"It has atmosphere, and the test shell didn't result in a
contraterrene indication," called the pilot of the project.
"An atmosphere of what?"
Rhodes grinned. "God-knows-what," he said. "If Stellor can't make head
nor tail out of the spectrograph, the chances are that the atomic stuff
here might not jibe with ours at all."
"There is really no reason for our planeting at all," said Billy. "But
I'm just curious, that's all."
"We'll be there soon."
* * * * *
The project approached the planet, and was forced to drive all the way.
By the time that they had matched the angular velocity of the planet's
rotation, the project was inverted with respect to the surface--though
to the men it seemed as if they were driving _up_ to a ground-surface.
It gave them an eerie feeling.
"I can see myself visiting a psychiatrist by the time we get back,"
grunted Hendricks. "We're landing--_upward_--and I'm getting the
screaming terrors already from that feeling of falling upward into the
sky."
"What you're suffering from is the shattering of your basic faith in
the solidity of solid ground," remarked Billy. "Well, the project will
land upside down, and we'll take hold tight with the anchor-projectors.
Long enough, at least, to scrape a sample off of Eureka, here, to take
back and analyze."
"If this whole space is made of the same stuff, I can see a minor
industry springing up, gathering metal and stuff for gravity-proof
gadgets."
"Wonder--probably good for something. Well, we're as close as we can
go, all of us standing with our heads pointing at the planet and held
to the floor of our project by centrifugal force caused by the planet's
rotation. We won't stay long. None of us can stand the mental strain of
looking out of the window and seeing solid ground a few feet above our
heads and a million million miles of sky to fall down into if we step
out of the door. _Brrrrr._"
"Close the sun proof shutters and don't look," suggested Billy. "I'm
taking a nice large bromide to chill off a few screaming nerves and
then I am going out and take me a shovelful of that dirt and rock up
there. Gosh, it's going to feel funny digging _down_ something that
wants to rise. Let's make it quick."
Billy emerged from the lock completely clad in spacesuit. He took air
samples, and then, with the catch-knob between his shoulder blades
firmly in the focal sphere of a tractor-pressor beam, Billy was shoved
up to the surface of the planet. Reaching up over his head, Billy
pulled down a few stones and dropped them upward into the bucket he
held inverted. They fell upward to the surface of the planet, and the
bucket was held by their weight.
They never did know whether there were any Eurekans, but if there
were, and the Terrans were watched, it was a strange sight they saw.
A sixty-foot rectangular building of steel, one story high, resting
upside down with the planet-side to the sky. Projectors dug into the
ground, pulled by the anchoring tractors that pulled the upside-down
building even tighter to their planet.
From a spacedoor, a pale green beam was fastened to the knob on the
creature's back. He was head down, suspended on the beam, and carrying
a bucket that must have been filled with antigravity material for the
bail was free and the bucket actually hung upward!
The creature was lowered, still head down, to the surface of Eureka. He
reached down below his head and lifted a few stones, dropping them into
the bucket, which he held right-side up. Naturally the bucket dropped
properly enough to the ground.
Working by digging down, Billy filled the bucket and was returned down
to the door.
"Cut 'em!" he said hoarsely.
They cut the anchors and the project was thrown from the surface of
Eureka by centrifugal force. And as they left Eureka, and headed for
the Sun, they held a council and decided that another attempt--blind
though it would be--to warp space would be in order.