"Did some kind of field trigger the bomb?" Benteley asked. "It was critical as hell."
"The ipvic image showed Moore deliberately opening the synthetic's chest and shorting the bomb-leads." Shaeffer shrugged. "It would be interesting to find out why. I think we better send out a crew to see what can be put back together. I'm not really going to sleep easily until I know the whole story."
"I agree," Benteley said feelingly.
Cartwright got out his black notebook. With a look of bewilderment on his seamed, aged face, he checked off the last item and restored it to his pocket. "Well, that takes care of that. We can pick over the ash later; right now we have other things to think about." He examined his heavy pocket watch. "The ship should be landing, soon. If nothing has gone wrong, Groves will presently be setting down on Flame Disc."
The Disc was big. Brake-jets screamed shrilly against the rising tug of gravity. Bits of metal paint flaked down around Groves; an indicator smashed and somewhere within the hull a feed-line snapped.
"We're about to collapse," Konklin grated.
Groves reached up and twisted off the overhead light. The control bubble faded into darkness.
"What the hell?" Konklin began. And then he saw it
From the viewscreen a soft light radiated, a pale, cold fire that glittered in a moist sheen over the figures of Groves and Konklin and the control machinery. No stars, no black emptiness of space were visible: the immense face of the planet had silently expanded until it filled everything. Flame Disc lay directly below. The long flight was over.
"It's eerie," Konklin muttered.
"That's what Preston saw."
"What is it? Some kind of algae?"
"Not this far out. Probably radioactive minerals."
"Where is Preston?" Konklin demanded. "I thought his ship was going to guide us all the way."
Groves hesitated, then answered reluctantly. "My meters picked up a thermonuclear explosion about three hours ago. Distance from us, perhaps ten thousand miles. Since the explosion Preston's ship hasn't registered on my gravity indicators. Of course, with the Disc so close a tiny mass like that might not-"
Jereti came hurrying into the control bubble. He saw the screen and halted. "Good God. That's it!"
"That's our new home," Konklin said. "Big, isn't it?"
"What makes that funny light? It's like a seance in here. You're sure that's a planet? Maybe it really is a space serpent. I don't think I'd like to live around a space serpent, no matter how big it is."
Konklin left the bubble and hurried down the vibrating thundering corridor. The silent green glow seemed to follow him as he descended a ramp and came out on the main level At the door of his cabin, he halted and stood a moment listening.
Down in the cargo hold meager possessions were being assembled. Pots and pans, bedding, food, clothing, were being gathered up and collected. A murmur of excited, subdued voices filtered up over the din of the brake-jets. Gardener, the jet stoker, was starting to give out Dodds pressure suits and helmets.
Konklin pushed open the cabin door and entered.
Mary glanced quickly up. "Are we there?"
"Not quite. All ready to step out on our new world?"
Mary indicated their heap of possessions. "I'm packing."
Konklin laughed. "You and everybody else. Put that stuff back where it was; we're going to live here until we get the subsurface domes set up."
"Oh," Mary said. Abashed, she began carrying things back to drawers and cupboards and storage lockers. "Aren't we even going to set up some sort of—colony?"
"Sure we are." Konklin slapped the bulkhead above his Shoulder. "And this is it-Mary lingered with an armload of clothes.
"Bill, it'll be nice, won't it? I mean, it'll be hard at first but later on it won't be so bad. Well be living mostly underground, the way they do on Uranus and Neptune. That's pretty nice, isn't it?"
"We'll make out all right." Konklin gently took the clothes from her arms. "Let's get down to the cargo hold and find ourselves Dodds suits. Gardner's giving them out."
Janet Sibley greeted them, nervous and fluttering with excitement "I can't get into mine," she gasped. "It's too small!"
Konklin helped her zap the heavy material. "Remember for God's sake, when you're outside be careful and don't trip. These are the old type suits. You can puncture them on sharp rocks and be dead in a second."
"Who gets to step out first?" Mary asked, as she slowly zipped up her bulky suit "Captain Groves?"
"Whoever's closest to the hatch."
"Maybe it'll be me," Jereti said, coming into the hold and grabbing up his suit. "Maybe I'll be the first human being to set foot on Flame Disc."
They were still fastening their suits and talking together in small nervous groups when the landing sirens shrieked into life. "Grab hold!" Konklin shouted above the wailing din. "Hang onto something and get your suits going!"
The ship struck with a roar that tossed them about like dry leaves. Supplies and possessions pitched everywhere, as the hull twisted and bucked violently. The brake-jets moaned and fought to slow the rocking ship as it plowed hideously into the ice-hard surface of the planet The lights flickered and faded out In the blackness the thunder of the jets and the ear-splitting squeal of metal against rock deafened the scattered passengers into paralysis.
Konklin was thrown against a heap of bedding. Pots and pans rained down on him; in the gloom he fought his way up until his fingers closed around a hull support. "Mary!" he shouted. "Where are you?"
In the darkness nearby he felt her moving. "I'm here," she answered faintly. "I think my helmet's cracked; it's leaking air."
Konklin caught hold of her. "You're all right." The ship was still moving, an inferno of sound and protesting metal that gradually slowed to a reluctant, uneven halt. The lights flickered, came on for a brief moment, and then again faded out. Somewhere moisture dripped slow and steady. Down the corridor a fire crackled among heaps of supplies that had tumbled from a locker.
"Get that fire out," Groves ordered.
With an extinguisher Jereti made his way unsteadily into the corridor. "I guess we're there," he said shakily, as he covered the fire. His voice vibrated thinly in their helmet phones.
Somebody lit a flashlight "The hull must have stood up," Konldin said. "I don't hear any important leaks."
"Let's get out," Mary said intensely. "Let's see it."
Groves was already at the hatch. He stood waiting stonily until everybody was around him and then he began unsealing the heavy locks by hand. "The power is dead," he explained. "Leads snapped someplace."
The hatch slid back. Air whooshed out and Groves moved forward, wide-eyed and immediately silent. The others crowded onto the ramp after him; for a moment they stood awed and hesitant. Then as a group they descended.
Half-way down Mary stumbled and Jereti halted to catch hold of her. One of the Japanese optical workers touched the surface first. Agilely, he slid over the side and dropped to the hard-frozen rock, face excited and eager within his bulging helmet. Grinning up at them, he waved them on.
"It's okay," he shouted. "No monsters in sight."
Mary held back. "Look," she whispered. "Look at it glow."
The planet was a single plain of green light. Wherever they looked there was the faint, unwinking sheen of color, soft and unfocused, on the rocks and boulders, on the ground itself. In the dim green phosphorescence the group of men and women were strange opaque shapes, black columns of metal and plastic stepping awkwardly and hesitantly down.
"It's been here all this time," Jereti said wonderingly. "And nobody to look at it." He kicked at the frozen rock. "We're the first to set foot here."