Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/56

 and clicking of metal cooling off. Presently Raul sat up and loosed his safety straps.

"Well, we're there. Your old man did a good job," he said to me.

He got off his couch carefully, cautious of the unfamiliar feeling of gravity, and made for the nearest port. I did the same, and started to unscrew its cover. Camilo swung the radio over on its bracket, and transmitted: "Figurao landed safely Mars 0343 R.M.T. 18.4.94. Location believed as stated. Will observe and verify." Then he, too, reached for the nearest port-cover.

The view, when I had my port uncovered, was much what I had expected; an expanse of hummocky, rust-red desert sand reaching away to the horizon. Anywhere else, it would have been the least exciting of all possible views. But it was not anywhere else: it was Mars, seen as no one had ever seen it before We did not cheer, we did not slap one another on the back We just went on staring at it

At last Raul said, rather flatly:

"There it is, then. Miles and miles of nothing; and all of it ours."

He turned away, and went over to a row of dials.

"Atmosphere about fifteen per cent denser than predicted; that accounts for the overheating,"' he said. "We'll have to wait for the hull to cool down a bit before we can go out. Oxygen content very low indeed—by the look of things, most of it has been tied up in oxydyzing these deserts." He went over to a locker, and started pulling out spacesuits and gear. He did it clumsily; after weeks of weightlessness it is difficult to remember that things will drop if you let go of them.

"Funny that error about at mosphere density," said Camilo.

"Not so very," Raul replied. "Just that someone's crackpot theory about air leaking away into space got written into the assumptions, I reckon. Why the devil should it leak away unless there is a large body around to attract it? Might as well suggest that our own atmosphere is leaking to the moon, and then back again. Beats me how these looney propositions get a foot in, but I expect we'll find plenty more of them."

"Were they wrong about gravity, too?" I asked. "I seem to feel a lot heavier than I expected." 56