lanet were looming large upon the screen.
The shining light that was the Old Ship was crawling nearer to them. Twice
Grim Hagen had hurled sheets of flame at them. And once he contacted The
Nebula on the speaker--and cursed everyone fluently in three languages. He
assured them that he now had a fighting crew and would soon join up with
others. He had a dozen new weapons. So why didn't they simply get lost?

Sleep after sleep went by and still the two ships crawled toward that last
port on the edge of space.

Until, finally, they saw the Old Ship leave Trans-Space and glide down to
the huge planet. And with a last burst of speed, Ato came in behind it.

CHAPTER 14

The two ships landed a few miles apart at almost the same time.

They settled to the plane's surface like whirling hour-glasses. Fire
spouted from them in all directions. Then their movement stopped. Smoke
shrouded them and slowly drifted away.

They were upon a reddish plain. Above them, the red sun filled a twelfth of
the sky. That sky was one vast swirl of crimson. Even the few clouds seemed
to be on fire. And yet their instruments showed that the temperature of the
thin air outside was in the sixties.

There were no mountains or valleys. The giant planet had weathered down to
one great curving plain. It was mostly red sandstone, but here and there
were reddish carpets of moss and grass. In the distance were a few gaunt
trees. They had seen no rivers or seas before they landed. Odin learned
later that there were many muddy ponds left upon the surface from the
remains of stagnant seas. He also learned later that huge reservoirs were
underground.

With the exception of the trees, the only thing that broke the monotonous
line of the horizon was one great dome of violet stone or metal. It flashed
like an amethyst in the red glare of the sun--and it was certainly
man-made.

But on that occasion Jack Odin had little time to look at the scenery. They
had hardly settled to the planet's surface before Grim Hagen trained his
guns upon them and began to fire. Flame enveloped them. Bombs of acid and
steel shook The Nebula. The battle-stations were already manned, and Ato
gave orders to return fire. For nearly an hour, the holocaust continued.
Both ships rocked upon their steady foundations. They were bathed in flame,
acid streamed down their sides, and rockets tore at them. Shells burst upon
them. And then it was over.

The two ships, scarred and bla