Star Born | Page 7

on numeral by numeral; then --"ten
-- Stand by--"
Raf had forgotten what breakthrough was like. He had gone through it the first time when
still under take-off sedation. But this was worse than he remembered, so much worse. He
tried to scream out his protest against the torture which twisted mind and body, but he
could not utter even a weak cry. This, this was unbearable -- a man could go mad, or die
-- die -- die ...
He aroused with the flat sweetness of blood on his tongue, a splitting pain behind the
eyes he tried to focus on the too familiar scrap of wall. A voice boomed, receded, and
boomed again, filling the air and at last making sense, in it a ring of wild triumph!
"Made it! This is it, men, we've made it; Sol-class sun three planets. We'll set an orbit
in--"
Raf licked his lips. It was still too much to swallow in one mental gulp. So, they had
made it -- half of their venture was accomplished. They had broken out of their own solar'
system, made the big jump, and before them lay the unknown. Now it was within their
reach.
"D'you hear that, kid?" demanded Wonstead, his voice no longer an accusing whine,
more steady than Raf ever remembered hearing it. "We got through! We'll hit dirt again!
Dirt--" his words trailed away as if he were sinking into some blissful daydream.
There was a different feeling to the ship herself. The steady drone which had ached in
their ears, their bones, as she bored her way through the alien hyperspace had changed to
a purr as if she, too, were rejoicing at the success of their desperate try. For the first time
in weary weeks Raf remembered his own duties duties which would begin when the RS
10 came in to a flame-cushioned landing on a new world. He was to assemble and ready
the small exploration flyer, to man its controls and take it up and out. Frowning, he began
to run over in his mind each step in the preparations he must make as soon as they
planeted.

Information came down from control, where now the ports were open on normal space
and the engines were under control of the spacer's pilot. Their goal was to be the third
planet, one which showed signs of atmosphere, of water and earth ready and waiting.
Those who were not on flight duty crowded into the tiny central cabin where they
elbowed each other before the viewer. The ball of alien earth grew from a pinpoint to the
size of an orange. They forgot time in the wonder which none had ever thought in his
heart he would see on the screen. Raf knew that in control every second of this was being
recorded as they began to establish a braking orbit, which with luck would bring them
down on the surface of the new world.
"Cities -- those must be cities!" Those in the cabin studied the plate with awe as the
information filtered through the crew. Lablet, their xenobiologist, sat with his fingers
rigid on the lower bar of the visa plate, so intent that nothing could break his vigil, while
the rest speculated wildly. Had they really seen cities?
Raf went down the corridor to the door of the sealed compartment that held the machine
and the supplies for which he was responsible. These last hours of waiting were worse
with their nagging suspense than all the time which had gone before. If they could only
set down!
He had, on training trips which now seemed very far in the past, trod the rust-red desert
country of Mars, waddled in a bulky protective suit across the peaked ranges of the dead
Moon, known something of the larger asteroids. But how would it feel to tread ground
warmed by the rays of an other sun? Imagination with which his superiors did not credit
him began to stir. Traits inherited from a mixture of races were there to be summoned.
Raf retreated once more into his cabin and sat on his bunk pad, staring down at his 4 own
capable mechanic's hands without seeing them, picturing instead all the wonders which
might lie just beyond the p next few hours' imprisonment in this metallic shell he had
grown to hate with a dull but abiding hatred.
Although he knew that Hobart must be fully as eager as any of them to land, it seemed to
Raf, and the other impatient .1 crew members, that they were very long in entering the
atmosphere of the chosen world. It was only when the order came to strap down for
deceleration that they were in a measure satisfied. Pull of gravity, ship beaming