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“You think, then, that we will have trouble, sir?”

“Your guess is as good is mine,” I shrugged. “The people of this Strobus know nothing of us. They will not know whether we come as friends or enemies. Naturally, they will be suspicious. It is hard to explain the use of the menore, to convey our thoughts to them.”

I glanced up at the attraction meter, reflecting upon the estimated mass of the body we were approaching. By night we should be nearing her atmospheric envelope. By morning we should be setting down on her.

“We’ll hope for the best, sir,” said Correy innocently.

I bent more closely over the television disk, to hide my smile. I knew perfectly what the belligerent Correy meant by “the best.”

* * * * *

The next morning, at atmospheric speed, we settled down swiftly over the larger of the two continents, Correy giving orders to the navigating room while I divided my attention between the television disk and the altimeter, with a glance every few seconds at the surface temperature gauge. In unknown atmospheres, it is not difficult to run up a considerable surface temperature, and that is always uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous.

“The largest city seems to be nearer the other continent. You should be able to take over visually before long. Has the report on the atmosphere come through yet?”

“Not yet. Just a moment, sir.” Correy spoke for a moment into his microphone and turned to me with a smile.

“Suitable for breathing,” he reported. “Slight excess of oxygen, and only a trace of moisture. Hendricks just completed the analysis.” Hendricks, my third officer, was as clever as a laboratory man in many ways, and a red-blooded young officer as well. That’s a combination you don’t come across very often.

“Good! Breathing masks are a nuisance. I believe I’d reduce speed somewhat; she’s warming up. The big city I mentioned is dead ahead. Set the Ertak down as close as possible.”

“Yes, sir!” snapped Correy, and I leaned over the television disk to examine, at very close range, the great Strobian metropolis we were so swiftly approaching.

* * * * *

The buildings were all tall, and constructed of a shining substance that I could not identify, even though I could now make out the details of their architecture, which was exceedingly simple, and devoid of ornament of any kind, save an occasional pilaster or flying buttress. The streets were broad, and laid out to cut the city into lozenge-shaped sections, instead of the conventional squares. In the center of the city stood a great lozenge-shaped building with a smooth, arched roof. From every section of the city, great swarms of people were flocking in the direction of the spot toward which the Ertak was settling, on foot and in long, slim vehicles of some kind that apparently carried several people.

“Lots of excitement down there, Mr. Correy,” I commented. “Better tell Mr. Kincaide to order up all hands, and station a double guard at the port. Have a landing force, armed with atomic pistols and bombs, and equipped with menores, as an escort.”

“And the disintegrator-ray generators–you’ll have them in operation, sir, just in case?”

“That might be well. But they are not to be used except in the greatest emergency, understand. Hendricks will accompany me, if it seems expeditious to leave the ship, leaving you in command here.”

“Very well, sir!” I knew the arrangement didn’t suit him, but he was too much the perfect officer to protest, even with a glance. And besides, at the moment, he was very busy with orders to the men in the control room, forward, as he conned the ship to the place he had selected to set her down.