Mexone repeated in surprise.
“To the best of my belief, yes. I think that planet—the surface anyway—is entirely composed of it—and polished, too, with wind action.”
Viona and Mexone turned back to an examination of the world toward which the Ultra was swiftly speeding. Presently the Amazon also came into the control room, a weapon belt now buckled around her slender waist.
“I don’t know if there’s life, but there’s nothing like being prepared,” she explained, then she crossed to the telescope, focused it swiftly, and stood looking at the reflector-screen.
This time the crude buildings were much clearer, and now the distance had diminished, there were also signs of specks. Sometimes they were in considerable numbers, sometimes isolated. What was immediately apparent was their movement.
“Life!” the Amazon announced. “Beings of some sort. From the way they congregate and the sort of buildings they have, I’d say nomadic tribes.”
Pushing up their goggles, Viona and Mexone swiftly joined her. In silent interest they both took in the view reflected in the screen.
“Whether it’s worth visiting or not I still don’t know,” the Amazon said finally, at which Viona looked up sharply.
“No question of it, surely? Even if we don’t advance these people materially, we’re adding to our store of knowledge, and that’s something. Besides, it’ll save us dying of boredom.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever do that,” Abna commented dryly.
“Conditions, except for the light, are favorable for exploration,” the Amazon said, and outlined what she and Abna had already discovered about the planet.
“And the only other planet in the system is burned out?” Viona asked, puzzled.
“Entirely. Even more of a hulk than our moon is.”
“Wonder why? May be a simple explanation—or a grim one.” Suddenly she swung eagerly to Abna. “Hurry up, dad, and let’s land! I’m sure there’ll be something interesting.”
“You mean you think there will,” Abna corrected. “At the moment you’re experiencing an unusually high elation—but it’s only superficial. Doesn’t mean a thing.”
“Oh?” Viona’s sapphire blue eyes clouded for a moment. “Well, if it’s only phony, it’s certainly got a kick. I feel on top of the world—which sounds rather idiotic way out in the Milky Way,” she concluded, smiling.
“Better arm yourselves,” the Amazon instructed. “There may be trouble. In any case, there’s no sense in being unprepared.”
Viona and Mexone both nodded, and for the next few moments were busy strapping instrument and weapon belts about their waists. Then Viona looked in surprise as the Amazon held out two pairs of goggles.
“From the look of things you’re going to need them,” she explained. “In fact, we all are. The glare reflected from snow is mere twilight compared to this lot.”
Silently the two younger ones slipped the goggles on to their foreheads; then spent the rest of the time just waiting. Abna remained at the control board while the Amazon, her goggles in place, stared down on that incredibly bright world and tried at the same time to fathom her emotions. Had she been a normal woman, she would have realized that she had risen to the point of almost hysterical ecstasy—an abandoned sense in which nothing mattered. Being possessed of a coldly scientific streak, however, she analyzed the condition for what it was and refused to let herself be misled by its promptings. Just the same, she was puzzled.
So presently the Ultra, its velocity lowered to normal flying speed, came into the atmosphere of the planet and thereafter swiftly cleaved downwards toward the brilliant landscape. The Amazon, Viona, and Mexone watched intently, goggles in position, as an agglomeration of the crudely fashioned dwellings came into view.
“Queer sort of planet,” the Amazon commented thoughtfully. “It has a revolution of roughly twenty-two hours: I’ve checked on that, so we’ll get some relief from the glare when the night comes. But as to the landscape, words fail me. Now we’re so near it seems certain that everything except the dwellings is silver.”
“Be worth a bit back home,” Viona mused.
“I wonder,” the Amazon reflected. “Dump this much silver on the markets of the world and the stuff would not be worth a cent. Remember, it is rarity that makes for value.”
With a mighty rushing of air against the invincible outer walls, the machine hurtled downwards and over the first mass of buildings and came to rest. Once it touched ground, it noticeably slithered like a car on a wet roadway. Then with a jerk it halted.
Silence. The power plant was cut off and from outside there were no sounds. The four crowded around the observation window, gazing at the distant remnants of the crude buildings. They were little better than cottages, or even mid-African villages. Certainly they did not suggest a high form of civilization. Behind them, glittering mountains rose up like creations of a wonderland, with a cobalt blue cloudless sky beyond.
“Pretty—but confoundedly bright,” Viona muttered. Then she lifted her goggles and looked with her normal eves. The glare was hurtful but not so penetrating as she had expected.
Seeing her action, the Amazon, Abna, and Mexone followed suit, then glanced at each other in surprise.
“No worse than white pavements at high noon,” the Amazon said at length “Wonder why? In space we couldn’t stand to even look at it.”
The Amazon seemed about to make further comment, then she stopped herself as the first evidences of life on this queer world became evident. In the far distance, coming from the direction of the dwellings, was a running horde of people, advancing with all the excitement and energy of savages on the warpath. Yet, in a sense, they did not appear savage: quite the contrary. There was a certain childlike enthusiasm about their activity as they swept nearer and nearer.
In a very few minutes they had reached the Ultra and begun to assemble around it. More came from the distance, until at last there must have been several hundred. In silence the quartet looked out on them from the higher elevation of the observation window.
“For some reason,” the Amazon said, “I’m reminded of one Gulliver on the island of Lilliput.’”
There was a certain amount of logic in her simile. The people were all small-statured, yet exactly like Earth people in their formation. Their attire was extremely scanty, but in certain cases was embellished with crude armlets and anklets of the all-prevailing silver metal. In actual appearance they were somehow immature—with smooth, laughing faces and hair crudely cut. At the moment they seemed to be having a good deal of amusement prancing around the machine and grinning and gesticulating to one another.
“They are not mature people,” the Amazon said at length, with a trace of disappointment. “They’re behaving exactly like ten-year-old children. I had somehow hoped for clever scientists. I suppose we must stay here?”
“All the more reason why we should, I think,” Viona commented. “Their development is such as to show that they are adult, both the men and the women—but their intelligence doesn’t match it. Seems to me it’s up to us to find out why.”
“Childlike adults on a world of silver,” Abna sighed. “What next, I wonder?” He moved to the airlock switch. “All right, here we go!”
The ponderous airlock swung open very slowly, and the four made to stride forward—but that was as far as they got. Like children suddenly told of a candy horde, the little people came surging into the ship, laughing and chattering amongst themselves, until the control room was full of them. It left the quartet towering up like islands amidst a flood, and for a moment they stood watching curiously, weighing up these beings of a fantastic planet.
Children with adult bodies! There was no getting