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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28c15e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64820 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64820) diff --git a/old/64820-0.txt b/old/64820-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 822f888..0000000 --- a/old/64820-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1275 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Vibration Wasps, by Frank Belknap Long - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Vibration Wasps - -Author: Frank Belknap Long - -Release Date: March 15, 2021 [eBook #64820] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIBRATION WASPS *** - - - - - THE VIBRATION WASPS - - by FRANK BELKNAP LONG - - _Enormous, they were--like Jupiter--and - unutterably terrifying to Joan--_ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Comet January 41. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - CHAPTER I - - OUT IN SPACE - -I was out in space with Joan for the sixth time. It might as well have -been the eighth or tenth. It went on and on. Every time I rebelled Joan -would shrug and murmur: "All right, Richard. I'll go it alone then." - -Joan was a little chit of a girl with spun gold hair and eyes that -misted when I spoke of Pluto and Uranus, and glowed like live coals -when we were out in space together. - -Joan had about the worst case of exploritis in medical history. To -explain her I had to take to theory. Simply to test out whether she -could survive and reach maturity in an environment which was hostile -to human mutants, Nature had inserted in her make-up every reckless -ingredient imaginable. Luckily she had survived long enough to fall in -love with sober and restraining me. We supplemented each other, and as -I was ten years her senior my obligations had been clear-cut from the -start. - -We were heading for Ganymede this time, the largest satellite of -vast, mist-enshrouded Jupiter. Our slender space vessel was thrumming -steadily through the dark interplanetary gulfs, its triple atomotors -roaring. I knew that Joan would have _preferred_ to penetrate the -turbulent red mists of Ganymede's immense primary, and that only my -settled conviction that Jupiter was a molten world restrained her. - -We had talked it over for months, weighing the opinions of Earth's -foremost astronomers. No "watcher of the night skies" could tell us -very much about Jupiter. The year 1973 had seen the exploration of the -moon, and in 1986 the crews of three atomotor-propelled space vessels -had landed on Mars and Venus, only to make the disappointing discovery -that neither planet had ever sustained life. - -By 2002 three of the outer planets had come within the orbit of human -exploration. There were Earth colonies on all of the Jovian moons now, -with the exception of Ganymede. Eight exploring expeditions had set -out for that huge and mysterious satellite, only to disappear without -leaving a trace. - -I turned from a quartz port brimming with star-flecked blackness to -gaze on my reckless, nineteen-year-old bride. Joan was so strong-willed -and competent that it was difficult for me to realize she was scarcely -more than a child. A veteran of the skyways, you'd have thought her, -with her slim hands steady on the controls, her steely eyes probing -space. - -"The more conservative astronomers have always been right," I said. -"We knew almost as much about the moon back in the eighteenth century -as we do now. We get daily weather reports from Tycho now, and there -are fifty-six Earth colonies beneath the lunar Apennines. But the -astronomers knew that the moon was a sterile, crater-pitted world a -hundred years ago. They knew that there was no life or oxygen beneath -its brittle stars generations before the first space vessel left Earth. - -"The astronomers said that Venus was a bleak, mist-enshrouded world -that couldn't sustain life and they were right. They were right about -Mars. Oh, sure, a few idle dreamers thought there might be life on -Mars. But the more conservative astronomers stood pat, and denied that -the seasonal changes could be ascribed to a low order of vegetative -life. It's a far cry from mere soil discoloration caused by melting -polar ice caps to the miracle of pulsing life. The first vessel to -reach Mars proved the astronomers right. Now a few crack-brained -theorists are trying to convince us that Jupiter may be a solid, cool -world." - -Joan turned, and frowned at me. "You're letting a few clouds scare -you, Richard," she said. "No man on Earth knows what's under the mist -envelope of Jupiter." - -"A few clouds," I retorted. "You know darned well that Jupiter's -gaseous envelope is forty thousand miles thick--a seething cauldron of -heavy gases and pressure drifts rotating at variance with the planet's -crust." - -"But Ganymede is mist-enshrouded too," scoffed Joan. "We're hurtling -into _that_ cauldron at the risk of our necks. Why not Jupiter instead?" - -"The law of averages," I said, "seasoned with a little common sense. -Eight vessels went through Ganymede's ghost shroud into oblivion. There -have been twenty-six attempts to conquer Jupiter. A little world cools -and solidifies much more rapidly than a big world. You ought to know -that." - -"But Ganymede isn't so little. You're forgetting it's the biggest -satellite in the solar system." - -"But still little--smaller than Mars. Chances are it has a solid crust, -like Callisto, Io, and Europa." - -There was a faint, rustling sound behind us. Joan and I swung about -simultaneously, startled by what was obviously a space-code