Moot Ang repeated the gesture, whereupon the other raised one arm high in wordless greeting, turned round and disappeared into the black maw behind him. His companions followed him.
“Let us go down too,” Moot Ang said, pressing the descent lever.
The hatch closed over them before Afra had had more than a fleeting glimpse of the magnificent sight of the stars blazing in all their brilliance in the black void — a sight that never failed to delight her. The lights went on in the airlock and there was a faint hissing of the pumps — the first indication that the air pressure had reached that at the Earth’s surface.
“Shall we set up a dividing wall before joining the galleries?” Yas Tin asked as soo nas he had got his helmet off.
“Yes,” Moot Ang replied. “That’s what the captain of the other ship was trying to tell us. It’s a tragedy that they can’t exist without fluorine, which happens to be deadly to us. Oxygen would be just as lethal for them. Besides, many of our materials, paints and metals which are durable enough in an oxygen atmosphere would corrode from their breathing. Instead of water they have hydrofluoric acid which eats away into glass and attacks all silicates. We will have to put up a transparent partition that is not affected by oxygen while they will have to make another of some substance resistant to fluorine. But we must hurry. We can talk things over while the partition is being made.”
The quenching chamber which separated the crew’s quarters from the engine room of the Tellur was turned into a chemical laboratory. Here a heavy plate of crystallike transparent plastic was cast of ready components brought from Earth and left to set.
In the meantime the white space ship showed no signs of life although it was kept under constant observation.
In the library of the Tellur work was in full swing. The members of the expedition were busy selecting stereofilms and magnetic recordings of photographs of the Earth and its finest works of art. Diagrams and drawings illustrating mathematical functions and the crystal structure of the most common substances on Earth, other planets of our solar system and the Sun were being hurriedly prepared. A large stereoscopic screen was being adjusted and an overtone sound unit which reproduced the sound of the human voice without the slightest distortion was being encased in a fluorine-proof jacket.
During the brief intervals for food and rest, the crew of the Tellur discussed the unusual atmosphere of the planet from which the others had come.
The processes on the unknown planet set in motion by the energy radiated by its sun which made it possible for life to exist and accumulate energy to offset the dissipation of energy, must follow a general pattern similar to that on Earth. A free active gas — oxygen, fluorine or any other — could accumulate in the atmosphere only as a result of the vital functions of plants. Under all circumstances animal life, human beings included, must use up this gas, combining it with carbon, the basic component of both animals and plants.
The oceans of the planet must consist of hydrofluoric acid, which the plants broke up with the aid of the radiation energy of the system’s luminary as plants on Earth break up water (hydrogen oxide), accumulating carbohydrates and releasing free fluorine. The fluorine mixed with nitrogen was breathed by humans and animals, who obtained energy from the combustion of the carbohydrates in fluorine, and must exhale carbon fluoride and hydrogen fluoride.
This type of metabolism would give one and a half times as much energy as oxygen metabolism. It could very well serve as the foundation for the development of the highest forms of life. But the greater degree of activity of fluorine would require more intensive solar radiation. To produce enough energy to break up the molecules of hydrogen fluoride by photosynthesis, what is needed is not radiation in the yellow-green region, which will do for water, but the more powerful blue and violet radiation. Evidently the luminary of the unknown planet was a very hot blue star.
“There’s a contradiction there,” said Tey Eron, who had just returned from the workshop. “Hydrogen fluoride readily turns into a gas.”
“Quite so. At plus twenty degrees,” Kari replied after a glance into a manual.
“What’s the freezing point?”
“Minus eighty.”
“That would make the planet rather cold. How does that theory go with the hot blue star hypothesis?”
“No discrepancy at all,” said Yas Tin. “Its orbit may be a distant one. And the oceans may be located in the moderate or polar zones. Or…”
“There may be a great many reasons,” Moot Ang said. “Whatever it is, we have run across a space ship from a fluorine planet and soon we’ll learn all about it. What’s more important at the moment is this: fluorine is not very common in the Universe in general. Although recent discoveries have raised it from fortieth place to the eighteenth as regards prevalence, oxygen still remains the third most common element, after hydrogen and helium, and followed by nitrogen and carbon. Other estimates show that there is two hundred thousand times more oxygen in nature than fluorine. This is a clear indication that there are very few planets in the Universe which are rich in fluorine, and a still smaller number of planets with a fluorine atmosphere — that is, planets that have a vegetation that has released free fluorine into the atmosphere. The latter must be very rare indeed.”
“Now I can understand the gesture of despair their captain made,” Afra Devi said. “They are searching for other human beings like themselves. That’s why we are such a disappointment for them.”
“That would suggest they’ve been searching for a long time and had already found other thinking beings.”
“Yes, oxygen-breathing beings like ourselves!” cried Afra.
“There may be other kinds of atmosphere,” objected Tey Eron. “Chlorine, for instance, or sulphur, or hydrogen sulphide.”
“They wouldn’t be able to support the highest forms of life,” exclaimed Afra triumphantly. “They all produce in the living organism anything from one-third to one-tenth the energy oxygen yields!”
