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made some observations of this solar system from a point in space at least as far away as another star.
That means not less than four and half light-years away Proxima Centauri being the nearest star after
our Sun, and four and a half light-years from us. Their observations were imperfect. They found more
planets and problems than they had supposed. So they had to make a second trip to get enough supplies
to finish their Sun-tap base constructions. It took them thirty years between the first stations and the ones
that completed the job.
"And that, too, suggests that only one ship was originally involved here. Of course, maybe they came
back with more the second time, but it still looks as if the main force hasn't arrived. And won't until after
the Sun novas."
"Then that means," said Burl quickly, "that we are still dealing with just a small and isolated group?"
."Maybe," said Haines. "Just what constitutes a small group may be hard to say. I rather think they'd have
brought the engineers and at least an advance working party of settlers with them the second trip in. But
they are still short of available ships they're still not aware of what we may be going to do."
"Why is that?" asked Burl.
Haines looked thoughtful. "This is conjecture. But if they planted any spies among our Earth people,
there's been no contact, because otherwise they'd have known we could track and crack their base as
soon as it started. This means that they still haven't had scouting ships to spare for checking up on what
they did the first time. No checkup means no spare personnel to do the checking. They just assumed that
we hadn't caught on, and started operations by remote control as they had originally planned."
"And that also may mean that these people are hard up," said Ferrati. "Wherever they came from, their
civilization has been great, but it's gone to seed. They plan to seize another solar system, start over again,
and they haven't the abundance of material needed to set up simple check and guard stations, such as any
major Earth nation would have the sense to do."
"Why, that means we've got a fighting chance to lick 'em," said Burl joyfully. "I kept thinking we'd run into
more than we could cope with."
"We've got a fighting chance, all right," said Haines. "We may be able to rip up their Sun-tap layouts, but
what if we meet the main explorer ship itself? Anybody who can cross interstellar space and warp the
power of the Sun, can probably outshoot, outrun, and outfight us. Let's hope we don't meet them until
we've done our work."
On this note the little discussion broke up as the gong rang for the next watch.
It made sense to Burl. If the Magellan could just operate fast enough, keep on the jump, they'd save the
day. But and he realized that nobody had mentioned it aloud it also followed that the enemy
however small its group was still in the solar system somewhere and would certainly be starting to take
action very soon now.
The time came when the ship was to start slowing, to prepare itself for the meeting with Venus. Burl saw
the hour and minute approach and watched Lockhart take the controls and set the new readings. The
steady hum of the generators a vibration that had become a constant feature of the ship altered, and
for everyone it was a relief. Their minds had become attuned to the steady pitch. One didn't realize how
annoying a nuisance it was until it stopped. As the stellar generators let down on the drag on the Sun, the
gravity within the ship lessened. In a few moments there was a condition of zero, and those who had
forgotten to strap themselves down found that they were floating about in the air, most of them giddy.
There was a shift in the pitch, and the generators applied repulsion against the pull of the Sun. Those
floating in the air crashed suddenly against the ceiling, then slid violently down the walls onto the floor as
the inner sphere rotated on its gymbals to meet the new center of gravitational pull this time away from
the Sun.
The viewers flickered off and then on again as their connecting surfaces inside and outside the sphere's
double layer of walls slid apart and matched up again. For an instant, as he saw the viewers blank out,
Burl thought of what might happen if the sphere didn't rotate all the way. They would find themselves
blind.
Now the ship proceeded on its charted orbit, slowing to meet Venus. Several hours went by, one meal,
and Burl had returned to his bunk, his rest period having arrived. Russ remained at the controls on duty,
checking astronomically the new speed and deceleration.
Burl tossed restlessly, the light out in the little cabin. Something was bothering him, and after a while he
realized that Clyde should have come off duty before this. He glanced at the clock and calculated that
Russ was two hours overdue. What was wrong?
He slipped out of his bunk and climbed into his pants. Ascending into the control room, he saw Lockhart,
the two astronomers, and the entire engineering crew gathered over the controls in worried
concentration.
He peered over their shoulders, but the dials meant little to him, since he did not know what they should
have said. "What's happened?" he asked Russ.
Russ took his aside. "We're not going to make our connection with Venus," he said. "Our generators
didn't operate exactly as we had hoped. We haven't been able to slow down enough, the pull of the Sun
is stronger than the power we can raise to stop it at our present speed. We're going to shoot past Venus'
orbit way ahead of the planet, and we're still heading sunward at a faster rate than we figured on."
"You mean we're falling into the Sun!" gasped Burl.
"As things stand right now," said the youthful astrogator, "that's just what is happening."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Hot Spot on Mercury
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