infraction. -A silvery-haired, wiry little man was emerging through the beryllium -steel door of the pilot chamber, his face set in grim lines. I am not -a disciplinarian, but my nerves at that moment were strained to the -breaking point. "What are you doing here, Dawson," I rapped, staring -at him in indignation. "We didn't send for you." - -"Sorry, sir," the little man apologized. "I couldn't get you on the -visi-plate. It's gone dead, sir." - -Joan drew in her breath sharply. "You mean there's something wrong with -the cold current?" - -Dawson nodded. "Nearly every instrument on the ship has gone dead, sir. -Gravity-stabilizers, direction gauges, even the intership communication -coils." - -Joan leapt to her feet. "It must be the stupendous gravity tug of -Jupiter," she exclaimed. "Hadley warned us it might impede the -molecular flow of our cold force currents the instant we passed -Ganymede's orbit." - -Exultation shone in her gaze. I stared at her, aghast. She was actually -rejoicing that the Smithsonian physicist had predicted our destruction. - -Knowing that vessels were continually traveling to Io and Callisto -despite their nearness to the greatest disturbing body in the Solar -System, I had assumed we could reach Ganymede with our navigation -instruments intact. I had scoffed at Hadley's forebodings, ignoring the -fact that we were using cold force for the first time in an atomotor -propelled vessel, and were dependent on a flow adjustment of the utmost -delicacy. - -Dawson was staring at Joan in stunned horror. Our fate was sealed and -yet Joan had descended from the pilot dais and was actually waltzing -about the chamber, her eyes glowing like incandescent meteor chips. - -"We'll find out now, Richard," she exclaimed. "It's too late for -caution or regrets. We're going right through forty thousand miles of -mist to Jupiter's _solid_ crust." - - - CHAPTER II - - THROUGH THE CLOUD BLANKET - -I thought of Earth as we fell. Tingling song, and bright awakenings and -laughter and joy and grief. Woodsmoke in October, tall ships and the -planets spinning and hurdy-gurdies in June. - -I sat grimly by Joan's side on the pilot dais, setting my teeth as I -gripped the atomotor controls and stared out through the quartz port. -We were plummeting downward with dizzying speed. Outside the quartz -port there was a continuous misty glimmering splotched with nebulously -weaving spirals of flame. - -We were already far below Jupiter's outer envelope of tenuous gases -in turbulent flux, and had entered a region of pressure drifts which -caused our little vessel to twist and lunge erratically. Wildly it -swept from side to side, its gyrations increasing in violence as I cut -the atomotor blasts and released a traveling force field of repulsive -negrations. - -I thanked our lucky stars that the gravity tug had spared the atomotors -and the landing mechanism. We hadn't anything else to be thankful for. -I knew that if we plunged into a lake of fire even the cushioning force -field couldn't save us. - -Joan seemed not to care. She was staring through the quartz port in an -attitude of intense absorption, a faint smile on her lips. There are -degrees of recklessness verging on insanity; of courage which deserves -no respect. - -I had an impulse to shake her, and shout: "Do you realize we're -plunging to our death?" I had to keep telling myself that she was still -a child with no realization of what death meant. She simply couldn't -visualize extinction; the dreadful blackness sweeping in-- - -Our speed was decreasing now. The cushioning force field was slowing us -up, forcing the velocity needle sharply downward on the dial. - -Joan swung toward me, her face jubilant. "We'll know in a minute, -Richard. We're only eight thousand miles above the planet's crust." - -"Crust?" I flung at her. "You mean a roaring furnace." - -"No, Richard. If Jupiter were molten we'd be feeling it now. The -plates would be white-hot." - -It was true, of course. I hadn't realized it before. I wiped sweat from -my forehead, and stared at her with sombre respect. She had been right -for once. In her girlish folly she had out-guessed all the astronomers -on Earth. - -The deceleration was making my temples throb horribly. We were -decelerating far too rapidly, but it was impossible to diminish the -speed-retarding pressure of the force field, and I didn't dare resort -to another atomotor charge so close to the planet's surface. To make -matters worse, the auxiliary luminalis blast tubes had been crippled by -the arrest of the force current, along with the almost indispensable -gravity stabilizers. - -The blood was draining from my brain already. I knew that I was going -to lose consciousness, and my fingers passed swiftly up and down the -control panel, freezing the few descent mechanisms which were not -dependent on the interior force current in positions of stability and -maximum effectiveness, and cupping over the meteor collision emergency -jets. - -Joan was the first to collapse. She had been quietly assisting me, her -slim hands hovering over the base of the instrument board. Suddenly as -we manipulated dials and rheostats she gave a little, choking cry and -slumped heavily against me. - -There was a sudden increase of tension inside my skull. Pain stabbed at -my temples and the control panel seemed to waver and recede. I threw -my right arm about Joan and tried to prevent her sagging body from -slipping to the floor. A low, vibrant hum filled the chamber. We rocked -back and forth before the instrument board, our shoulders drooping. - -We were still rocking when a terrific concussion shook the ship, -hurling us from