Ross Rocklynne - Jupiter Trap.pdf - Ross Rocklynne - widez2

Not far in the

future — it lay ——

JUPITER TRAP

A nasty planet — so big and unconcerned with the

rest of the system ——

A Novelette

by Ross Rocklynne

D EVEREL had had seven hours ’ start on Colbie ; it had taken the officer of the law that long to float

down to Vulcan ’ s surface after the action of expanding gases within the tiny planet ’ s interior had vomited

him miles above it. In those few hours Deverel had had the opportunity to vanish into any direction ; yet

Colbie , using a canny process of elimination , tracked the outlaw to Ganymede.

Not , however , that it did him any good. Colbie was a good man to have in the interplanetary police

force , a smart man ; but he lacked the ability to let his imagination run rampant. Deverel was different ;

behind his smiling , cynical eyes was a mind that worked with the swiftness of lightning , a mind that

never admitted defeat. Or perhaps it was simply that the forces of nature allied themselves with him ,

gave him hints of secrets that Colbie was denied—as in the Jupiter trap , for instance.

Colbie didn ’ t know that Deverel was on Ganymede ; he merely suspected it , and fervently hoped that it

was so. He knew that all the minor planets—Mercury , Venus , Earth , Mars—were all on the other side of

the Sun at that time , and to plot a successful course around the Sun takes a great deal of time and

mental energy , the first of which the outlaw had none to spare , the second of which he would not have

had the patience to make use of.

He also knew that Jupiter , and its family of worlds , lay in conjunction with Vulcan , that Deverel was

running dangerously short in rocket fuel , that it was much less costly to travel in a straight line by first

building up velocity and then coasting the rest of the way to Jupiter , where , at Jupiter City , he could refill

his tanks.

So Colbie set his course for Jupiter. But , since he , too , was short on fuel , he also had to coast.

It took him ten days to cross that frightful gap between large and small planet , and when he did get in

its vicinity , he was tired from the constant watch for meteors. He discovered that Ganymede , Jupiter ’ s

second-largest moon—diameter , thirty-two hundred miles—was less than ten thousand miles away ; so he

made up his mind to land there. Later , he decided Deverel would have experienced the same fatigue , and

would have landed also.

Having come to this satisfying conclusion , he had to use further logic in determining at what point

Deverel would have landed , but there was a comparatively simple solution to this problem. Years before

there had been a fueling station on Ganymede , established to accommodate the great liners that had to

make the long trips from the minor planets out to Pluto. But that was before man had learned how to

combat the crushing atmospheric pressures and gravitations of such planets as Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus

and Neptune , by the invention of the Jupiter suit. The fueling station—relocated now at Jupiter City—

had been abandoned , for the raw materials of rocket fuel were to be found in inexhaustible quantities on

Jupiter.

But the buildings were still standing , since the weather effects on Ganymede are practically

nonexistent , and any Earthman would have been drawn to their vicinity as if by the action of a magnet.

The unmanned station was located on the floor of a small valley that received more Sunlight on the

average than any other spot on Ganymede. When it had been built , that had been taken into

consideration. Ganymede always presents one face to Jupiter , in its week-long orbit around the planet.

COLBIE went to the valley , skimming the rocky , tumbled surface of the planet so that Deverel would

have little opportunity to glimpse him from afar. Literally , he stuck his nose over the lip of a precipice

that fell sheer to the floor of the valley some hundreds of feet below. The valley was not wide , but it was

fairly long. The Sun was the size of a dime , and the mountains threw short , dim , conflicting shadows.

What Colbie saw far exceeded his expectations. Exultantly , he spiraled the ship back up , then zoomed

down into the valley. Meteorlike , he cut as near to the edge of the precipice as he could. He turned the

ship ’ s nose down , and the ground came up , like a big white hand , to slap him. He jammed on the fore

rockets , and grunted under the sudden deceleration produced. The ship came down lightly , settled to rest

behind one of the large limestone boulders that lay in profusion across the floor of the valley.

He hurriedly locked his controls. He put on a space suit. Probably he could have stood the outside

temperature , or even the thin air , but a space suit provided for both in a comfortably generous manner.

He swung open the port hatch , leaped out onto the ground , which was composed of a near-white , frozen

, vegetationless clay. He stood looking about him. All was silent , motionless—as silent and motionless as

only a lifeless planet can be.

