Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

“This is a ten-pIanet system; the presumptive eleventh is actually an

asteroid belt between planets four and five. Number five is the gas giant

first spotted by the computer; it is large but not as large as the one

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recorded for system IEP number three. Six, seven, eight and ten are also gas

giants of moderate size. Nine is a small dense world about eight thousand

miles in diameter with a very eccentric orbit; presumably it is an escaped

satellite of number eight, which also has four other moons, all much

smaller. Number ten has two moons, and number seven has five. Numher six has

twelve, including a large one, plus a small asteroid belt of its own, which

the spectroscope shows to be mostly ice. Number five has fourteen

satellites, three of them large. None of these bodies are livable. Then

comes the asteroid belt, followed by four small dense planets, two of which

appear to be inhabitable.”

“Two of them? Around so cold a star?”

“Yes, Director. Number four is small and cold and wouldn’t support us

except under domes, but it shows traces of water and indigenous simple

plant life. Number three is a binary, consisting of one planet about two

thousand miles in diameter and one of about eight thousand miles, revolving

around each other. The smaller body is quite dead and meteor-battered and

obviously never had any atmosphere to speak of. The larger is almost an

exact duplicate of our home world in many important respects, according to

the computer, except that it has much more extensive bodies of water. The