Free Trapped on Venus by Carl Conrad Page A

growth. It’s beyond the wildest stretch of the imagination to
think of them other than that, to think of them consciously, rationally,
stalking Fisk and Jennings. It’s unheard of!”
      “Why the reaction to
the heat, then? Why would they just disappear when they focused the lens on
them? To have reacted like that, they must have had some sensory warning, some
susceptibility to pain or discomfort. If they were just globs of protoplasm,
just ‘things’, surely they wouldn’t have reacted like that. There must be some
correlation, some connection between the two points.”
      “That’s what’s got us
stumped, John. That’s what Phillips and Andrews are arguing about. See how it
started?” He smiled generously, knowing that Stimson was as confused and full
of questions as any of the rest of them. Stimson returned the smile and walked
away.
      On and on the debate
raged as each scientist tried to outguess and out argue his colleagues. What
was the crust composed of? How was it formed? Were the conditions right for
life to exist? Could they communicate with the creatures? How? When? Where?
Why?... It had now nearly become a battleground for the best scientific minds
of the decade – debating, arguing, challenging each other on every point, on
every issue. But, one thing was emphatically decided – the mission would go on!
      Fifty-six minutes
passed since Scott and Marty terminated contact with Earth Control One, and the
arguments were more volatile now than when they had begun. Yet, resting
peacefully in a probe 26 million miles away, the astronauts were unaware of the
disagreements they had spawned. They were asleep.
      It was a struggle for
them to keep their eyes closed in the early minutes of the rest period, each
still deeply engrossed in the problems which confronted them – the
uncertainties, the doubts, the hazards which lingered longer and with greater
abundance as they sought to dismiss them from their minds. But also, the
possibility of great achievements, great contributions, great strides forward
for the field of science and the hope of humans loomed ahead of them. The early
moments of their rest period were mixed with apprehension and excitement, fear and
relief, solitude and dismay as well as a gamut of emotions reaching from
disdain to triumph. Still buried beneath the overwhelming weight of confusion,
silence, and uncertainty, the astronauts were able to hide their anxieties in
the sanctity of sleep. They rested.
      A few more minutes
passed – fifty-six... fifty-eight... seventy-two minutes into the rest period –
when the scientists at Earth Control One came up with something. The long,
arduous debates had finally paid off. All the data supported it, all the
observations concurred; the planet could sustain life! Dr. Phillips was quick
to add emphasis to the word ‘could’ when they announced their findings, but the
point was really irrelevant. He, as well as the others, was finally convinced
that a strong possibility existed that life – intelligent life at that – could
exist under the conditions on Venus. Yet, even more startling was their
proposition that the creatures could live, survive – breed! – under the
Venusian crust. The planet could very well be an aquatic wonderland beneath the
surface! As Dr. Daniels explained it:
      “The crust may quite
easily be the result of the extremely high temperatures on the planet. Life
could never survive for very long under such intense heat. But, given the shad
of a crust-like layer, and the viscosity of a medium amenable to life, it
could, quite conceivably, have developed over the eons of years the planet has
been orbiting the Sun. Adaptation – that’s the key. Creatures, and life of all
kinds, have shown a remarkable ability to adapt to nearly any kind of
environment. There is certainly no reason to preclude the possibility on a
planet such as Venus.”
      But, as Stimson
listened, his thoughts were of how to tactfully tell