WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:04.879 The Sky Trap by Frank bell nap Long. This is 2 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:10.039 a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. 3 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:15.359 For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. 4 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:20.359 Recording by Billy de shand The Sky Trap, a short 5 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:25.800 story by Frank bell nap Long. Lawton enjoyed a good fight. 6 00:00:26.519 --> 00:00:30.879 He stood happily trading blows with Slashaway Tommy, his lean, 7 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.920 fresh torso gleaming with sweat. He preferred to work the 8 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:38.880 pugnacity out of himself slowly, to savor it as it ebbed. 9 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:44.079 Better luck next time, slash Away, he said, and unlimbered 10 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:47.320 a left hook that thudded against his opponent's jaw with 11 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:50.520 such violence that the big hairy ape crumpled to the 12 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:54.719 resin and rolled over on his back. Lawton brushed a 13 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:58.000 lock of rust colored hair back from his brow and 14 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:01.320 stared down at the limp figures lying on the descending 15 00:01:01.479 --> 00:01:06.599 stratoship's slightly tilted athletic deck. Good work, slash Away, he said. 16 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.319 You're primitive and beetle browed, but you've got what it takes. 17 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.040 Lawton flattered himself that he was the opposite of primitive 18 00:01:14.519 --> 00:01:16.840 high in the sky. He had predicted the weather for 19 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:20.560 eight days running, with far more accuracy than he could 20 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:24.280 have put into a punch. They'd flash his report all 21 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:27.000 over Earth in a couple minutes now, from New York 22 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:30.040 to London, to Singapore and back. In half an hour. 23 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:34.640 He'd be donning street clothes and stepping out feeling darned good. 24 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:39.879 He had fulfilled his weekly obligation to society by manipulating 25 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:44.120 meteorological instruments for forty five minutes high in the warm 26 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:48.040 upper stratosphere, and worked off his pugnacity by knocking down 27 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:51.719 a professional gym slugger. He would have a full, glorious 28 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:55.840 week now to work off all his other drives. The 29 00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:59.799 strataship's commander, Captain Forrester, had come up and was staring 30 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:03.480 at him reproachfully, Dave, I don't hold with the reforming 31 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:06.599 Johnnies who want to remake human nature from the ground up. 32 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:09.360 But you've got to admit our generation knows how to 33 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:12.800 keep things humming with a minimum of stress. We don't 34 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.879 have world wars now because we work off our pugnacity 35 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:19.159 by sailing into jim sluggers eight or ten times a week. 36 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.919 And since our romantic emotions can be taken care of 37 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.439 by tactile television, we're not at the mercy of every 38 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:31.520 brainless bit of fluff's calculated ankle appeal. Lawton turned and 39 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:35.800 regarded him quizzically. Don't you suppose I realized that you'd 40 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:38.719 think I just blew in from Mars? All right, we 41 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:42.000 have the outlets, the safety valves. They are supposed to 42 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:45.840 keep us civilized, but you don't derive any benefit from them. 43 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:49.199 The heck, I don't I exchange blows with slash Away 44 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:53.159 every time I bored the perseus. And as for women, well, 45 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:55.159 there's just one woman in the world for me, and 46 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:58.000 I wouldn't exchange her for all the Turkish images in 47 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:02.479 the tactyle broadcasts from Stamboul. Yes, I know, but you 48 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:06.159 work off your primitive emotions with too much gusto. Even 49 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:09.960 a cast iron Jim Slugger can bruise. That last blow 50 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:14.240 was brutal. Just because slash Away gets thumped and fluoded 51 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:16.919 all over by the medical staff twice a week doesn't 52 00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:20.680 mean he can take the stratuship lurched. Suddenly, the deck 53 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:24.680 heaved up under Lawton's feet, hurling him against Captain Forrester 54 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.120 and spinning both men around so that they seemed to 55 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:31.319 be waltzing together across the ship. The still limp Jim 56 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:34.800 Slugger slid forward, colliding with a corrugated metal bulkhead, and 57 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.479 slashing back and forth like a wet mackerel. A full 58 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:40.840 minute passed before Lawton could put a stop to that. 59 