Page:Amazing Stories Volume 07 Number 08.djvu/51



T the door of his rocket-ship hangar, Captain Brink jabbed his knuckles into his lean hips and gazed smilingly at the sky. Marvelous was the sight which met his feasting eyes—far more marvelous than any Earth-bound human being could ever hope to behold. Hanging overhead, like a colossal balloon, a cloud-swathed, glowing orb rolled sedately. From its striped bands of apple green, robin's-egg blue and canary yellow and from the enormous oval spot which glared like a blood-shot eye from the upper portion of its southern hemisphere, a terrestrial astronomer would have recognized the great planet Jupiter. But this Gargantuan globe of molten minerals, with its spectacular bands of tumultuous, varicolored clouds billowing around it, was not the only wonder which the officer saw.

The sun was visible also, but it was a shrunken, faded sun, scarcely larger than a golf-ball. It was not brilliant enough to quench the stars, which spattered the heavens with their wan points of light. In addition to the sun, the stars and the huge planet, no less than five of Jupiter's nine moons were visible. Two of them were tiny but each of the other three was larger than Luna appears to be when viewed from the Earth. Europa was a thin, sickle-shaped crescent. Io presented a fantastically divided disk, half of which reflected the feeble light of the sun, while the other portion was illuminated more brightly by the colorful glow from Jupiter. Callisto, the largest of the trinity, displayed a full circle of pale but lovely luminescence.

Brink's attention was arrested by a ghostly whisper which seemed to leap mysteriously out of the rarefied air.

"Seeking Captain Brink! Seeking Captain Frank Brink!"

At the sound of his name Captain Brink touched the button of his visaphone, a small flat object shaped like a cigarette case, which was held firmly against his broad chest by the crossed straps of his service belt.

"Captain Brink reporting," he announced.

Instantly the head and shoulders of an elderly man materialized in the air two meters in front of Brink's eyes. It looked marvelously substantial and life-like, yet it was not projected on anything resembling a screen, nor was the image supported in any other way.

Recognizing the grim, weather-beaten features of his chief, Colonel Steiner, Brink clicked his heels together and saluted precisely.

"Captain Brink, at your service, Colonel Steiner!"

"At ease, Captain Brink. I have an important matter to discuss with you. Kindly report to headquarters at once."

The young officer unwound the translucent flaps which were wrapped about his sleeves, hooked their ends to