re
useless, as they can be driven only a very short distance upon our
present carrier wave. With a carrier of the fifth order we could drive a
projection to any point in the galaxy, since its velocity would be
millions of times that of light and the power necessary reduced
accordingly--but as I have said before, such waves cannot be generated
without metal Rovolon."
"I hate to break this up--I'd like to listen to you talk for a week--but
we're going to land pretty quick, and it looks as though we were going
to land pretty hard."
"We will land soon, but not hard," replied Orlon confidently, and the
landing was as he had foretold. The _Skylark_ was falling with an
ever-decreasing velocity, but so fast was the descent that it seemed to
the watchers as though they must crash through the roof of the huge
brilliantly lighted building upon which they were dropping and bury
themselves many feet in the ground beneath it. But they did not strike
the observatory. So incredibly accurate were the calculations of the
Norlaminian astronomer and so inhumanly precise were the controls he had
set upon their bar, that, as they touched the ground after barely
clearing the domed roof and he shut off their power, the passengers felt
only a sudden decrease in acceleration, like that following the coming
to rest of a rapidly moving elevator, after it has completed a downward
journey.
"I shall join you in person very shortly," Orlon said, and the
projection vanished.
"Well, we're here, folks, on another new world. Not quite as thrilling
as the first one was, is it?" and Seaton stepped toward the door.
"How about the air composition, density, gravity, temperature, and so
on?" asked Crane. "Perhaps we should make a few tests."
"Didn't you get that on the educator? Thought you did. Gravity a little
less than seven-tenths. Air composition, same as Osnome and Dasor.
Pressure, half-way between Earth and Osnome. Temperature, like Osnome
most of the time, but fairly comfortable in the winter. Snow now at the
poles, but this observatory is only ten degrees from the equator. They
don't wear clothes enough to flag a hand-car with here, either, except
when they have to. Let's go!"
He opened the door and the four travelers stepped out upon a
close-cropped lawn--a turf whose blue-green softness would shame an
Oriental rug. The landscape was illuminated by a soft and mellow, yet
intense green light which emanated from no visible source. As the
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