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:44.000 Even while careening, he had been alive to slash Away's 60 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:46.800 peril and had tried to leap to his aid, But 61 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:50.319 the ship's steadily increasing gyrations had hurled him away from 62 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:54.120 the skipper and against a massive vaulting horse, barking the 63 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:56.879 flesh from his shins and spilling him with violence on 64 00:03:56.919 --> 00:04:00.759 to the deck. He crawled now toward the prone Jim 65 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:04.400 Slugger on his hands and knees, his temples thudding. The 66 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:08.719 gyrations ceased an instant before he reached Slashaway's side. With 67 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.520 an effort, he lifted the big man up, propped him 68 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:14.319 against the bulkhead, and shook him until his teeth rattled 69 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:18.480 slash Away. He muttered, slash Away, old fellow. Slash Away 70 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:22.360 opened his blurred eyes. Phew, he muttered, you sure socked 71 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.399 me hard, sir. You went out like a light, explained 72 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:29.759 Lawton gently, a minute before the ship lurched. The ship lurched, Sir, 73 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:35.000 something's very wrong. Slash Away. The ship isn't moving. They're 74 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.720 no vibrations. And slash Away, are you hurt? Your skull 75 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:41.680 thumped against that bulkhead so hard. I was afraid. Nah, 76 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:44.399 I'm okay. What do you mean the ship ain't moving? 77 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:48.199 How could it stop? Lawton said, I don't know, slash Away, 78 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:52.079 Helping the Jim's slugger to his feet, he stared apprehensively 79 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:55.480 about him. Captain Forrester was kneeling on the resin, testing 80 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:59.279 his hocks for sprains with splayed fingers, his features twitching 81 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:03.519 hurt back, Sir, the commander shook his head. I don't 82 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.040 think so, Dave. We are twenty thousand feet up, so 83 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:10.439 how in hell could we be stationary in space? It's 84 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:15.120 all yours, Skipper. I must say you're helpful. Forrester got 85 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:18.439 painfully to his feet and limped toward the Athletic Compartment's 86 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:21.600 single quartz port, A small circle of radiance on a 87 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:25.040 level with his eyes. As the port sloped downward at 88 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.720 an angle of nearly sixty degrees, all he could see 89 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:30.720 was a diffuse glimmer until he wedged his brow in 90 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:35.160 the observation visor and stared downward. Lawton heard him suck 91 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:39.439 in his breath, sharply, Well, sir, they are thin, sirrus 92 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:44.720 clouds directly beneath us. They're not moving. Lawton gasped the 93 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:48.519 sense of being in an impossible situation, swellington nightmare proportions 94 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:54.000 within him. What could have happened directly behind him, close 95 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:57.439 to a bulkhead chronometer which was clicking out the seconds 96 00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:01.759 with unabashed regularity, was a mist see blue visiplate that 97 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:04.439 merely had to be switched on to bring the pilots 98 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:09.480 into view. The commander hobbled toward it and manipulated a riostat. 99 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.639 The two pilots appeared side by side on the screen, 100 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:16.920 sitting amidst the spidery network of dully gleaming pipelines and 101 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:22.199 Nichrome humidification units. They had unbuttoned their high altitude coats 102 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:26.040 and their stratosphere helmets were resting on their knees. The 103 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:30.079 jabbo choughed candle light, which flooded the pilot room accentuated 104 00:06:30.120 --> 00:06:34.199 the haggardness of their features, which were a sickly cadaverous hue. 105 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:38.120 The captain spoke directly into the visiplate. What's wrong with 106 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:42.040 the ship, he demanded, Why aren't we descending, Dawson, you 107 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:45.879 do the talking. One of the pilots leaned tensely forward 108 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:49.560 his shoulders, jerking, We don't know, sir. The rotaries went 109 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:52.560 dead when the ship started gyrating. We can't work the 110 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:56.959 emergency torps, and the temperature is rising. But it defies 111 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:01.319 all logic, Forester muttered, how could a ship weighing tons 112 00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:04.600 be suspended in the air like a balloon? It is stationary, 113 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.959 but it is not buoyant. We seem in all respects 114 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.759 to be frozen in The explanation may be simpler than 115 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:15.519 you dream, Lawton said. When we found the key, the 116 