“That doesn’t apply to sulphur,” put in Yas Tin.
“It’s the equivalent of oxygen.”
“You mean an atmosphere of sulphuric anhydride and an ocean of liquid sulphur?” Moot Aug asked the engineer. Yas Tin nodded.
“But in that case the sulphur would be taking the place of hydrogen, not oxygen, if we compare with the Earth,” Afra said. “And hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe. Sulphur in view of its rarity can hardly take the place of hydrogen in very many cases. Such an atmosphere would obviously be a rarer phenomenon than a fluorine atmosphere.”
“And possible only on very hot planets,” Tey Eron said, turning over the pages of the manual. “A sulphur ocean would be liquid only at a temperature of one hundred to four hundred degrees.”
“I think Afra is right,” Moot Ang said. “All these atmospheres we have been talking about are far less likely than our standard type of atmosphere consisting of the most common elements in the Universe. That it is made up of these elements is no chance phenomenon.”
“I agree with you there,” put in Yas Tin. “But the element of chance occurs often enough in the infinity of the Universe. Take our ‘standardized’ Earth, for instance. Both it and its neighbours the Moon, Mars and Venus have a great deal of aluminium which is rare enough elsewhere in the Universe.”
“And yet it can take tens if not hundreds of thousands of years to run across repetitions of these chance phenomena,” Moot Ang said gloomily. “Even with warp ships. If the people of the other ship have been looking for another planet like theirs for a long time, I can understand what they felt like on meeting us.”
“It’s a good thing our atmosphere consists of the most common elements in the Universe,” Afra said. “At least we can look forward to finding a great many planets like ours.”
“And yet our first encounter was with one of a different order,” Tey remarked.
Afra had a retort ready but the ship’s chemist came in just then to report that the transparent scree
n was finished.
“But we can enter their ship in space suits, can’t we?” Yas Tin asked.
“Of course we can. And so can they visit ours. We’ll probably have many such exchanges of visits, but it’s better to get acquainted from a distance,” replied the captain.
The Earthmen mounted the transparent sheet of plastic at the outer end of the gallery, and the others did the same in theirs. Then the members of both crews met in space where they worked together to connect the two galleries. Pats on the sleeve or shoulder were exchanged as a token of friendship equally understandable to both sides.
Thrusting the horn-like protuberances of their helmets forward, the strangers tried to peer through the Earthmen’s space helmets, which afforded a much better view of the faces inside than the strangers’ helmets whose slightly convex fronts revealed nothing of their owners’ features. Yet the Earthmen instinctively felt that the curious eyes examining them were friendly.
When invited to board the Tellur the figures in white gestured their refusal. One of them touched his helmet and then flung his arms outward as if scattering something. Tey understood this to mean that the stranger was afraicf for his helmet in an oxygen atmosphere.
“They obviously have the same idea as we have and want to meet us in the gallery first,” Moot Ang said.
* * *
The two space ships now hung motionless in the infinity of space, joined together by the communication gallery. The Tellur turned on its powerful heating units, which made it possible for the crew to enter the gallery in the close-fitting blue artificial wool overalls they always wore at work on shipboard.
A pale blue light like the crystalline radiance on mountain tops on Earth appeared on the other side of the partition. The difference in the lighting on either side of the transparent wall tinted it aquamarine as if it were made of petrified pure sea-water.
A silence set in broken only by the Earthlings’ quickened breathing. Tey Eron’s elbow touched Afra. He felt the young woman trembling with excitement. He drew her close and she flashed him a quick look of gratitude.
A group of eight from the other ship appeared in the far end of the gallery. A gasp of astonishment escaped the Earthmen. They could hardly believe their eyes. In his heart of hearts each had expected something extraordinary, something supernatural. Because of this, the close resemblance of the strangers to themselves struck them as a miracle. But that was only at first glance, for the closer they examined them the more points of difference they noticed in all that was not concealed by the short loose jackets and long wide trousers the strangers wore, which, incidentally, were very much like the clothes worn on Earth in ancient times.
Suddenly the blue light went out and terrestrial lighting was switched on. The transparent wall in the gallery lost its greenish tint and became colourless. Looking at the people standing behind the almost invisible screen at the far end of the corridor, it was hard to believe that they breathed a gas that was lethal on Earth and that they bathed in hydrofluoric acid! Their physical proportions were normal according to Earth standards, and their height was the same as the average Earthling’s. The strangest thing about them was the colour of their skin — iron grey with a silvery sheen and an inner blood-red glow like that of polished hematite.
The strangers had round heads and pitch-black hair, but their most remarkable feature was their almond-shaped eyes. These were incredibly large, so large that they seemed to take up the whole width of the face, and heavily slanted, with the outer corners rising up to the temples, higher than the eyes of Earth-dwellers. The whites, of a deep turquoise, seemed abnormally long in comparison with the black irises and pupils.
