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the couple of hundred worlds I'd touched.
It was a plateau rather than a crater, although it was about concave enough to
be described as a vast shallow saucer. It was perhaps five miles in diameter,
which put the
Lost Star a lot nearer our edge than the far one.
'You there, Johnny?' I asked.
'I'm listening.'
'We're standing on the lip now.'
'I can see you.'
'Can you get a precise enough fix on the
Lost Star to tell me exactly how far she is?'
'Not exactly, no. About a thousand yards, I'd say. Give or take sixty.' Sixty
yards might be a long way in there, I mused.
'Give me the direction on your instruments, and my direction along your line
of sight.' He did so, and I checked the direction on my own compass. I also
set my pedometer to zero. One of the reasons that spacesuits are nowhere near
as efficient as their makers claim is that they're cluttered up inside with
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useless junk like pedometers.
'Did you manage to get through to Eve?' I asked.
'Yes.'
'Everything all right?'
'Yes.'
'Ok then, here we go. Ready, Captain?'
DelArco nodded. I expelled my breath slowly, and looked around. I wished it
were daylight.
There was light enough, and I'm not habitually scared of the dark - even alien
night - but I always prefer to walk into the jaws of death while the sun's
shining. It makes the whole toothy appearance of the world seem more cheerful.
We plunged down into the mass of living confusion. It was quite unlike being
in a forest or a jungle on any other world. Naturally, there's just barrier,
and you have to hack and batter your way through it - fighting like crazy
for every inch. But this stuff yielded to a bitter look. It didn't need much
persuading. The trouble was that there was too much it to yield that easily.
It couldn't get out of our of way, because there was no-where to go. And yet
our every touch was an abomination. Our presence and our progress would cause
the plants which we touched unbearable pain.
So what, I wondered, would they do?
What could they do?
After five minutes in that place, with the damn things writh-ing away from
under my feet and around my body, panic-stricken but helplessly caged, I
was feeling sorry for the bloody things.
For some time, we weren't quite out of our depth in the stuff, but it was
clear that we'd soon be completely entombed by the dream-like formlessness. We
each had a light mounted in our helmets, but they weren't made for general
illumination. They had a tight, bright beam for working on the outsides of
ships in deep-space. My lamp cast a circle of light big enough to fit both
hands into, but it wasn't very useful. Happily, the instruments inside my
helmet - most notably the compass - had luminescent dials.
We plugged on. Captain delArco was just behind me and - without quite
clutching my hand -
was sticking to me for dear life. He said absolutely nothing, but I didn't
need to be told that he was scared rigid by the blackness and the feel
of the furtive, glutinous chaos through which we moved.
Myriads of tiny creatures were accidentally transferred from the plants to me,
and I hoped none of them was adapted for chewing tough plastic. But most of
them had no intention whatsoever of staying with me for longer than cruel fate
dictated. They couldn't get away fast enough. Some stuck fast, and I assumed
that these wouldn't be getting away at all. This trip was wreaking its own
special brand of havoc. Every hundred yards or so I had to wipe my faceplate.
With three hundred yards still to go. I stopped to consider the details of my
master plan. The captain was glad of the rest, but remained terrified.
'Johnny?' I said.
'Yes.'
'Everything is fine. Looks like no trouble. I'll call again when I reach the
ship.'
'Check.'
I moved slightly, and delArco placed his hand on my shoulder. I wasn't sure
whether he wanted more rest, or whether he just didn't want to risk losing
sight of me. He didn't say a word. I brushed away his hand, but stood still.
He sagged a little, and tried to lean on the plants. But of course they
wouldn't entertain the notion, and just gave way. He fought for the balance
he'd so carelessly committed to the non-existent support, lost the fight, and
fell over. I left, in a hurry. There was a moment's dreadful pause, when I
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