_Europa_
When Carr opened his eyes it was to the normal lighting of his own
sleeping cabin. The _Nomad_ was intact, though an odor of scorched
varnish permeated the air. They were unharmed--as yet. He turned on
his side and saw that Mado was moving about at the side of his couch.
Good old Mado! With a basin of water in his hand and a cloth. He'd
been bathing his face. Brought him to. He sat up just as Mado turned
to apply the cloth anew.
"Good boy, Carr! All right?" smiled the Martian.
"Little dizzy. But I'm okay." Carr sprang to his feet where he wabbled
uncertainly for a moment. "But the _Nomad?_" he asked. "Is she--are we
safe?"
"Never safer. What in the name of Saturn did you do?"
Carr passed his hand across his eyes, trying to remember. "The D-ray,"
he said. "I turned it on and dived into the thing with full
attraction. Then--I forget. Where is it--the thing, I mean?"
"Look!" Mado drew him to the stern compartment.
Far behind them there shone a misty wreath, a ring of drifting matter
that writhed and twisted as if in mortal agony.
"Is that it?"
"What's left of it. You shot your way through it; through and out of
its influence. D-ray must have devitalized the thing as it bored
through. Killed its energies--for the time, at least."
Already, the thing was closing in. Soon there would be a solid mass as
before. But the _Nomad_ was saved.
"How about yourself?" asked Carr anxiously. "Last time I saw you you
were flat on the floor."
"Nothing wrong with me now. A bit stiff and sore, that's all. When I
came to I put all the controls in neutral and came looking for you. I
was scared, but the thing's all over now, so let's go."
"Where?"
"Europa."
"Where's that?"
"Don't you remember? The third satellite of the fifth planet. That's
Europa, third in distance from Jupiter, the fifth planet. It is about
the size of Terra's satellite--your Moon. We'll find the city of the
golden domes."
* * * * *
Carr's eyes renewed their sparkle. "Right!" he exclaimed. "I forgot
the mental message. Poor devils! All over for them now. But we'll
carry their message. How far is it?"
"Don't know yet till I determine our position and the position of
Jupiter. But it's quite a way. Jupiter's 483 million miles from the
Sun, you know."
"We're more than half way, then."
"Not necessarily. Perhaps we're on the opposite side of the sun from
Jupiter's present position. Then we'd have a real trip."
"Let's figure it out." Carr was anxious to be off.
Luck was with them, as they found after some observations from the
turret. Jupiter lay off their original course by not more than fifteen
degrees. It was but four days' journey.
Again they were on their way and the two men, Martian and Terrestrial,
made good use of the time in renewing their old friendship and in the
study of astronomy as they had done during the first leg of their
journey. Though of widely differing build and nature, the two found a
close bond in their similar inclinations. The library of the Nomad was
an excellent one. Thrygis had seen to that, all of the voice-vision
reels being recorded in Cos, the interplanetary language, with its
standardized units of weight and measurement.
* * * * *
The supplies on board the _Nomad_ were ample. Synthetic foods there
were for at least a hundred Martian days. The supply of oxygen and
water was inexhaustible, these essential items being produced in
automatic retorts where disassembled electrons from their cosmic-ray
hydrogen were reassembled in the proper structure to produce atoms of
any desired element. Their supply of synthetic food could be
replenished in like manner when necessity arose. Thrygis had forgotten
nothing.
"How do you suppose we'll make ourselves understood to the people of
Europa?" asked Carr, when they had swung around the great orb of
Jupiter and were headed toward the satellite.
"Shouldn't have any trouble, Carr. Believe me, to a people who have
progressed to the point of sending mental messages over five hundred
miles of space, it'll be a cinch, understanding our simple mental
processes. Bet they'll read our every thought."
"That's right. But the language. Proper names and all that. Can't get
those over with thought waves."
"No, but I'll bet they'll have some way of solving that too. You wait
and see."
Carr lighted a cigar and inhaled deeply as he gazed from one of the
ports. He'd never felt better in his life. Always had liked Martian
tobacco, too. Wondered what they'd do when the supply ran out. One
thing they couldn't produce synthetically. The disc of the satellite
loomed near and it shone with a warmly inviting light. Almost red,
like the color of Mars, it was. Sort of golden, rather. Anyway, he
wondered what awaited them there. This was a great life, this roaming
in space, unhampered by laws or conventions. The _Nomad_ was well
named.
"Wonder what they'll think of our yarn," he said.
"And me. I wonder, too, what that ungodly thing was back there. The
thing that is now the grave of some of their people. And what the
golden sphere was doing so far from home. It's a mystery."
* * * * *
They had gone over the same ground a hundred times and had not reached
a satisfactory conclusion. But perhaps they'd learn more in the city
of golden domes.
"Another thing," said Carr, "that's puzzled me. Why is it that Europa
has not been discovered before this; that it's inhabited, I mean?"
"Rocket ships couldn't carry enough fuel. Besides, our astronomers've
always told us that the outer planets were too cold; too far from the
sun."
"That is something to think about. Maybe we'll not be able to stand
the low temperature; thin atmosphere; low surface gravity."
"We've our insulated suits and the oxygen helmets for the first two
objections. The G-rays'll hold us down in any gravity. But we'll see
mighty soon. We're here."
They had entered the atmosphere as they talked and the _Nomad_ was
approaching the surface in a long glide with repulsion full on. It was
daytime on the side they neared. Pale daylight, but revealing. The
great ball that was Jupiter hung low on the horizon, its misty outline
faintly visible against the deep green of the sky.
* * * * *
The surface over which they skimmed was patchworked with farm-lands
and crisscrossed by gleaming ribbons. Roadways! It was like the
voice-vision records of the ancient days on Mars and Terra before
their peoples had taken to the air. Here was a body where a person
could get out in the open; next to nature. They crossed a lake of calm
green water fringed by golden sands. At its far side a village spread
out beneath them and was gone; a village of broad pavements and
circular dwellings with flat rooms, each with its square of ground. A
golden, mountain range loomed in the background; vanished beneath
them. More fields and roads. Everywhere there were yellows and reds
and the silver sheen of the roads. No green save that of the darkening
sky and the waters of the streams and ponds. It was a most inviting
panorama.
Occasionally they passed a vessel of the air--strange flapping-winged
craft that soared and darted like huge birds. Once one of them
approached so closely they could see its occupants, seemingly a people
similar to the Venusians, small of stature and slender.
"How in time are we to find this city of golden domes?" Carr
ejaculated.
As if in answer to his question there came a startling command,
another of the mental messages.
"Halt!" it conveyed to their mind. "Continue not into our country
until we have communed with you."
Obediently Mado brought up the nose of the _Nomad_ and slowed her down
to a gradual stop. They hovered at an altitude of about four thousand
feet, both straining their ears as if listening for actual speech.
"It is well," continued the message. "Your thoughts are good. You come
from afar seeking the city of golden domes. Proceed now and a fleet of
our vessels will meet you and guide you to our city."
"Now wouldn't that jar you?" whispered Carr. "Just try to get away
with anything on this world."
Mado laughed as he started the generators of the propelling
energy. "I'd hate to have a wife of Europa," he commented. "No
sitting-up-with-sick-friend story could get by with her!"