Trapped on Venus by Carl Conrad Read Free Book Online

futility which
quickened his heartbeat.
      “They’re blocking us
off, Scott! They’re not going to let us get to the ship!”
      It was moments like
these when Scott had to rely on all his self-control to keep calm. They were in
trouble, severe trouble, and only a calm, scientific mind could accurately
appraise the situation. But, a tremor of fear, of helplessness, shuddered
through his limbs. Pull yourself together, he thought. Keep control. Analyze,
evaluate... THINK!
      He turned to Marty, a slight
trace of fear still remaining in his voice.
      “We’re scientists,
Marty. There’s got to be an answer to this, something we can do. Just stay
calm, don’t give up.” He glanced down at his watch. Seventeen minutes left.
      A thought occurred to
him. “What if they are alive, Marty? What if they know exactly what they’re
doing? That would mean that they must have an intelligence of some kind, some
way of thinking. If they do, maybe we can communicate with them, make them
understand what they’re doing to us.”
      “How?” Marty asked.
The word stabbed through them both with the deftness of a knife, echoing
through their minds over and over again – how? how? how? How could they
communicate with a throbbing glob of... whatever it was?
      “We’ve never even seen
anything like this before,” Marty added. “How are we going to communicate with
them?”
      “They’ve never seen us
before, either. We’re just as strange to them as they are to us. They’re
probably just curious.”
      ”But, Scott! We could
die out here!”
      “I know...”
      The seriousness of the
situation returned to him with the abruptness of Marty’s words. He was right.
They could die out here. But, there had to be something they could do!
      The three shapeless
globs remained pulsating in the pools, neither appearing hostile nor frightened
by the astronauts. They merely shimmered in the same rhythmic patterns,
changing colors and shape in the slimy gelatin with the ripple of each wave.
      “Do you suppose they
can see us?” Marty asked, feeling the hypnotic effect of the pools growing more
intense. “If they can, maybe they would understand gestures, or something.”
      “I doubt it. They
don’t appear to have any optic organs or feelers. If they can see at all, it’s
probably by some kind of sonar or radar. Watch... Make a movement to the side.”
      Marty stepped to his
right, watching as the center glob oozed in his direction. It changed shape,
then color, but all the time seemed to sense where Marty moved.
      “See... I’m sure they
know we’re here. But, how?” Scott asked. “If we can only figure that out, maybe
we can...”
      “What good will that
do? They’re not going to understand us,” Marty chided. “And, if we make any
strange kind of motions, what do we do if they think we’re going to attack
them? They could try to kill us!”
      Scott was intrigued by
Marty’s proposition. Would they try to kill them? “Let’s move a little closer,
Marty, and see if you’re right.”
      “Wait a minute! What
if they retaliate? Scott, we haven’t got any weapons. We’d be helpless.”
      “I know, but we don’t
have time to worry about it. Let’s go.” Another minute had slipped by, and
necessity began to replace their better judgment.
      Moving with extreme
caution, so as not to crack the surface around the creatures or fall into some
loose chasm of empty powder, Scott and Marty advanced toward the pools. The
liquid grew thicker and darker as they approached, and the astronauts felt
almost as if they could hear the bubbling sounds of the pools lapping and
smacking along the crater edge, mooring the dark, gelatinous creatures in their
liquid pens. But, as they moved almost to the crater edge, one of the globs
grew larger and more ominous, rising upward in a sort of frozen tidal wave
position, threatening any further advance.
      “I don’t think they
want us to come any closer,