the dais and plunging the chamber into darkness. - -Bruised and dazed, I raised myself on one elbow and stared about me. -The jarred fluorescent cubes had begun to function again, filling the -pilot chamber with a slightly diminished radiance. But the chamber -was in a state of chaos. Twisted coils of _erillium_ piping lay at my -feet, and an overturned jar of sluice lubricant was spilling its sticky -contents over the corrugated metal floor. - -Joan had fallen from the pilot dais and was lying on her side by the -quartz port, her face ashen, blood trickling from a wound in her cheek. -I pulled myself toward her, and lifted her up till her shoulders were -resting on my knees. Slowly her eyes blinked open, and bored into mine. - -She forced a smile. "Happy landing?" she inquired. - -"Not so happy," I muttered grimly. "You were right about Jupiter. -It's a solid world and we've landed smack upon it with considerable -violence, judging from the way things have been hurled about." - -"Then the cushioning force field--" - -"Oh, it cushioned us, all right. If it hadn't we'd be roasting merrily -inside a twisted mass of wreckage. But I wouldn't call it happy -landing. You've got a nasty cut there." - -"I'm all right, Richard." - -Joan reached up and patted my cheek. "Good old Richard. You're just -upset because we didn't plunge into a lake of molten zinc." - -"Sure, that's it," I grunted. "I was hoping for a swift, easy out." - -"Maybe we'll find it, Richard," she said, her eyes suddenly serious. -"I'm not kidding myself. I know what a whiff of absolute zero can do to -mucous membranes. All I'm claiming is that we've as good a chance here -as we would have had on Ganymede." - -"I wish I could feel that way about it. How do we know the atomotors -can lift us from a world as massive as Jupiter?" - -"I think they can, Richard. We had twelve times as much acceleration as -we needed on tap when we took off from Earth." - -She was getting to her feet now. Her eyes were shining again, -exultantly. You would have thought we were descending in a stratoplane -above the green fields of Earth. - -"I've a confession to make, Richard," she grinned. "Coming down, I was -inwardly afraid we _would_ find ourselves in a ghastly bubble and boil. -And I was seriously wondering how long we could stand it." - -"Oh, you were." - -"Longer than you think, Richard. Did you know that human beings -can stand simply terrific heat? Experimenters have stayed in rooms -artificially heated to a temperature of four hundred degrees for as -long as fifteen minutes without being injured in any way." - -"Very interesting," I said. "But that doesn't concern us now. We've -got to find out if our crewmen are injured or badly shaken up. Chances -are they'll be needing splints. And we've got to check the atmosphere -before we can think of going outside, even with our helmets clamped -down tight. - -"Chances are it's laden with poisonous gases which the activated carbon -in our oxygen filters won't absorb. If the atmosphere contains phosgene -we'll not be stepping out. I'm hoping we'll find only carbon monoxide -and methane." - -"Nice, harmless gases." - -"I didn't say that. But at least they'll stick to the outside of the -particles of carbon in the filter and not tear our lungs apart." - -"A thought, Richard. Suppose we find nickel carbonyl. That's harmless -until it is catalyzed by carbon. Then it's worse than phosgene." - -"There are lots of deadly ingredients we _could_ find," I admitted -with some bitterness. "Gases in solid toxic form--tiny dust granules -which would pass right through the filters into our lungs. Jupiter's -atmosphere may well be composed entirely of gases in solid phase." - -"Let's hope not, Richard." - -"We've been talking about lung corrosives," I said, relentlessly. "But -our space suits are not impermeable, you know. There are gases which -injure the skin, causing running sores. Vesicant gases. The fact that -there are no vesicants on Io and Europa doesn't mean we won't encounter -them here. And there are nerve gases which could drive us mad in less -time than it takes to--" - -"Richard, you always were an optimist." - -I stared at her steadily for an instant; then shrugged. "All right, -Joan. I hope you won't fall down on any of the tests. We've got to -project an ion detector, a barometer and a moist cloud chamber outside -the ship through a vacuum suction lock, in addition to the atmosphere -samplers. And we've got to bandage that face wound before you bleed to -death." - - - CHAPTER III - - WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED - -A half hour later we had our recordings. Joan sat facing me on the -elevated pilot dais, her head swathed in bandages. Dawson and the two -other members of our crew stood just beneath us, their faces sombre in -the cube-light. - -They had miraculously escaped injury, although Dawson had a badly -shaken up look. His hair was tousled and his jaw muscles twitched. -Dawson was fifty-three years old, but the others were still in their -early twenties--stout lads who could take it. - -The fuel unit control pilot, James Darnel, was standing with his -shoulders squared, as though awaiting orders. I didn't want to take -off. I had fought Joan all the way, but now that we were actually on -Jupiter I wanted to go out with her into the unknown, and stand with -her under the swirling, star-concealing mist. - -I wanted to be the first man to set foot on Jupiter. But I knew now -that the first man would be the last. The atmospheric recordings had -revealed that there were poisons in Jupiter's lethal cloud envelope -which would have corroded our flesh through our space