Colbie stuck his head around the curve of the limestone boulder. About three hundred odd feet away

lay a long , black cruiser. Less than a hundred feet from the cruiser was the shine of an icy lake , worn

smooth by thin , timid breezes. On the opposite shore of the frozen lake were three buildings , all in various

stages of disrepair , but , in the main , intact. The buildings were not high , but they were long. They had

been used to store thousands and thousands of gallons of rocket fuel.

Colbie had been right when he supposed that those structures , so reminiscent of Earth and its peoples ,

would draw Deverel to their vicinity.

He remained hidden behind the aged , dirty-white boulder. He smiled to himself. Somberly , he swore to

himself , that this time Deverel would go back with him.

He waited for Deverel to put in an appearance. His patience was his stanchest quality. He became a

part of the landscape itself , though he imagined he was well enough hidden from the outlaw , since almost

certainly he was leisurely inspecting the crumbling interiors of those lonely , deserted edifices across from

the lake.

Colbie waited less than an hour. Then he stiffened , came to his feet. He saw Deverel , and , though four

hundred feet of distance shortened the figure of the man , Colbie was sure it was he. He drew his projector ,

made sure it was charged , and waited.

II.

DEVEREL came from the building , sauntered slowly toward the lake. He stopped on the shore of the

lake , reached out a foot to test its strength , though that must have been a habit of Earthly experience ,

since for ages the lake must have been frozen solid to its bed. Then he was out on it , walking across

slowly.

The outlaw set foot on the barren soil of the lake ’ s shore , and Colbie jumped out from behind his

hiding place , and , without parley , pulled the trigger of his weapon. Less than ten feet from where Deverel

strode along , a geyser of powdered soil and rock spurted violently into the air.

Colbie shouted at the top of his voice. “ Stay where you are , Deverel. ”

But , ever quick to respond to the stimulus of danger , Deverel did not stay where he was. Near him

was a small limestone boulder. He threw himself behind it. Colbie fired again , just missing the outlaw.

There was a moment of tense silence. Then Deverel began to fire back , a steady blast of explosive

projectiles that was not intended to annihilate Colbie , but merely to demolish the limestone mass behind

which he was hidden.

Colbie had dived behind his shelter again , scared by the vicious fire. But he made ready to adopt

Deverel ’ s own tactics. And there he had Deverel at a definite disadvantage.

Calmly , he began to whittle the smaller limestone boulder down , beginning at the top , and progressing

more slowly as he came to thicker portions. The thin air became a receptacle for volumes of sound.

Powdered rock rained about Colbie. Sometimes larger partides fell on him ; but he was not hurt , for

gravitation here was slight.

He won sooner than he expected to. He had almost demolished Deverel ’ s protection entirely , when a

projectile caused it to split down the middle. The two halves fell away from each other , rolled a short

distance , and then settled to rest. Deverel , flat on the ground , lay exposed. For a few seconds , he

half-heartedly continued his fire , and Colbie , grinning , allowed him to do so.

Finally , Deverel stood up , shouting out loud , blending both chagrin and admission of defeat into his

tones. He threw his weapon in the policeman ’ s direction , and then held up his hands in token of

surrender.

COLBIE ran across the space separating him from the other , grinning his triumph.

“ Hello , Colbie ,” he said uncordially.

Colbie returned the greeting , and stood looking at the larger man with an exultation which , out of

politeness , he tried to conceal.

“ Don ’ t look so smug ,” Deverel snapped , and added in exasperation. “ How did you find me? ”

Colbie told him. Deverel nodded , a grudging respect in his blue eyes. “ That was good work , damned

good work. Going to take me back to Earth and jail , aren ’ t you? ”

“ I was thinking seriously of that. ”

Deverel scowled. “ All right. Let ’ s get started. But I ’ ll tell you this: I don ’ t think I ’ ll go back. I don ’ t

know why , either. But I place a lot of faith in miracles. ”

“ It will be a miracle that lets you escape me this time ,” Colbie promised grimly.

Once within Colbie ’ s ship , the outlaw was placed in irons. Colbie was taking no chances. He put

Deverel in the control cabin , right where he could be seen.

Then he applied the power. The ship grated on the frozen soil of the planet , then swooped upward at a

steep angle , swooped upward until the Moon drew its horizons together , until Jupiter , monstrous and

dangerous , loomed into view , its multicolored face changing both form and variety of color.

