Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

faint stirrings of defeatism among his officers; on most occasions he had

shown himself to be next to no psycliologist at all. Maybe Ailiss had done

it for him.

In any event, the die was cast. The Javelin was beginning her slow,

circuitous drop toward the bluewhite sun.

Excerpts from the Grand Log, as broadcast by the Javelin in the course of

exploration of System IEP #3:

‘The most distant planet of this system is at a distance of 6,720 million

miles from its primary, with an orbital period of 610 years. It is quite

dark, with some whitish streaks not parallel to its equator, its diameter

is 10,000 miles and it is accompanied by two small moons. One is 250,000

miles from its primary, with a period of 24 days and a diameter of 30

miles. The second, 5,000 miles out, has a period of four hours and a

diameter of three miles. It is presumed by Dr. Kamblin to be a captured

comet. No landings attempted.

“The next planet inward, at a distance of 2,500 million miles, has a period

of 420 years and a diameter of 33,000 miles. It is dark and moonless. No

landings attempted.

“The next, obviously the. first to be detected by the computer, is a gas

giant of 110,000 miles diameter, at a distance of 4,500 million miles from

the primary and with a period of 265 years, and close approach reveals &

common methane-ammonia-hydrogen pattern for worlds of this size. It is

thermally quite hot, though not self-luminous in the visible spectrum. It

has six large moons, the largest 4,000 miles in diam-

108 fames Blish

eter and with a deep but thin atmosphere, and 17 small ones ranging from 10