Part 25 (2/2)

Quickly Zezdon Afthen told Arcot what he had learned.

The sun of Venone was close, now, and Arcot prepared to use as he intended the little s.p.a.ce machine he had made. Morey took it, and went away from the _Thought_ flying on its time field. The s.h.i.+p had been stocked with lead fuel for its matter-burning generators from the supply that had been brought on the _Thought_ for emergencies, and the air had come from the _Thought_'s great tanks. Morey was going to Venone ahead of the _Thought_ to scout--”to see many of the important men of Venone and find out from them what I can of the relations.h.i.+p between Venone and Thett.”

Hours later Morey returned with a favorable report. He had seen many of the important men of Venone, and conversed with them mentally from the safety of his s.h.i.+p, where the specially installed gravity apparatus had protected him and the s.h.i.+p against the enormous gravity of this gigantic world. He did not describe Venone; he wanted them to see it as he had first seen it.

So the little s.h.i.+p, which had served its purpose now, was destroyed, nearly a light year from Venone, and left a crushed wreck when two plates of artificial matter had closed upon it, destroying the apparatus, lest some unwelcome finder use it. There was little about it, the gravity apparatus alone perhaps, that might have been of use to Thett, and Thett already had the ray--but why take needless risk?

Then once more they were racing toward Venone. Soon the giant star of which it was a planet loomed enormous. Then, at Morey's direction, they swung, and before them loomed a planet. Large as Thett, near a half million miles in diameter, its ma.s.s was very closely equal to that of our sun. Yet it was but the burned-out sweepings of the outermost photospheric layers of this giant sun, and the radioactive atoms that made a sun active were not here; it was a cold planet. But its density was far, far higher than that of our sun, for our sun is but slightly denser than ordinary sea water. This world was dense as copper, for with the deeper sweepings of the tidal strains that had formed it, more of the heavier atoms had gone into its making, and its core was denser than that of Earth.

About it swept two gigantic satellite Worlds, each larger than Jupiter, but satellites of a satellite here! And Venone itself was inhabited by countless millions, yet their low, green tile and metal cities were invisible in the aspect of rolling lands with tiny hillocks, dwarfed by gigantic bulbous trees that floated their enormous weight in the water-dense atmosphere.

Here, too, there were no seas, for the temperature was above the critical temperature of water, and only in the self-cooling bodies of these men and in the trees which similarly cooled themselves, could there be liquid.

The sun of the world was another of the giant red stars, close to three hundred and fifty times the ma.s.s of our sun. It was circled by but three giant planets. Its enormous disc was almost invisible from the surface of the world as the _Thought_ sank slowly through fifteen thousand miles of air, due to the screening effect on light pa.s.sing through so much air. Earth could have rested on this planet and not extended beyond its atmosphere! Had Earth been situated at this planet's center, the Moon could have revolved about it, and would not have been beyond the planet's surface!

In silent wonder the terrestrians watched the t.i.tanic world as they sank, and their friends looked on amazed, comprehending even less of the significance of what they saw. Already within the t.i.tanic gravitational field, they could see that indescribable effects were being produced on them, and on the s.h.i.+p. Arcot alone could know the enormous gravitation, and his accelerometer told him now that he was subject to a gravitational acceleration of three thousand four hundred and eighty-seven feet per second, or almost exactly one hundred and nine times Earth's pull.

”The _Thought_ weighs one billion, two hundred and six million, five hundred thousand tons, with tender, on Earth. Here it weighs approximately one hundred and twenty-one billion tons,” said Arcot softly.

”Can you set it down? It may crush under this load if the gravity drive isn't supporting it,” asked Torlos anxiously.

”Eight inches cosmium, and everything else supported by cosmium. I made this thing to stand any conceivable strain. Watch--if the planet's surface will take the load,” replied Arcot.

They were still sinking, and now a number of small marvelously streamlined s.h.i.+ps were cl.u.s.tered around the slowly settling giant. In a few moments more people, hundreds, thousands of men were flying through the air up to the s.h.i.+p.

A cruiser had appeared, and was very evidently intent on leading them somewhere, and Arcot followed it as it streaked through the dense air.

”No wonder they streamline,” he muttered as he saw the enormous force it took to drive the gigantic s.h.i.+p through this air. The air pressure outside their s.h.i.+p now was so great, that the sheer crus.h.i.+ng effect of the air pressure alone was enormous. The pressure was well over nine tons to the square inch, on the surface of that enormous s.h.i.+p!

They landed approximately fifty miles from a large city which was the capital. The land seemed absolutely level, and the horizon faded off in distance in an atmosphere absolutely clear. There was no dust in the air at their height of nearly three hundred feet, for dust was too heavy on this world. There were no clouds. The mountains of this enormous world were not large, could not be large, for their sheer weight would tear them down, but what mountains there were were jagged, tortured rock, exceedingly sharp in outline.

”No rain--no temperature change to break them down,” said Wade looking at them. ”The zone of fracture can't be deep here.”

”What, Wade, is the zone of fracture?” asked Torles.

”Rock has weight. Any substance, no matter how brittle, will flow if sufficient pressure is brought to bear from all sides. A thing which can flow will not break or fracture. You can't imagine the pressure to which the rock three hundred feet down is subject to. There is the enormous ma.s.s of atmosphere, the tremendous ma.s.s of rock above, and all forced down by this gravitation. By the time you get down half a mile, the rock is under such an inconceivably great pressure that it will flow like mud. The rock there cannot break; it merely flows under pressure. Above, the rock can break, instead of flowing. That is the zone of fracture. On Earth the zone of fracture is ten miles deep. Here it must be of the order of only five hundred feet! And the planetary blocks that made a planet's surface float on the zone of flowage--they determine the zone of fracture.”

The gigantic s.h.i.+p had been sinking, and now, suddenly it gave a very unexpected demonstration of Wade's words. It had landed, and Arcot shut off the power. There was a roaring, and the giant s.h.i.+p trembled, rocked, and rolled along a bit. Instantly Arcot drove it into the air.

”Whoa--can't do it. The s.h.i.+p will stand it, and won't bend under the load--but the planet won't. We caused a Venone-quake. One of those planetary blocks Wade was talking about slipped under the added strain.”

Quickly Wade explained that all the planetary blocks were floating, truly floating, and in equilibrium just as a boat must be. The added load had been sufficiently great, so that, with an already extant overload on this particular planetary block, this ”boat” had sunk a bit further into the flowage zone, till it was once more at rest and balanced.

”They wish us to come out that they may see us, strangers and friends from another Island,” interrupted Zezdon Afthen.

”Tell them they'd have to sc.r.a.pe us up off the ground, if we attempted it. We come from a world where we weigh about as much as a pebble here,”

said Wade, grinning at the thought of terrestrians trying to walk on this world.

”Don't--tell them we'll be right out,” said Arcot sharply. ”All of us.”

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