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:19.040 captain swung toward him. Could you find the key, Dave, 117 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:22.560 I should like to try. It may be hidden somewhere 118 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.600 on the ship, And then again it may not be. 119 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:26.959 But I should like to go over the ship with 120 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.879 a fine tooth comb, and then I should like to 121 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:33.920 go over outside thoroughly. Suppose you make me an emergency 122 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.959 mate and give me a carte blanche. Sir Lowton got 123 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:40.920 his carte blanche for two hours He did nothing spectacular, 124 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:43.680 but he went over every inch of the ship. He 125 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.399 also lined up the crew and pumped them. The men 126 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:49.040 were as completely in the dark as the pilots and 127 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.360 the now completely recovered slash Away, who was following Lawton 128 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:55.920 about like a doting seal. You are a right guy, sir. 129 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:58.800 Another two or three cracks and my noggin would have 130 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:02.120 split wide open. But not like an eggshell, slash Away. 131 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:05.959 Pig iron develops fissures under terrific pounding, but your cranium 132 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.639 seems to be more like tempered steel. Slash Away, you 133 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:12.240 won't understand this. But I've got to talk to somebody, 134 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:15.519 and the captain is too busy to listen. I went 135 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:18.120 over the entire ship because I thought there might be 136 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:21.360 a hidden source of buoyancy somewhere. It would take a 137 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:23.720 lot of air bubbles to turn this ship into a balloon. 138 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.160 But there are large vacuum chambers under the multiple series 139 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:30.600 condensers in the engine room which conceivably could have sucked 140 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:34.120 in a helium leakage from the carbon pile valves. And 141 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:38.799 there are bulkhead porocytes which could have been clogged. Yeah, 142 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:42.120 muttered slash Away, scratching his head. I see what you mean, sir. 143 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:46.559 It was no soap. There's nothing inside the ship that 144 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:49.759 could possibly keep us up. Therefore, there must be something 145 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:54.120 outside that isn't air. We know there is air outside. 146 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:56.879 We've stuck our heads out and sniffed it, and we've 147 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:00.480 found out a curious thing. Along with the eye oxygen. 148 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:02.799 There is water vapor, but it isn't H two. Oh, 149 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:07.159 it's H O. A molecular arrangement like that occurs in 150 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:10.320 the upper solar atmosphere, but nowhere on Earth. And there's 151 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:15.000 a thin sprinkling of hydrocarbon molecules out there too. Hydrocarbon 152 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:18.960 appears ordinarily as methane gas, but out there it rings 153 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.840 up as ch Methane is H four. And there are 154 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:27.559 also scandium oxide molecules making unfamiliar faces at us. An 155 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:32.200 oxide of boron with an equational limp G muttered slashway, 156 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:36.519 we're up against it, eh. Lawton was squatting on his 157 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.759 hands beside an emergency shoot opening on the back of 158 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:44.000 the Penguin's weather observatory. He was letting down a spliced 159 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:47.799 beryllium plumb line. His gaze riveted on the slowly turning 160 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:51.200 horizontal drum of a windlass, which contained more than two 161 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:55.759 hundred feet of gleaming metal cordage. Suddenly, as he stared, 162 00:09:56.159 --> 00:10:00.440 the drum stopped revolving. Lawton stiffened, a startled exp expression 163 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:03.159 coming onto his face. He had been playing a hunch 164 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.840 that had seemed as insane rationally considered as his wild 165 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:10.600 idea about the bulkhead porocytes. For a moment, he was stunned, 166 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:14.080 unable to believe that he had struck pay dirt. The 167 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:17.399 winch indicator stood at one hundred and three feet, giving 168 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:21.279 him a rich, fruity yield of startlement. One hundred feet below, 169 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:24.919 the plummet rested on something solid that sustained it in space. 170 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:29.960 Scarcely breathing, Lawton leaned over the windless and stared downward. 