'See the sun, Nista?' said Simms, pointing at it.
Her brown eyes huge in her pixie-like face, the young woman gazed in awe and perhaps a little fear at the glittering firmament she had never before seen. 'It's so bright! And the stars are very beautiful, like scaalid in the lake. But where is the blue? You said the sky would be blue.'
'Ah, you'll have to wait a few days for that.'
'I'll take her now if you like,' said Wilfred, trying to keep the eagerness from his voice.
'Then you'll have to feed her,' said Nista. 'I'll warm something up.'
'Is there some difficulty?' asked the Professor. For Hawghi seemed to be taking an improbably long time at the armagijt, sticking out his blue tongue in puzzlement as he repeatedly swung the bezel to bring its pointer opposite Earth. Eventually he called Soldo.
'We move, but it comes always back,' frowned the Venusian.
'Can't you overrule it?' asked Simms.
'That may be necessary,' admitted Hawghi. 'But if so, we should have to slow down considerably. A moment's inattention at this speed could prove fatal.'
'We are altering course, I think,' said Veldo, glancing out of a porthole.'
With a curse, Hawghi scrambled back to the con. 'The wheel is loose in my hands,' he reported. 'I cannot control it.'
Filled with foreboding, Wilfred held his precious daughter tightly to him. The ship could be taking them anywhere and they were powerless to prevent it. What did they know of the builders of the ancient technology they used so freely? Almost nothing. Only that they were incomparably more advanced than any human. Why had the Venusians seen fit to imprison them in Iyx? It must have required enormous effort in those early days to construct the underground vault and the stone Ferris wheel. Did they fear vengeance if they killed them, or did they perhaps still need them in some way? And what would happen now that their degenerate descendants were at last no more?
The Professor had risen and was peering into the armagijst's translucent depths. 'This is most extraordinary,' he muttered, almost to himself. 'It seems determined to take us to Mars.'
THE END
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Storm on Venus Page 31