u should be
able to take over visually before long. Has the report on the
atmosphere come through yet?"

"Not yet. Just a moment, sir." Correy spoke for a moment into his
microphone and turned to me with a smile.

"Suitable for breathing," he reported. "Slight excess of oxygen, and
only a trace of moisture. Hendricks just completed the analysis."
Hendricks, my third officer, was as clever as a laboratory man in many
ways, and a red-blooded young officer as well. That's a combination you
don't come across very often.

"Good! Breathing masks are a nuisance. I believe I'd reduce speed
somewhat; she's warming up. The big city I mentioned is dead ahead. Set
the _Ertak_ down as close as possible."

"Yes, sir!" snapped Correy, and I leaned over the television disk to
examine, at very close range, the great Strobian metropolis we were so
swiftly approaching.

* * * * *

The buildings were all tall, and constructed of a shining substance
that I could not identify, even though I could now make out the details
of their architecture, which was exceedingly simple, and devoid of
ornament of any kind, save an occasional pilaster or flying buttress.
The streets were broad, and laid out to cut the city into lozenge-shaped
sections, instead of the conventional squares. In the center of the
city stood a great lozenge-shaped building with a smooth, arched roof.
From every section of the city, great swarms of people were flocking in
the direction of the spot toward which the _Ertak_ was settling, on
foot and in long, slim vehicles of some kind that apparently carried
several people.

"Lots of excitement down there, Mr. Correy," I commented. "Better tell
Mr. Kincaide to order up all hands, and station a double guard at the
port. Have a landing force, armed with atomic pistols and bombs, and
equipped with menores, as an escort."

"And the disintegrator-ray generators--you'll have them in operation,
sir, just in case?"

"That might be well. But they are not to be used except in the greatest
emergency, understand. Hendricks will accompany me, if it seems
expeditious to leave the ship, leaving you in command here."

"Very well, sir!" I knew the arrangement didn't suit him, but he was
too much the perfect officer to protest, even with a glance. And
besides, at the moment, he was very busy with orders to the men in the
control room, forward, as he conned the ship to the place he had
selected t