Van Gundy stepped forward. He was trembling. His trembling seemed as
much a part of him as sight in his eyes. "No," he said.
"Why not?" snapped Fox.
"Because of what he did. He took the transmitter and--"
"We know all that. He couldn't help it. He's a schizophrenic. That
doesn't mean we can't name a world after him, does it?"
Garcia balled his hands into fists. "Fox is right. I say we call it
Kelly's Planet. How about it, Captain?"
"It's all right with me," said the captain.
"Then Kelly's Planet it is!" cried Fox.
"Strap down," Captain Torkel said. "This is it. We're going to land."
Then he said the words again in his mind: _This is it. This is the
world that will give death or life to humanity, madness or sanity to
us._
* * * * *
The midnight blackness of space dissolved into gentle twilight as the
_Star Queen_ slid into the atmosphere of Kelly's Planet. The grumble of
the jets became audible and then swelled until it was like a rebirth of
the thunderous sound of an April takeoff more than six years ago.
Captain Torkel switched on the second layer of bow jets, braced
himself in his crash-chair. Despite the effects of the deceleration
compensator, his face was swollen and distorted. It was as if the soul
was bubbling out of his body.
He realized that he should have commenced deceleration some ninety
minutes ago. But he had forgotten.
The image of the planet broadened in the magni-screen. It filled the
screen, then seemed to spill out of it. Captain Torkel beheld an
expanse of blue which, in a silent explosion, was transformed into the
cerulean calm of a sea. The blue was swept away. The brownish gold
of mountains stabbed briefly upward, faded into the shadowy green of
rushing forest. Then came the glassy green of a meadow.
The _Star Queen_ paused, shaking with vibration. Its nose arched upward.
The _Star Queen_ landed with an almost imperceptible thump. The atomic
engines spluttered, coughed, died. The men unbuckled themselves, tested
their limbs, slid off their chairs. They moved to the portholes like
frightened old men treading on slippery ice.
They looked out.
* * * * *
They stared for a long moment. "I don't believe it," said Fox at last.
"It's a mirage. We're still in space."
"It--it frightens me," stuttered Van Gundy. "There's death out there.
The air is poisonous. I feel it."
"We're crazy," Garcia spat. "As crazy as Kelly." His eyes widened. "Or
maybe we're dead. Could that be?"
"E--excuse me, Captain," said Lieutenant Washington. "I think I'll go
aft for a minute."
Captain Torkel said nothing. He had forgotten where he was. He was
nameless and lost, among strangers in a strange place.
But at this moment he somehow did not care. He was content to let his
hungry gaze absorb the rainbow beauty beyond the ports.
The meadow was like molten emerald stirring lazily in a slight breeze.
The meadow was spotted with flowers as large as a man's head, shaped
like teardrops, and shining purple and yellow and blue and crimson in
the light from a swollen, blood-red sun.
Some five hundred yards away on the rocket's starboard side rose a
towering green forest. In its shadow was a dark jungle of colossal
fern and twisted vines and more flowers. Beyond that, far away,
snow-cloaked mountains stretched their ponderous bulk into sea-blue
sky.
Captain Torkel returned his slow gaze to the interior of the strange
place in which he stood. He beheld a group of strange men doing strange
things.
A stern-looking man with tight lips and menacing eyes was looking up
from a litter of glass flasks and electronic devices. "Air twenty-nine
per cent oxygen--a bit higher than on Earth. Sixty-five per cent
nitrogen. Rest is a mixture of water vapor, CO2 and inert gases."
A small-boned man with a brown beard was saying, "Mass
point-eight-three. That and the increased oxygen should make us feel
like kids again."
A hawk-nosed man with trembling hands and a forehead glistening with
perspiration said, "Temperature sixty-four Fahrenheit. No harmful
radiation, pathogenic tests negative. Air pressure, eleven-point-three."
He pointed to an odd-looking flower and a tuft of grass in the window
of a metal, box-like chamber. "Flora shows the same oxygen-CO2 cycle as
on Earth. Only the flowers here seem edible."
The men looked at one another.
"Captain, is everything all right?" the brown-bearded man asked
anxiously.
Captain Torkel sensed that the strange men desired an affirmative
answer from him. "Yes," he said.
The brown-bearded man clapped his hands. "And we can go outside! How
about it, Captain? Can we go outside without our suits? Can we go out
now--please?"
_Click._
* * * * *
Memory returned to Captain Torkel like water crashing out of a broken
dam and into a barren valley. He blinked and took a deep breath.
The three men before him became Garcia and Fox and Van Gundy. He saw
that Kelly was still strapped in his crash-chair. He did not see
Lieutenant Washington, but from the aft compartment came a faint
tinkling of glassware.
"Yes," he said, "we'll go outside. But first someone should go
alone--just in case. Who'll volunteer?"
"Not me," said Van Gundy. "You can't depend on those tests. There's
death out there. The whole human race will die out if it comes here."
"Why not let Kelly go?" asked Fox. "It's his planet."
"Sure," said Garcia. "If he dies, it'd serve him right, after what _he_
did."
Captain Torkel thought, _It may be a dangerous planet. The captain
ought to go first. He shouldn't send a madman to do a captain's job._
"Let Kelly go first," he said, hating himself.
Fox helped Kelly out of the crash-chair, pushed him to the airlock.
"Go on, Kelly. This is your planet. You'll be the first to set foot on
it."
Kelly did not move.
Fox pulled him to a port. "Look out there, Kelly. Damn it, don't keep
looking at your feet. Out there, out the port!"
Fox raised Kelly's head and brushed the red hair back from his eyes.
The madman looked.
"Heaven?" he whispered.
"Not Heaven. Kelly's Planet. Your planet, Kelly."
They pushed Kelly into the airlock. A minute later they saw him stumble
onto the green meadows. For eleven more minutes he stood silent and
motionless. Then he turned toward the rocket. Through the ports the men
saw his lips move.
"Heaven!" yelled Fox. "That's what he said! He said 'Heaven'!"