suits and burned -out our eyes. - -Joan had been compelled to bow to the inevitable. Bitterly she sat -waiting for me to give the word to take off. I was holding a portable -horizon camera in my hand. It was about the smallest, most incidental -article of equipment we had brought along. - -The huge, electro-shuttered horizon camera which we had intended to use -on Ganymede had been so badly damaged by the jar of our descent that -it was useless now. We had projected the little camera by a horizontal -extension tripod through a vacuum suction lock and let it swing about. - -I didn't expect much from it. It was equipped with infra-red and -ultra-violet ray filters, but the atmosphere was so dense outside I -didn't think the sensitive plates would depict anything but swirling -spirals of mist. - -I was waiting for the developing fluid to do its work before I broke -the camera open and removed the plates. We had perhaps one chance in -ten of getting a pictorial record of Jupiter's topographical features. - -I knew that one clear print would ease Joan's frustration and -bitterness, and give her a sense of accomplishment. But I didn't -expect anything sensational. Venus is a frozen wasteland from pole to -pole, and the dust-bowl deserts of Mars are exactly like the more arid -landscapes of Earth. - -Most of Earth is sea and desert and I felt sure that Jupiter would -exhibit uniform surface features over nine-tenths of its crust. Its -rugged or picturesque regions would be dispersed amidst vast, dun -wastes. The law of averages was dead against our having landed on the -rim of some blue-lit, mysterious cavern measureless to man, or by the -shores of an inland sea. - -But Joan's eyes were shining again, so I didn't voice my misgivings. -Joan's eyes were fastened on the little camera as though all her life -were centered there. - -"Well, Richard," she urged. - -My hands were shaking. "A few pictures won't give _me_ a lift," I said. -"Even if they show mountains and crater-pits and five hundred million -people gape at them on Earth." - -"Don't be such a pessimist, Richard. We'll be back in a month with -impermeable space suits, and a helmet filter of the Silo type. You're -forgetting we've accomplished a lot. It's something to know that the -temperature outside isn't anything like as ghastly as the cold of -space, and that the pebbles we've siphoned up show Widman-statten lines -and contain microscopic diamonds. That means Jupiter's crust isn't -all volcanic ash. There'll be something more interesting than tumbled -mounds of lava awaiting us when we come back. If we can back our -geological findings with prints--" - -"You bet we can," I scoffed. "I haven't a doubt of it. What do you -want to see? Flame-tongued flowers or gyroscopic porcupines? Take your -choice. Richard the Great never fails." - -"Richard, you're talking like that to hide something inside you that's -all wonder and surmise." - -Scowling, I broke open the camera and the plates fell out into my hand. -They were small three by four inch positive transparencies, coated on -one side with a iridescent emulsion which was still slightly damp. - -Joan's eyes were riveted on my face. She seemed unaware of the presence -of the crewmen below us. She sat calmly watching me as I picked up the -top-most plate and held it up in the cube-light. - -I stared at it intently. It depicted--a spiral of mist. Simply that, -and nothing more. The spiral hung in blackness like a wisp of smoke, -tapering from a narrow base. - -"Well?" said Joan. - -"Nothing on this one," I said, and picked up another. The spiral was -still there, but behind it was something that looked like an ant-hill. - -"Thick mist getting thinner," I said. - -The third plate gave me a jolt. The spiral had become a weaving ghost -shroud above a distinct elevation that could have been either a -mountain or an ant-hill. It would have been impossible to even guess at -the elevation's distance from the ship if something hadn't seemed to be -crouching upon it. - -The mist coiled down over the thing and partly obscured it. But enough -of it was visible to startle me profoundly. It seemed to be crouching -on the summit of the elevation, a wasplike thing with wiry legs and -gauzy wings standing straight out from its body. - -My fingers were trembling so I nearly dropped the fourth plate. On the -fourth plate the thing was clearly visible. The spiral was a dispersing -ribbon of mist high up on the plate and the mound was etched in sharp -outlines on the emulsion. - -The crouching shape was unmistakably wasplike. It stood poised on the -edge of the mound, its wings a vibrating blur against the amorphously -swirling mist. - -From within the mound a companion shape was emerging. The second -"wasp" was similar to the poised creature in all respects, but its -wings did not appear to be vibrating and from its curving mouth-parts -there dangled threadlike filaments of some whitish substance which was -faintly discernible against the mist. - -The fifth and last plate showed both creatures poised as though for -flight, while something that looked like the head of still another wasp -was protruding from the summit of the mound. - -I passed the plates to Joan without comment. Wonder and exaltation -came into her face as she examined them, first in sequence and then -haphazardly, as though unable to believe her eyes. - -"_Life_," she murmured at last, her voice tremulous with awe. "_Life -on Jupiter._ Richard, it's--unbelievable. This great planet that we -thought was a seething cauldron is actually inhabited by--_insects_." - -"I don't think they're insects, Joan," I said. "We've got to suspend -judgment until we can secure a specimen and study it at close range. -It's an obligation we owe to our sponsors and--to ourselves. We're here -on a mission of scientific exploration. We didn't inveigle funds from -the Smithsonian so that we could rush to snap conclusions five hundred -million miles from Earth. - -"_Insectlike_ would be a safer word. I've always believed that life -would evolve along parallel lines throughout the entire solar system, -assuming that it could exist at all on Venus, Mars, or on one of -the outer planets. I've always believed that any life sustaining -environment would produce forms familiar to us. On Earth you have the -same adaptations occurring again and again in widely divergent species. - -"There are lizards that resemble fish and fish that are lizardlike. The -dinosaur Triceratops resembled a rhinoceros, the duck-billed platypus -a colossal. Porpoises and whales are so fishlike that no visitor from -space would ever suspect that they were mammals wearing evolutionary -grease paint. And some of the insects look just like crustaceans, as -you know. - -"These creatures _look_ like insects, but they may not even -be protoplasmic in structure. They may be composed of some -energy-absorbing mineral that has acquired the properties of life." - -Joan's eyes were shining. "I don't care what they're composed of, -Richard. We've got to capture one of those creatures alive." - -I shook my head. "Impossible, Joan. If the air outside wasn't poisonous -I'd be out there with a net. But there are limits to what we can hope -to accomplish on this trip." - -"We've siphoned up specimens of the soil," Joan protested. "What's to -stop us from trying to catch up one of them in a suction cup?" - -"You're forgetting that suction cups have a diameter of scarcely nine -inches," I said. "These creatures may be as huge as the dragonflies of -the Carboniferous Age." - -"Richard, we'll project a traveling suction cup through one of the -vacuum locks and try to--" - -Her teeth came together with a little click. Startled, I turned and -stared at her. Despite her elation she had been sitting in a relaxed -attitude, with her back to the control panel and her latex taped legs -extended out over the dais. Now she was sitting up straight, her face -deathly pale in the cube-light. - -The creatures were standing a little to the right of the rigidly -staring crewmen, their swiftly vibrating wings enveloped in a pale -bluish radiance which swirled upward toward the ribbed metal ceiling of -the pilot chamber. - -[Illustration: _The creature was standing, wings swiftly vibrating, -enveloped in a pale, bluish radiance._] - -Enormous they were--and unutterably terrifying with their great, -many-faceted eyes fastened in brooding malignance upon us. - -Joan and I arose simultaneously, drawn to our feet by a horror such as -we had never known. A sense of sickening unreality gripped me, so that -I could neither move nor cry out. - -Dawson alone remained articulate. He raised his arm and pointed, his -voice a shrill bleat. - -"Look out, sir! Look out! There's another one coming through the wall -directly behind you." - -The warning came too late. As I swung toward the quartz port I saw -Joan's arm go out, her body quiver. Towering above her was a third -gigantic shape, the tip of its abdomen resting on her shoulders, its -spindly legs spread out over the pilot dais. - -As I stared at it aghast it shifted its bulk, and a darkly gleaming -object that looked like a shrunken bean-pod emerged from between Joan's -shoulder blades. - -Joan moaned and sagged on the dais, her hands going to her throat. -Instantly the wasp swooped over me, its abdomen descending. For an -awful instant I could see only a blurred shapelessness hovering over me. - -Then a white-hot shaft of pain lanced through me and the blur receded. -But I was unable to get up. I was unable to move or think clearly. My -limbs seemed weighted. I couldn't get up or help Joan or even roll over. - -My head was bursting and my spine was a board. I must have tried to -summon help, for I seem to remember Dawson sobbing: "I'm paralyzed too, -sir," just before my senses left me and I slumped unconscious on the -dais. - -How long I remained in blackness I had no way of knowing. But when I -opened my eyes again I was no longer on the dais. I was up under the -ceiling of the pilot chamber, staring down at the corrugated floor -through what looked like a glimmering, whitish haze. - -Something white and translucent wavered between my vision and the -floor, obscuring the outlines of the great wasps standing there. - -There were five wasps standing directly beneath me in the center of the -pilot chamber, their wings a luminous blur in the cube-light. - -My perceptions were surprisingly acute. I wasn't confused mentally, -although my mouth felt parched and there was a dull, throbbing ache in -my temples. - -The position in which I found myself and the whitish haze bewildered -me for only an instant. I knew that the "haze" was a web the instant I -studied its texture. And when I tried to move and couldn't the truth -dawned in all its horror. - -I was suspended beneath the ceiling of the chamber in a translucent, -hammock-like web. I was lying on my stomach, my limbs bound by fibrous -strands as resistant as whipcords. - -Minutes which seemed like eternities passed as I lay there with fear -clutching at my heart. I could only gaze downward. The crewmen had -vanished and the wasps were standing like grim sentinels in front of -the control panel. - -I was almost sure that Joan and the crewmen were suspended in similar -webs close to me. I thought I knew what