, again, toward the landing-fins. The sharpness of the

tish stuff, and then cutting it across and across to destroy it. Thick fumes arose, and quiverings and shakings began. Black creatures in their labyrinths of tunnels began to panic. Off to the right the blanket-like surface ripp

e could not altogether blame the others. They couldn't land at any colonized world with him on board without his being detected as an extra member of the crew. His fate would then be sealed. But they also would be investigated. Official queries would go across this whole s

came in his helmet-

s coming! Kill

ant commands. He was on his way out of the hollow

ere was still much smoke and stream. But he saw

here would not be too many people on the Nadine. Th

at had too many. Perhaps more thoroughly. So if Harper were killed, Moran would be needed to ta

e flame-torch maki