171 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.080 There was nothing visible beneath the ship and the fleecy 172 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:36.759 clouds far below, except a tiny black dot resting on 173 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:41.120 vacancy in a thin beryllium plumb line, ascending like an 174 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:44.759 interrogation point from the dot to the chute opening. You 175 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:48.519 see something down there, slash away, asked Lawton moved back 176 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:51.799 from the windlass, his brain whirling slash away. There's a 177 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:56.840 solid surface directly beneath us, But it's completely invisible. You 178 00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:00.200 mean it's like a frozen cloud, Sir, No, slash Away. 179 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:04.440 It doesn't shimmer or deflect light. Congealed water vapor would 180 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:07.639 sink instantly to earth. You think it's all around us, 181 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:12.840 Sir Lawton stared at Slashaway, aghast in his crude fumblings, 182 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.759 the Jim's slugger had ripped a hidden fear right out 183 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:19.159 of his subconsciousness into the light. I dunno slash away, 184 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:24.799 he muttered, I'll get at that next. A half hour later, 185 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:28.480 Lawton sat behind the Captain's desk in the control room, 186 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:32.159 his face drained of all color. He kept his gaze 187 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:35.759 averted as he talked. A man who succeeds too well 188 00:11:35.799 --> 00:11:40.399 with an unpleasant task may develop a subconscious sense of guilt. Sir, 189 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:44.519 We're suspended inside a hollow sphere which resembles a huge 190 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:48.600 floating soap bubble. Before we ripped through it, it must 191 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.440 have had a plastic surface. But now the tear has 192 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:54.759 apparently healed over, and the shell all around us is 193 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:59.000 as resistant as steel. We're completely bottled up, Sir. I 194 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:03.320 shot rocketly in all directions to make certain the expression 195 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:07.200 on Forrester's face sold mere amazement down the river. He 196 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:09.919 could not have looked more startled if the nearer planets 197 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:13.320 had yielded their secrets chillingly and a super race had 198 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:17.360 appeared suddenly on Earth. Good God, Dave. Do you suppose 199 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:21.080 something has happened to space? Lawton raised his eyes with 200 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:25.519 a shudder. Not necessarily, sir, something has happened to us. 201 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:29.360 We're floating through the sky in a huge, invisible bubble 202 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:31.720 of some sort, but we don't know whether it has 203 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:36.080 anything to do with space. It may be a meteorological phenomenon. 204 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:42.080 You say we're floating. We're floating slowly westward. The clouds 205 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.200 beneath us have been receding for fifteen or twenty minutes now, Phew, 206 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:50.080 muttered Forester. That means we've got to he broke off abruptly. 207 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:55.320 The Perseus's radio operator was standing in the doorway, distress 208 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:59.559 and indecision in his gaze. Our reception is extremely sporadic, sir, 209 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:02.519 he announce. We can pick up a few of the 210 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:07.679 stronger broadcasts, but our emergency signals haven't been answered. Keep trying, 211 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:11.960 Forester ordered, Ay, ay, sir. The captain moved to Lawton 212 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.759 suppose we call it a bubble. Why are we suspended 213 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:19.159 like this immovably? Your rocket leads shot up and the 214 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:22.279 plumb line dropped one hundred feet. Why should the ship 215 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:27.440 itself remain stationary? Lawton said. The bubble must possess sufficient 216 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.960 internal equilibrium to keep a big, heavy body suspended at 217 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:34.279 its core. In other words, we must be suspended at 218 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:38.519 the hub of converging energy lines. You mean we're surrounded 219 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:43.799 by an electromagnetic field, Lawton frowned. Not necessarily, sir, I'm 220 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:46.639 simply pointing out that there must be an energy tug 221 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:50.000 of some sort involved, Otherwise the ship would be resting 222 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.120 on the inner surface of the bubble. Forrester nodded grimly. 223 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:56.679 We should be thankful. I suppose that we can move 224 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:00.120 about inside the ship. Dave? Do you think a man 225 00:14:00.279 --> 00:14:03.519 could descend to the inner surface. I've no doubt that 226 00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:07.759 a man could, Sir. Shall I let myself down? Absolutely not? 227 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:10.960 Damn it, Dave. I need your energies inside the ship. 228 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:14.559 I could wish for a less impulsive first officer, but 229 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:18.039 a man in my predicament can't be choosy. Then what 230 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:22.480 are your orders, sir? Orders? Do I have to order 231 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:26.039 you to think is working something out for yourself such 232 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:30.080 a strain. We're drifting straight toward the Atlantic Ocean. What 233 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:33.039 do you propose to do about that? I expect he'll 234 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:37.080 have to do my best. Sir Lawton's best conflicted dynamically 235 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:40.159 with the captain's orders. Ten minutes later, he was descending 236 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:44.480 hand over hand on a swaying emergency ladder. Tough fibered. 