Barnes relaxed. “See the advantage of a Type ‘B’ landing, Doe,” he remarked cheerfully. “No hurry-just like an elevator.”
“Quit gabbing and get us down,” Corley answered taut1y~ —
“Right,” Barnes agreed. “Co-pilot, predict the blast altitude.”– His own hands were busy to the same end.
Bowles answered, “Jim, yOu going manual or automatic?”
“Don’t know yet.” Automatic firing was quicker, possibly more certain-but that mushy cutoff could bounce them like a pingpong ball. He steadied crosshairs on his autopilot display and read the answer: “Blast at five two oh feet. What do you get, Red?”
“Check.” Bowles added, “That’s less than three seconds blast, Jim. Better make it automatic.”
“Tend to your knitting.”
“My mistake.”
Nearly forty seconds passed and they had fallen to eleven thousand feet before he decided. “Power plant, set for manual landing. Co-pilot, cover me at five hun
dred feet.”
“Jim, that’s too late,” Bowles protested.
“You will be covering me all of a tenth of a second — after I should fire.”
Bowles subsided. Barnes grabbed a glance at the TV screen; the ground under them seemed level and there was no perceptible drift. He looked back at his board. “Correction-cover at five ten.”
“Five ten-right.”
The seconds clicked past; he had his finger poised over the button when Bowles shouted, “Jim-look at the screen!”
He looked up-the Luna, still carrying a trifle of drift, was now over a long crack, or riM-and they were about to land in it.
Barnes jabbed the button.
He let up at once; the Luna coughed to silence. The rill, canyon, or crevasse was still in sight but no longer centered. “Co-pilot-new prediction!”
“What happened?” Corley demanded. —
“Quiet!”
“Prediction,” Bowles chanted, “blast ‘at-at three nine oh.”
Barnes was adjusting verniers for his own prediction as Bowles reported. “Check,” he answered. “Cover at three seven oh.” He threw one glance at the TV screen. The crevasse was toward the edge of the screen; the ground below looked fairly smooth. Unquestionably the ship had a slight drift. All he could do was hope that the gyros would — keep them from toppling. “Brace for crash!”
480 — 450 — 400 — He jabbed the button.
The terrible pressure shoved his bead back; he lost sight of the altimeter. He caught it again — 190 — 150 — 125 — At “fifty” he snatched his finger away and prayed.
The jet cut off sloppily as always. A — grinding jar slammed him more deeply into the cushions The ship lurched like an unsteady top-and stayed upright.
Barnes found that he had been — holding his breath a long time. —
VIII —
Columbus found — a pleasant climate rich land docile natives. Nowhere in our System did explorers find conditions friendly to men-and — nowhere was this more brutally true than on our nearest neighbor.
— Farquharson, Ibid., III: 420
Barnes felt dazed, as if wakening from a confusing dream. Bowles’ voice recalled him to the present. “Jacks are down, skipper. Unclutch the gyros?”
He pulled himself together. “Check our footing first. I’ll-Say! We’re on the Moon!” Frantically he unstrapped.
“We sure are!” answered Bowles. “A fine landing, Jim. I was scared.”
“It was terrible, and you know it.”
“We’re alive, aren’t we? Never mind-we made it.”
Corley interrupted them. “Power plant secured.”
Barnes looked startled. “Oh, sure. Traub, your department okay?”
Mannie answered weakly, “I guess so. I think I fainted.”
“Nonsense!” Bowles reassured him. “Come on-let’s look.”
The four crowded at the portside port and stared out across an umber plain, baking under an unchecked sun, now not far from zenith. Miles away, jutting up into black, star-studded sky, were the peaks they had seen. In the middle distance was a single pock mark, a crater a ‘mile or less across. Nothing else broke the flat desolation
— . …endless, lifeless waste, vacuum sharp and kiln dry.
Traub broke the silence with an awed whisper. “Gosh, what a place! How long do we stay, Mr. Barnes?”
“Not long, Mannie.” He tried to make his words carry conviction. “Doe,” he went on, “let’s check the mass ratio.”
“Okay, Jim.”
Bowles went to the starboard port; one glance through it and he sang out, “Hey-see this.”