Over the eyes were straight, fine, black eyebrows that ran into the hair high over the temples and almost joined over the narrow bridge of the nose. The hairline on the forehead was sharply defined and in perfect symmetry with the line of the eyebrows, giving the forehead the shape of a horizontally extended diamond. The nose was short and flat, with two nostrils opening downward as in men from Earth. The strangers’ mouths were small, and their parted lilac-coloured lips revealed even rows of teeth of the same pure turquoise as the white of the eyes. Just below the eyes the faces narrowed sharply to a chin with angular lines, which made the top part of the face seem inordinately wide. The structure of their ears remained a mystery, for the headbands of gold braid they wore came down over their temples.
Some of them were evidently women, judging by their long, shapely necks, softer facial lines and fluffy, short-cropped hair. The men were taller and more muscular, and their chins were wider. The differences between them were comparable to the differences between the sexes on Earth.
It seemed to Afra that they had only four fingers in each hand. Besides, the fingers looked as if they had no joints at all, for they bent without forming angles.
What their feet were like was impossible to tell, for they sank deep into the soft carpet on the floor. Their clothing seemed to be dark-red in colour.
The longer the astronauts from Earth gazed at their counterparts from the fluorine planet the less odd their appearance seemed. More than that, they realized they were looking at beings that were endowed with a beauty of their own. The secret of the strangers’ charm lay mainly in their huge eyes which regarded the Earthmen with a warm glow of intelligence and goodwill.
“Look at those eyes!” Afra exclaimed. “It is easier to become human with eyes like those than with ours, though ours are wonderful too.”
“Why do you think so?” Tey asked in a whisper.
“The bigger the eye the more of the world it can take in.”
Tey nodded in agreement.
One of the strangers stepped forward and gestured with his hand. The light to which the Earthmen were accustomed went out on the other side of the partition.
“I should have thought of the lights!” Moot Ang groaned.
“I did,” Kari said, switching off the normal lighting and turning on two powerful lamps fitted with “430” filters.
“But it’ll make us look like corpses,” said Taina. “Humanity doesn’t look its best in this light.”
“You have no cause for worry,” Moot Ang said. “Their range of perfect vision extends far into the violet region, and perhaps even into the ultraviolet. That suggests that they are sensitive to a great many more shades and obtain a softer visual picture than we.”
“We probably look yellower to them than we really are,” Tey said after a moment’s thought.
“That’s better than the bluish colour of a corpse,” Taina said. “Just look around!”
* * *
The Earthmen took several photographs and then passed an osmin-crystal overtone speaker through a small airlock in the screen. The strangers took it and put it on a tripod. Kari directed a narrow beam of radio waves at the disc antenna and the speech and music of Earth could be heard in the fluorine planet’s space ship. A device for analysing the air and measuring the temperature and atmospheric pressure was passed through in the same way. As could have been expected, the temperature inside the white space ship turned out to be much lower — no more than seven degrees. The atmospheric pressure was higher than on Earth, and the force of gravity, almost the same.
“Their body temperature is probably higher,” Afra said. “Ours too is more than the Earth’s normal average of twenty degrees. I would say their body temperature is about fourteen of our degrees.”
The others also passed through some devices enclosed in two mesh containers which made it impossible to judge of their designation.
One of the containers emitted high-pitched intermittent sounds that seemed to vanish into the distance. From this the Earthmen gathered that the others could hear higher notes than they. If the range of their hearing was about the same, they probably could not hear the lower notes in our speech and music.
The strangers switched on terrestrial lighting again and the Earthmen turned off the blue light. Two of the strangers, a man and a woman, approache
d the transparent wall. They threw off their dark-red clothing and stood naked, hand in hand, before the Earthmen. The bodies of the strangers were even more similar to those of the people of Earth than their faces. The harmonious proportions fully accorded with the earthly concept of beauty. True, the lines were more sharply defined, more angular, producing a sculptured effect that was enhanced by the play of light and shadow on their grey skin.
Their heads sat proudly on their long necks. The man had the broad shoulders and general physique of a worker and fighter, while the wide hips of the woman in no way jarred with intellectual power that emanated from these inhabitants of an unknown planet.
When the strangers stepped back with the now familiar gesture of invitation and the yellow terrestrial lights went out, the Earthmen no longer hesitated.
At the commander’s request, Tey Eron and Afra Devi stepped up hand in hand before the transparent partition. In spite of the unearthly lighting which lent their bodies the cold blue tint of marble, their superb beauty caused a gasp of admiration to escape their comrades. The strangers too, dimly visible in the unlighted gallery, seemed similarly affected; they looked at one another in wonder and exchanged brief gestures.
At last the strangers finished photographing and turned on their own light.
“Now I have no doubt that they know what love is,” said Taina, “true, beautiful human love …since their men and women are so beautiful and so clever.”
“You are quite right, Taina, and that is all the more heartening since it means they will understand us in everything,” Moot Ang replied. “Look at Kari! See you don’t fall in love with that girl from the fluorine planet, Kari. That would be a real tragedy for you.”
The navigator started, and tore his eyes with difficulty away from the inhabitants of the white space ship.
The Heart of the Serpent вк-2 Page 6