Colbie happily piled on acceleration , followed a temporary trajectory to Earth until he could get busy

and plot a precise one. But his satisfaction at the agreeable turn of events left little room for the

maximum of caution he would have had otherwise.

Deverel sat motionless in his irons , resigned to his fate , within certain limits. He was watching

Jupiter , and his thoughts were grim. He didn ’ t want to go back to the hell holes on Mercury that they

called jail. But at present , he couldn ’ t see any way out. If only something would happen , one of those

miracles he had so hopefully alluded to——

Almost as if his thoughts were conscious prelude to the event , before their minds could grasp the

reality of it , the ship was turning head over heels in space. Jupiter was flashing dizzily first through one

plate and another , with the whole heavens whizzing around after it as if they were deliberately chasing it.

Colbie was thrown backward against the air-defining machinery. Abruptly , there was a sharp hiss as a

tender glass tube broke under the impact. He bounced across to the opposite wall , then plunged toward

the nose of the ship to collide , destructively , against the instrument panel.

Deverel was sitting tight in his irons , watching with wide eyes as the lights went out. On the

instrument board a few bulbs were still burning , and the vision plates were still in operation. Deverel

watched the jigsaw of motion. A massive encyclopedia , that had somehow found its way from the living

quarters aft , came along. It hit Deverel on the side of the head. Other loose articles began to bombard him

, but he was helpless to fend them off.

THERE WAS an eerie sense of downward motion , now ; the outlaw supposed that it was downward in

respect to Jupiter. He watched the mad hodgepodge with the wonder of a child. Colbie , desperately trying

to secure a handhold , continued to jerk from one side of the ship to another. Almost battered out of his

senses , he accidentally hooked his fingers around the starboard guide rail , and he hung on grimly ,

clearing his head.

He worked his way around to the instrument panel , and , with what few control levers he had not

damaged in his mad flight about the ship , he tried to get the ship on an even keel. There was no response.

He tried again. But it was useless. Swearing beneath his breath , he realized that one of those rare

accidents had befallen him: although the ship had been traveling at a good clip , a meteor had caught up

with it from behind and smashed itself into the stern jets , leaving them fused and useless.

He stood as still as he could , thinking seriously , and heard Deverel murmur with humor , “ You were

taking me back to Earth. Go on with the story from there. ”

“ Don ’ t be a fool ,” Colbie snapped coldly. “ Do you think this is your miracle? ”

“ Maybe it is ,” Deverel said casually. “ We ’ re falling toward Jupiter. ”

“ That doesn ’ t mean anything! Not a thing—except that when we land we ’ ll be lost , so lost that it ’ ll be

child ’ s play finding that needle they used to talk about! ”

Frantically , he worked at his controls again. Definitely , the jets were fused beyond repair. More than

that , the lights wouldn ’ t go on ; nor were the air rectifiers working. Colbie found himself unable to right

the ship by any means , and there is a sickening sensation in the feel of a ship that is not using an axis

formed by stem and stern to twirl on.

Finally , Colbie got out the Jupiter suits.

“‘ Men—three cheers for the Jupiter suits ,’” sang Deverel , taking the line from a popular ballad. He

hummed through the bars of the tune and then ended , “ They say you can ’ t die in a Jupiter suit. That ’ s

almost the truth ,” he added , and quoted again , “‘ You can ’ t get cold and you can ’ t get hot , and the alloy

won ’ t crack , no matter what ’ ! ”

“ It ’ s lucky I have them ,” Colbie remarked. “ Just before I left Earth , the force finally got permission to

equip its ships with a couple of the suits each. They ’ re pretty costly ; people are allowed to use them only

on the big planets , where they have powerful gravities and thousands of pounds atmospheric pressure.

They say the alloy they make them out of resembles neutronium , which is about the heaviest substance

known , and the hardest. That ’ s why they ’ re so costly , and why they ’ re distributed around so sparingly. ”

He took Deverel from the irons , pointed to a Jupiter suit. They clambered into the bulky affairs.

The ship was still spinning in that sickening way. Colbie felt sick. Deverel was smiling weakly. “ Let ’ s

get out ,” he suggested , as they buckled down their helmets.

Colbie ’ s head was reeling. He was trying to think clearly. He went to an aft compartment , got a pair

of handcuffs. He came up behind Deverel , snapped one cuff around his wrist , and the other about his own.