237 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:48.080 Davy goes down to look around, he grumbled. He was 238 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.120 conscious that he was flirting with danger. The air outside 239 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:55.320 was breathable, but would the diffuse unorthodox gases injure his lungs. 240 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.759 He didn't know, couldn't be sure, but he had to 241 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.639 admit that he felt all right ight so far, he 242 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:04.360 was seventy feet below the ship and not at all dizzy. 243 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.279 When he looked down, he could see the purple domed 244 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:10.919 summits of mountains between gaps in the fleecy cloud blanket. 245 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.399 He couldn't see the Atlantic Ocean. Yet, he descended the 246 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.600 last thirty feet with mounting confidence. At the end of 247 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:22.320 the ladder, he braced himself and let go. He fell 248 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:25.519 about six feet, landing on his rump on a spongy 249 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:28.879 surface that bounced him back and forth. He was vaguely 250 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:32.519 incredulous when he found himself sitting in the sky, staring 251 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:37.919 through his spread legs at mountains and clouds. He took 252 00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:41.279 a deep breath. It struck him that the sensation of 253 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:45.120 falling could be present without movement downward through space. He 254 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:49.159 was beginning to experience such a sensation. His stomach twisted 255 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:53.120 and his brain spun. He was suddenly sorry he had 256 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:56.879 tried this. It was so damnably unnerving. He was afraid 257 00:15:56.919 --> 00:16:00.720 of losing all emotional control. He stared at his eyes, 258 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:04.799 squinting against the sun. Far above him, the gleaming, wedge 259 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.519 shaped bulk of the perseiesst loomed colossally, blocking out a 260 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:12.000 fifth of the sky. Lowering his right hand, he ran 261 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.399 his fingers over the invisible surface beneath him. The surface 262 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:19.519 felt rubbery, moist. He got swayingly to his feet and 263 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:22.840 made a perilous attempt to walk through the sky. Beneath 264 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.519 his feet, the mysterious surface crackled, the little sparks flew 265 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:29.759 up about his legs. Abruptly, he sat down again, his 266 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:34.320 face ashen from the emergency shoot opening. Far above, a 267 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:38.360 massive head appeared You all right, Sir, Slashaway called, his voice, 268 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:41.879 vibrant with concern. Well, I you'd better come right up, 269 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:46.159 sir Captain's orders. All right, Lawton shouted. Let the ladder 270 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:51.039 down another ten feet. Lawton ascended rapidly, resentment smoldering within him. 271 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.519 What right had the skipper to interfere? He had passed 272 00:16:54.519 --> 00:17:00.039 the buck, hadn't he? Lawton got another bad jolt in 273 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:04.640 thant he emerged through the chute opening. Captain Forrester was 274 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:08.880 leaning against a parachute rack, gasping for breath, his face 275 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.319 a livid hue. Slashaway looked equally bad. His jaw muscles 276 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:16.799 were twitching, and he was tugging at the collar of 277 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:21.240 his gym suit. Forrester gasped, Dave, I tried to move 278 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.799 the ship. I didn't know you were outside. Good God, 279 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:28.240 you didn't know. The rotaries backfired and used up all 280 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:31.960 the oxygen in the engine room. Worse, there's been a 281 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.799 carbonic oxide seepage. The air is contaminated throughout the ship. 282 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:40.960 We'll have to open the ventilation valves immediately. I've been 283 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.759 waiting to see if if you could breathe down there. 284 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:48.400 You're all right, aren't you? The air is breathable. Lawton's 285 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.400 face was dark with fury. I was an experimental rat 286 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:56.559 in the sky. Eh, look, Dave, we're all in danger. 