the wasps had done to us. - -I had talked to Joan about life evolving along parallel lines -throughout the Solar System, but I hadn't expected to encounter life as -strange and frightening as this--insectlike, and yet composed of some -radiant substance that could penetrate solid metal and flow at will -through the walls of a ship. - -Some radiant substance that had weight and substance and could touch -human flesh without searing it. Nothing so ghastly strange and -yet--indisputably the creatures were wasplike. And being wasplike their -habit patterns were similar to those of so-called social wasps on Earth. - -Social wasps sting caterpillars into insensibility, and deposit eggs in -their paralyzed flesh. When the wasp-grubs hatch they become ghoulish -parasites, gruesomely feasting until the caterpillars dwindle to -repulsive, desiccated husks. - - - CHAPTER IV - - EDDINGTON'S OSCILLATIONS - -Horror and sick revulsion came into me as I stared down at the great -wasps, with their many-faceted eyes seeming to probe the Jovian mists -through a solid metal bulkhead! - -They thought we were Jovian caterpillars! Evidently there were flabby, -white larva-shapes out in the mist as large as men--with the habit -perhaps of rearing upright on stumpy legs like terrestrial measuring -worms. We looked enough like Jovian caterpillars to deceive those -Jovian wasps. - -They had apparently seen us through the walls of the ship, and their -egg-laying instincts had gone awry. They had plunged ovipositors into -our flesh, spun webs about us and hung us up to dry out while their -loathsome progeny feasted on our flesh. - -The whitish substance exuding from the mouth-parts of one of the -photographed wasps had evidently been mucilaginous web material. - -There was no other possible explanation. And suddenly as I lay there -with thudding temples something occurred which increased my horror -ten-fold. - -Zigzagging, luminous lines appeared on the ribbed metal wall opposite -the quartz port and a wasp materialized amidst spectral bands of -radiance which wavered and shimmered like heat waves in bright sunlight. - -A coldness itched across my scalp. Dangling from the wasp's right -fore-leg was the web-enmeshed form of the fuel unit control pilot. -Young Darnel's hair was tousled, and his metacloth pilot tunic had been -partly torn away, leaving his ribs exposed. - -I had never seen anything quite so horrible. Embedded in Darnel's -flesh was a huge, faintly luminous grub, its rudimentary mouth-parts -obscurely visible beneath the drum-tight skin over his breastbone. - -His hands closed and unclosed as I stared down at him. His forehead was -drenched with sweat and he writhed as though in unbearable anguish, a -hectic flush suffusing his cheeks. - -My throat felt hot and swollen but I managed to whisper: "Darnel. -Darnel, my lad." - -Slowly his eyelids flickered open and he stared up at me, a grimace of -agony convulsing his haggard features. - -"Nothing seems quite real, sir," he groaned. "Except--the pain." - -"Is it very bad?" - -"I'm in agony, sir. I can't stand it much longer. It's as though a -heated iron were resting on my chest." - -"Where did that wasp take you?" - -"Into the chart room, sir. When I struggled in the web it carried me -into the chart room and stung me again." - -I swallowed hard. "Did you experience any pain before that, lad?" - -"I felt a stab the first time it plunged its stinger into me, but when -I came to in the web there was no pain. The pain started in the chart -room." - -I was thinking furiously. Stinger--ovipositor. A few species of -stinging terrestrial insects possessed organs which combined the -functions of both. Evidently the wasps had simply stung us at -first--to paralyze us. Now they were completing the gruesome process of -providing a feast for their avaricious progeny. One of the wasps had -taken Darnel from the web, and deposited a fertile, luminous egg in his -flesh. - -It was becoming hideously clear now. The wasp's retreat into the chart -room had been motivated by a desire to complete its loathsome task -in grim seclusion. It had withdrawn a short distance for the sake of -privacy, passing completely through the wall out of sight. - -My stomach felt tight and hollow when I contemplated the grub, which -had apparently hatched out almost instantly. It seemed probable that -Darnel's anguish was caused by the grub's luminosity searing his flesh, -as its mouth-parts were still immobile. - -"Darnel," I whispered. "The paralysis wore off. They couldn't sting us -into permanent insensibility. The pain may go too." - -He looked at me, his eyes filming. "I don't understand, sir. Paralysis?" - -I had forgotten that Daniel wasn't even aware of what we were -up against. He couldn't see the grub. He didn't know that we -were--caterpillars. - -He was in torment, and I was powerless to help him. I was glad he -didn't know, despite my certain knowledge that I was about to share his -fate. I whispered hoarsely: "Can you see Joan, lad. Is she--" - -"She's lying in the web next to you, sir. Dawson and Stillmen have been -out." - -"_Taken out._" - -"There are two empty webs, sir. Oh, God, the pain--I can't stand it." - -The great wasp was moving now. It was moving slowly across the chamber -toward the quartz port, between its motionless companions. Its wings -were vibrating and it was raising Darnel up as though it were about to -hurl him out through the inches-thick quartz into the mist. - -Suddenly as I stared the utter strangeness of something that had -already occurred smote me with the force of a physical blow. The wasp -had carried Darnel _right through the wall_--from