Colbie opened the hatch. There was a gust of air that rushed out into vacuous space and dissipated

itself in an expansion that might eventually have touched infinity. Colbie pushed the outlaw after the air ,

and perforce followed immediately after.

The ship was long and black beside them. To other sides was the starry sky , a sky which , from the

interior of a hermetically sealed ship is bewilderingly grand and awesome , even to the initiated , but from

without is domineering and frightening. There is no bottom to space. It is an awful sensation to fall——

THEY WERE falling , and the ship was falling with them. It was still spinning , though , and

dangerously. The two men placed their space boots against the ship , succeeded in shoving themselves

from its immediate vicinity. Twenty or thirty feet away , however , it continued to fall with them , true to

the axiom that all bodies , no matter what their shapes , sizes , or weights , will fall at equal velocities ,

providing there is no atmosphere to affect them otherwise.

They felt no sense of weight ; their very motion , being the effect of Jupiter ’ s gravitation , was its

cancellation. There was nothing but the tiniest sense of acceleration.

Below was the great , poisonously colored disk of Jupiter. In fascination , they watched its gradual

growth.

Deverel broke the silence by murmuring , “ Jupiter , hard , mean planet—I wonder how he ’ ll treat us.

We ’ re liable to land anywhere , Colbie , anywhere on its billions of square miles. Jupiter City might be

conceivably less than a hundred miles away , or more conceivably , a hundred thousand. In either case , we

wouldn ’ t have the food , air , or luck to get more than fifty miles. That planet is pock-marked with all sorts

of mountain ranges , valleys , gorges , and every kind of un-Earthly river and sea. There are big lakes of

acids , liquid ammonia , liquid oxygen , and Lord knows what other stuff. It isn ’ t a pretty prospect. ”

III.

LATER , many , many hours later , Deverel suddenly gestured. “ There ’ s the great red spot , Colbie—just

on the rim. That ’ s good , mighty good. It means we may fall somewhere near Jupiter City , if we watch our

weights. ”

Colbie saw his line of reasoning. The spot, shooting up over the western rim of the planet , would , since

Jupiter rotated on its axis in ten hours , disappear over the eastern rim in about five hours. Three hours

later , Jupiter City , located on the equator , where gravitation and atmospheric pressure were considerably

less than elsewhere , would then be working up over the western rim. Two and a half hours would bring it

beneath their present position in space. That gave them ten and a half hours to land.

They could do it , if they regulated their weights. Jupiter suits were necessarily equipped with gravity

controls. Of course , out here in space , any variation in their weights meant nothing so far as their

downward velocity was concerned , but the moment they struck the atmosphere , it would mean

something. By decreasing their weight they would decrease inertia , and thus increase the ability of the

atmosphere to resist their passage through it. They would fall more slowly , and , if they were careful ,

they might land somewhere near Jupiter City.

The spot , still an enigma in the minds of all men , sloped down the curve of the planet , and disappeared

, leaving the breath of a red glow after it. The glow disappeared.

Acceleration had been increasing rapidly. They were so near the planet that it almost blotted out a

whole quarter of the sky.

Thirty-eight hours after deserting the ship they felt a new force being evoked about them , and the

stars above had suddenly gone almost imperceptibly dimmer ; it meant that they had entered the vast

atmospheric envelope of the planet.

The stars were taking on distorted appearances ; here , where the atmosphere was thin , they even

twinkled a little , strongly reminiscent of a little green world which Colbie was beginning to feel he would

never see again. Deverel seemed above such sentiments , or at least did not reveal their existence.

He seemed fascinated more than anything else. “ I ’ ve been on Jupiter only once ,” he confided. “ It was

before I began pirating canal boats on Mars. Jupiter ’ s a nasty planet , all right , but it ’ s always interested

me. Maybe because it ’ s like me. It ’ s so big , and so unconcerned with the rest of the system. It rolls along

out here , takes its leisure going round the Sun—twelve years—and drags nine planets along with it ,

whether they want to go or not. It ’ s a big chemical workshop. All sorts of marvelous things take place on

its surface. It has such a high atmospheric pressure and gravitation that it seems it could do anything it

wanted to in any element. When you think about it , it makes you glad you ’ ve got on a Jupiter suit. ”

They could talk without use of radio , now. The atmosphere was thick about them and carried the

sounds. The stars were going out and it was becoming utterly dark. There is no Sunlight on Jupiter ’ s

surface , for the gas blanket completely absorbs or else reflects what little light the Sun can send that far.