287 00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:00.599 Don't stand there glaring at me. Naturally, I waited. I 288 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.920 have my crew to think of, well, think of them. 289 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:09.400 Get those valves open before we all have convulsions. A 290 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:13.160 half hour later, charcoal gas was mingling with oxygen outside 291 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:16.759 the ship, and the crew was breathing it in again, gratefully, 292 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:21.000 thinly dispersed and mixed with oxygen. It seemed all right, 293 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:25.559 but Lawton had misgivings. No matter how attenuated a lethal 294 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:30.119 gas is, it is never entirely harmless. To make matters worse, 295 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:34.720 they were over the Atlantic Ocean. Far beneath them was 296 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:39.160 an emerald turbulence, half obscured by eastward moving cloud masses. 297 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.319 The bubble was holding, but the morale of the crew 298 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:47.440 was beginning to sag. Lawton paced the control room. Deep 299 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:52.599 within him, unsuspected energies surged. We'll last until the oxygen 300 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.640 is breathed up, he exclaimed. We'll have four or five 301 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:58.720 days at most, but we seem to be traveling faster 302 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:01.920 than an ocean liner. With luck, we'll be in Europe 303 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:06.359 before we become carbon dioxide breathers. Will that help matters, Dave, 304 00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:09.839 said the captain, warily. If we can blast our way out, 305 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:14.440 it will the captain's sagging body jackknife direct blast our 306 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:18.559 way out? What do you mean, Dave? I've clamped expulsor 307 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:21.960 disks on the cosmic ray absorbers and train them downward. 308 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:26.119 A thin stream of accidental neutrons directed against the bottom 309 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:29.039 of the bubble may disrupt its energies. Wear it thin. 310 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:33.079 It's a long gamble, but worth taking. We're staking nothing. 311 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:37.960 Remember Forester sputtered nothing but our lives. If you blast 312 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:40.599 a hole in the bubble, you'll destroy its energy balance. 313 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:44.079 Did that occur to you? Inside a lopsided bubble, we 314 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:47.200 may careen dangerously or fall into the sea before we 315 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:50.559 can get the rotaries started. I thought of that. The 316 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:53.359 pilots are standing by to start the rotaries the instant 317 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.160 we lurch. If we succeed in making a rent in 318 00:19:56.200 --> 00:20:00.440 the bubble, we'll break out the helicoptic veines and descend vertically. 319 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:04.079 The rotaries won't backfire again. I've had their burnt out 320 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:07.799 cylinder heads replaced. An agitated voice came from the visit 321 00:20:07.799 --> 00:20:11.839 plate on the captain's desk, tuning in, Sir, Lawton stopped 322 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:15.759 pacing abruptly. He swung about and grasped the desk edge 323 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:19.119 with both hands, his head touching foresters as the two 324 00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:22.440 men stared down at the horizontal face of Petty Officer 325 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:26.880 James Caldwell. Caldwell wasn't more than twenty two or three, 326 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:30.880 but the screen's opalescence silvered his hair and misted the 327 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:35.160 outlines of his jaw, giving him an aspect of sinility. Well, 328 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.839 young man, forester growled, what is it? What do you want? 329 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.799 The irritation in the Captain's voice seemed to increase Caldwell's agitation. 330 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:46.319 Lawton had to say, all right, lad, let's have it. 331 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:49.319 Before the information, which he had seemed bursting to impart, 332 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:53.440 could be wrenched out of him. It came in erratic spurts. 333 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:58.359 The bubble is all blooming, sir, all around inside their 334 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:03.240 big yellow and purple grass. It started up above and 335 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:06.279 and spread around. First there was just a clouding over 336 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:11.160 the sky, sir, and then stocks shot out. For a moment, 337 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:14.400 Lawton felt as though all sanity had been squeezed from 338 00:21:14.440 --> 00:21:17.440 his brain twice, he started to ask a question and 339 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:21.440 thought better of it. Pumpings were superfluous. When he could 340 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:25.359 confirm Caldwell's statement in half a minute for himself. If 341 00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:30.279 Caldwell had cracked up, Caldwell hadn't cracked. When Lawton walked 342 00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:32.720 to the quartz port and stared down, all the blood 343 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:37.240 drained from his face. The vegetation was luxuriant and unearthly. 