Star Born | Page 8

in at an
angle which swept it from night to day to night again as it encircled that unknown globe.
They could not watch their objective any longer. The future depended entirely upon e the
skill of the three men in control -- and last of all upon Hobart's judgment and skill.
The captain brought them down, riding the flaming counter-blasts from the ship's tail to
set her on her fins in an expert point landing, so that the RS 10 was a finger of light 'into
the sky, amid wisps of smoke from brush ignited by her landing.
There was another wait which seemed endless to the restless men within, a wait until the
air was analyzed, the countryside surveyed. But when the go-ahead signal was given and
the ramp swung out those first at the hatch still hesitated for an instant or so, though the
way before them was open.

Beyond the burnt ground about the ship was a rolling plain covered with tall grass which
rippled under the wind. And the freshness of that wind cleansed their lungs of the taint of
the ship.
Raf pulled off his helmet, held his head high in that breeze. It was like bathing in air,
washing away the smog of those long days of imprisonment. He ran down the ramp, past
the little group of those who had preceded him, and fell on his knees in the grass,
catching at it with his hands, a little overawed at the wonder of it all.
The wide sweep of sky above them was not entirely blue, he noted. There was the faintest
suggestion of green, and across it moved clouds of silver. But, save for the grass, they
might be in a dead and empty world. Where were the cities? Or had those been born of
imagination?
After a while, when the wonder of this landing had somewhat worn away, Hobart
summoned them back to the prosaic business of setting up base. And Raf went to work at
his own task. The sealed storeroom was opened, the supplies slung by crane down from
the ship. The compact assembly, streamlined for this purpose, was all ready for the
morrow.
They spent the night within the ship, much against their will. After the taste of freedom
they had been given, the cramped interior weighed upon them, closing like a prison. Raf
lay on his pad unable to sleep. It seemed to him that he could hear, even through the
heavy plates, the sigh of that refreshing wind, the call of the open world lying ready for
them. Step by step in his mind, he went through the process for which he would be
responsible the next day. The uncrating of the small flyer, the assembling of frame and
motor. And sometime in the midst of that survey he did fall asleep, so deeply that
Wonstead had to shake him awake in the morning.
He bolted his food and was out at his job before it was far past dawn. But eager as he was
to get to work, he paused just to look at the earth scuffed up by his boots, to stare for a
long moment at a stalk of tough grass and remember with, a thrill which never lessened
that this was not native earth or grass, that he stood where none of his race, or even of his
kind, had stood before -- on a new planet in a new solar system.
Raf's expert training and instruction paid off. By evening he had the flitter assembled
save for the motor which still reposed on the turning block. One party had gone questing
out into the grass and returned with the story of a stream hidden in a gash in the plain,
and Wonstead carried the limp body of a rabbit-sized furred creature he had knocked over
at the waterside.
"Acted tame." Wonstead was proud of his kill. "Stupid thing just stood and watched me
while I let fly with a stone."
Raf picked up the little body. Its fur was red-brown, plush thick, and very soft to the
touch. The breast was creamy white and the forepaws curiously short with an uncanny re
semblance to his own hands. Suddenly he wished that Won stead had not killed it, though
he supposed that Chou, their biologist, would be grateful, grateful. But the animal looked

particu larly defenseless. It would have been better not to mark their first day on this new
world with a killing -- even if it were the knocking over of a stupid rabbit thing. The pilot
was glad when Chou bore it off and he no longer had to look at it.
It was after the evening meal that Raf was called into consultation by the officers to
receive his