They began to decrease their gravity potential. They still had a little over three hours to fall , and at

their present rate of speed they would strike the surface of the planet much too soon to leave them within

walking distance of Jupiter City.

They watched their chronometers closely , and , because of that fact , time seemed to plod.

They estimated their height above the planet as being only a few miles now , and they experienced

sensations of crawling fear. They were falling into darkness , onto the surface of a planet five and a half

billion square miles in area. They had estimated the time of their falling as well as they could , however ,

and , if they had overlooked nothing , Jupiter City should be somewhere near , within a five-hundred-mile

radius ; though , of course , five hundred miles was as bad as a million , so far as traversing it was

concerned.

THEY LIVED in a world of small , enigmatic noises now. All sorts of noises were rushing up at them

from below , above the whir occasioned by friction of their suits with the atmosphere. What were they?

Animal life? Avalanches? Or rushing steams? Probably the latter , thought Colbie , or perhaps there was

an ocean of some hellish liquid chemical down there , waiting to engulf them. He shuddered.

There were moments of tense waiting. Their nerves were keyed up for the first contact with the

surface. It was exhausting. They didn ’ t converse. They only stared down through blackness , vainly

trying to find out how far they had to fall. Colbie could have introduced some light into their situation ,

had he gathered enough presence of mind to remember the search beam built into the breast of his

Jupiter suit ; but he didn ’ t remember it , nor did Deverel ; otherwise they would have saved themselves a

good deal of the horror of uncertainty.

Colbie felt a constriction of fright. Something had brushed against his boots.

They touched again. Something had reached out from the darkness with light fingers , or so it seemed.

Deverel let out his breath in a loud sigh. They tried to remain in a vertical position so that they might

retain a sense of equilibrium should they strike some horizontal surface. But they couldn ’ t. Slowly , they

fell sidewise , frantically reaching out with hands that touched nothing.

Again they brushed a surface , and this time began to roll in crazy , slow motion down a steep slope.

Abruptly , they came to rest on a hard surface. They lay there , motionless , after that ordeal in which

nerves had suffered considerably more than anything else. And they became aware of a constant , forceful

bombardment of little missiles that struck them from above.

IV.

SIMULTANEOUSLY , they jumped to their feet in that pitch blackness.

“ What was that? ” chattered Colbie , as the bombardment continued. Deverel was silent and then

laughed. He reminded Colbie of the search beams built into their suits , and snapped his on. Colbie

sheepishly slid aside his breast panel and did likewise. Twin shafts of light leaped out , partially piercing

masses of swirling white gases.

The little missiles turned out to be nothing more than swiftly falling drops of a white liquid.

“ Rain? ” exclaimed Colbie , in brief astonishment.

“ Must be liquid ammonia ,” corrected Deverel. “ Jupiter doesn ’ t bother with April showers , you know.

No , it ’ s so cold there couldn ’ t be any liquid water. It ’ s all ice , and there ’ s probably little of that. They

have to make their own water at Jupiter City. But this must be liquid ammonia ; this ‘ rain ’ is colorless ,

looks like water , in fact. ”

Colbie flashed his beam about. He got a blurred impression of swirling white gases , of constantly

falling rain. Close inspection showed that the stuff they trod on was worn almost frictionlessly smooth by

the eternal fall of liquid ammonia. It had a gradual slope to it , and they followed this slope up until they

came to a satin-smooth wall.

Colbie played the beam about , and found it to be a thick spire of basalt that rose up for a short

distance , then leveled off. It was this they had first struck. They walked around the column , found it

almost perfectly symmetrical. At its foot the rock sloped down at a uniform angle. They started walking

down the slope. They came to what looked like a pool of water. Colbie assumed that it was liquid

ammonia. He flashed his beam across this obstruction and brought into stark view a vertical black wall ,

down which streams of liquid ammonia were running in hasty rivulets. It was about forty feet across the

ruffled surface of liquid ammonia to the wall.

Colbie discovered that the wall rose upward indefinitely , for his beam revealed no single break in it.

Nor was there a single break in the escarpment to either side. It rose vertically , unflawed by the merest

suggestion of a handhold.

Ross Rocklynne - Jupiter Trap.pdf

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