344 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:41.200 Floating in the sky were serpentine tendrils as thick as 345 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:46.279 a man's wrist, purplish flowers, and ropy fungus growths. They 346 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:49.720 twisted and writhed and shot out in all directions, creating 347 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:53.079 a tangle immediately beneath him and curving up toward the ship. 348 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:56.960 Amidst the welter of seed pods. He could see the 349 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:00.279 seeds dropping dropping from pods, which reminded him of the 350 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.839 darkly horned skate egg sheaths which he had collected in 351 00:22:03.880 --> 00:22:07.519 his boy head from sea beaches at Ebb Tide. It 352 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:11.319 was the unwholesomeness of the vegetation which chiefly unnerved him. 353 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.799 It looked dank, malarial. There were decaying patches on the 354 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:19.240 fungus growths, and a miasmal mist was descending from it 355 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:23.440 toward the ship. The control room was completely still when 356 00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:27.559 he turned from the quartz port to meet Forester's startled gaze. Dave, 357 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:30.839 what does it mean? The question burst explosively from the 358 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:35.720 Captain's lips. It means life has appeared and evolved and 359 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:39.200 grown rotten ripe inside the bubble, sir, all in the 360 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:44.000 space of an hour or so. But that's impossible, Lawton 361 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:47.440 shook his head. It isn't at all, sir. We've hadn't 362 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:50.640 drowned into us that evolution proceeds at a snailish pace. 363 00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:53.400 But what proof have we that it can't mutate with 364 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:57.240 lightning like rapidity. I've told you there are gases outside 365 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.759 we can't even make in a chemical laboratory, molecular arrangements 366 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:04.519 that are alien to Earth. But plants derive nourishment from 367 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:08.440 the soil interpolated Forester, I know. But if there are 368 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:11.480 alien gases in the air, the surface of the bubble 369 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:14.880 must be reeking with unheard of chemicals. There may be 370 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.759 compounds inside the bubble which have so sped up organic 371 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:22.359 processes that a hundred million years cycle of mutations has 372 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:26.480 been telescoped into an hour. Lawton was pacing the floor again. 373 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:29.799 It would be simpler to assume that seeds of existing 374 00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:33.200 plants became somehow caught up and imprisoned in the bubble. 375 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:37.200 But the plants around us never existed on Earth. I'm 376 00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:40.559 no botanist, but I know what the Congo has untapped 377 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:44.720 and the great rainforests of the Amazon dave. If the 378 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:48.039 growth continues, it will fill the bubble. It will choke 379 00:23:48.119 --> 00:23:51.839 off all our air. Don't you suppose I realize that 380 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:55.359 we've got to destroy that growth before it destroys us. 381 00:23:57.559 --> 00:24:00.759 It was pitiful to watch the crewis mora al sag. 382 00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:06.759 The miasmal taint of the ominously proliferating vegetation was soon 383 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:13.480 pervading the ship, spreading demoralization everywhere. It was particularly awful 384 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:18.640 straight down above a ropey tangle of livid vines and creepers, 385 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:24.160 a kingly stench weed towered purplition, bloated and weighing down 386 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:30.000 with seed pods. It seemed sentient. Somehow. It was growing 387 00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:33.400 so fast that the evil odour which poured from it 388 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:37.200 could be correlated with the increase of tension inside the ship. 389 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:42.680 From that particular plant. Minute by slow minute, there surged 390 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:48.640 a continuously mounting offensiveness like nothing Lawton had ever smelt before. 391 00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:53.599 The bubble had become a blooming horror, sailing slowly westward 392 00:24:53.640 --> 00:24:58.039 above the storm tossed Atlantic, and all the chemical agents 393 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.920 which Lawton sprayed through the ventilation valves failed to impede 394 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:06.440 the growth or destroy a single seed pod. It was 395 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:09.440 difficult to kill plant life with chemicals which were not 396 00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:15.079 harmful to man. Lawton took dangerous risks, increasing the unwholesomeness 397 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:18.599 of their rapidly dwindling air supply by spraying out a 398 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:24.119 thin diffusion of problematically poisonous acids. It was no sale. 399 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:28.400 The growths increased by leaps and bounds, as though determined 400 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:31.279 to show their resentment of the measures taken against them 401 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:37.960