the pilot chamber to -the chart room, and back again. - -Apparently the great wasps could make us tenuous too! Close and -prolonged contact with the energies pouring from them had made Darnel's -body as permeable as gamma light. Horribly it was borne in on me that -Darnel's anguish was caused by a _pervasive_ glow which enveloped him -from head to foot. It was fainter than the radiance which poured from -the wasps and was almost invisible in the fluorescent cube-light, but I -could see it now. - -The wasp didn't hurl Darnel out. It simply vanished with him through -the quartz port, its wings dwindling to a luminous blur which hovered -for an instant before the inches-thick crystal before it dwindled into -nothingness. - -The same instant a voice beside me moaned. "Richard, I can't move." - -"Joan," I gasped. "Oh, my dearest--" - -"Richard, I can't move. I'm in a sort of web, Richard. It's--it's like -a mist before my eyes." - -I knew then that Joan was trussed up on her side, gazing through her -web directly at me. I was glad that she couldn't see the wasps. - -"Joan." - -"Yes, Richard." - -"Did you just wake up?" - -"Wake up? You mean I've been dreaming, Richard. Those wasps--" - -"Darling, do you want it straight?" - -"You don't need to ask that, Richard." - -I told her then--everything I suspected, everything I _knew_. When I -stopped speaking, she was silent for ten full seconds. Then her voice -came to me vibrant with courage. - -"We can't live forever, Richard." - -"That's what I've been thinking, darling. And you've got to admit -we've had the best of everything." - -"Some people I know would call it living," she said. - -"Darling?" - -"Yes, Richard." - -"I've a confession to make. I've liked being out in space with you. -I've liked the uncertainty, the danger--the desperate chances we both -took with our lives." - -"I'm glad, Richard." - -"I don't glow outwardly--you know that. You've had a lot to contend -with. I've reproached you, and tried to put a damper on your -enthusiasm, and--" - -"You've been a wonderful husband, Richard." - -"But as a lover--" - -"Richard, do you remember what you said to me when we were roaring -through the red skies above Io? You held my fingers so tightly I was -afraid you'd break them, and your kisses were as fiery as a girl could -ask for. And you said I reminded you of someone you'd always loved, and -that was why you'd married me. - -"And when I scowled and asked her name you said she had no name and had -never existed on Earth. But that I had her eyes and hair and thoughts, -and was just as slim, and that when I walked I reminded you of her, and -even when I just sat on the pilot dais staring out into space. - -"I knew then that you had always been in love with love, and that means -everything to a woman." - -"I didn't do so badly then?" - -"Richard, you've never done badly at any time. Do you think I could -love a man who was all flattery and blather?" - -"I've always loved you, Joan." - -"I know, Richard my darling." - -"If only it didn't have to end." - -"It will be over swiftly, dearest. They'll take us out into the mist -and into one of their nests, but we'll be beyond pain ten seconds after -the atmosphere enters our lungs. Darnel and Dawson are at peace now." - -"But we could have gone on, and--" I broke off in stunned bewilderment. - -The vibrating wings of the wasps beneath me seemed to be casting less -massive shadows on the walls of the pilot chamber. The wasps themselves -seemed to be-- - -My heart gave a sudden, violent leap. For perhaps ten seconds utter -incredulity enveloped me. Unmistakably the wasps had grown smaller, -dimmer. - -Even as I stared they continued to dwindle, shedding their awesome -contours and becoming no larger than ourselves. - -"Good God!" I exclaimed. - -"Richard, what is it?" - -"The wasps, Joan. They're getting smaller!" - -"Richard, you're either stark, raving mad, or your vision is swimming -from the strain of watching them." - -"No, Joan. I'm quite sane, and my eyes are all right. I tell you, -they're shrinking." - -"Richard, how _could_ they shrink?" - -"I--I don't know. Perhaps--wait a minute, Joan. _Eddington's -oscillations._" - -"Eddington's _what_?" - -"Oscillations," I exclaimed, excitedly. "A century ago Eddington -pictured all matter throughout the universe as alternating between a -state of contraction and expansion. Oh, Joan, don't you see? These -creatures are composed not of solid matter, but of some form of -vibrating energy. They possess an oscillatory life cycle which makes -them contract and expand in small-scale duplication of the larger pulse -of our contracting and expanding universe. They become huge, then -small, then huge again. They may expand and contract a thousand times -before they die. Perhaps they--" - -A scream from Joan cut my explanation short. "Richard, the web's -slackening. I'm going to fall." - -Fifteen minutes later we were rocketing upward through Jupiter's -immense cloud blanket, locked in each other's arms. - -Joan was sobbing. "It's unbelievable, Richard. We were saved by--by a -miracle." - -"No, Joan--Eddington's oscillations. Although I'll admit it seemed like -a miracle when those tiny wasps became frightened by enormous _us_ -descending upon them, and flew straight through the quartz port into -the mist." - -"What do you suppose made the web slacken?" - -"Well," I said. "That web was spun out of the bodies of those dwindling -wasps. It seems to have been a sort of energy web, since it shriveled -to a few charred fibers before we could pluck it from our tunics. -Apparently it was sustained by energies emanating from the wasps which -burned out the instant the wasps dwindled." - -"Richard, hold me close. I thought we would never see Earth again." - -"I'm not sure that we will," I warned her. "We've lost our crew and we -can't even set our course by the stars. Perhaps the direction gauges -will function again when the atomotors carry us beyond Jupiter's orbit, -but I wouldn't bank on it." - -"Oh, Richard, how could you? You said you liked uncertainty, danger. -You said--" - -"Never mind what I said. I'm just being realistic, that's all. Do you -realize how heavily the cards are stacked against us?" - -"No, and I don't particularly care. Kiss me, Richard." - -Grumblingly I obeyed. It would have been better if we could have saved -our energies for the grim ordeal ahead of us, but it was impossible to -reason with Joan when she was in one of her reckless moods. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIBRATION WASPS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Vibration Wasps</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Frank Belknap Long</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 15, 2021 [eBook #64820]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIBRATION WASPS ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>THE VIBRATION WASPS</h1> - -<h2>by FRANK BELKNAP LONG</h2> - -<p><i>Enormous, they were—like Jupiter—and<br /> -unutterably terrifying to Joan—</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Comet January 41.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER I<br /> -OUT IN SPACE</p> - -<p>I was out in space with Joan for the sixth time. It might as well have -been the eighth or tenth. It went on and on. Every time I rebelled Joan -would shrug and murmur: "All right, Richard. I'll go it alone then."</p> - -<p>Joan was a little chit of a girl with spun gold hair and eyes that -misted when I spoke of Pluto and Uranus, and glowed like live coals -when we were out in space together.</p> - -<p>Joan had about the worst case of exploritis in medical history. To -explain her I had to take to theory. Simply to test out whether she -could survive and reach maturity in an environment which was hostile -to human mutants, Nature had inserted in her make-up every reckless -ingredient imaginable. Luckily she had survived long enough to fall in -love with sober and restraining me. We supplemented each other, and as -I was ten years her senior my obligations had been clear-cut from the -start.</p> - -<p>We were heading for Ganymede this time, the largest satellite of -vast, mist-enshrouded Jupiter. Our slender space vessel was thrumming -steadily through the dark interplanetary gulfs, its triple atomotors -roaring. I knew that Joan would have <i>preferred</i> to penetrate the -turbulent red mists of Ganymede's immense primary, and that only my -settled conviction that Jupiter was a molten world restrained her.</p> - -<p>We had talked it over for months, weighing the opinions of Earth's -foremost astronomers. No "watcher of the night skies" could tell us -very much about Jupiter. The year 1973 had seen the exploration of the -moon, and in 1986 the crews of three atomotor-propelled space vessels -had landed on Mars and Venus, only to make the disappointing discovery -that neither planet had ever sustained life.</p> - -<p>By 2002 three of the outer planets had come within the orbit of human -exploration. There were Earth colonies on all of the Jovian moons now, -with the exception of Ganymede. Eight exploring expeditions had set -out for that huge and mysterious satellite, only to disappear without -leaving a trace.</p> - -<p>I turned from a quartz port brimming with star-flecked blackness to -gaze on my reckless, nineteen-year-old bride. Joan was so strong-willed -and competent that it was difficult for me to realize she was scarcely -more than a child. A veteran of the skyways, you'd have thought her, -with her slim hands steady on the controls, her steely eyes probing -space.</p> - -<p>"The more conservative astronomers have always been right," I said. -"We knew almost as much about the moon back in the eighteenth century -as we do now. We get daily weather reports from Tycho now, and there -are fifty-six Earth colonies beneath the lunar Apennines. But the -astronomers knew that the moon was a sterile, crater-pitted world a -hundred years ago. They knew that there was no life or oxygen beneath -its brittle stars generations before the first space vessel left Earth.</p> - -<p>"The astronomers said that Venus was a bleak, mist-enshrouded world -that couldn't sustain life and they were right. They were right about -Mars. Oh, sure, a few idle dreamers thought there might be life on -Mars. But the more conservative astronomers stood pat, and denied that -the seasonal changes could be ascribed to a low order of vegetative -life. It's a far cry from mere soil discoloration caused by melting -polar ice caps to the miracle of pulsing life. The first vessel to -reach Mars proved the astronomers right. Now a few crack-brained -theorists are trying to convince us that Jupiter may be a solid, cool -world."</p> - -<p>Joan turned, and frowned at me. "You're letting a few clouds scare -you, Richard," she said. "No man on Earth knows what's under the mist -envelope of Jupiter."</p> - -<p>"A few clouds," I retorted. "You know darned well that Jupiter's -gaseous envelope is forty thousand miles thick—a seething cauldron of -heavy gases and pressure drifts rotating at variance with the planet's -crust."</p> - -<p>"But Ganymede is mist-enshrouded too," scoffed Joan. "We're hurtling -into <i>that</i> cauldron at the risk of our necks. Why not Jupiter instead?"</p> - -<p>"The law of averages," I said, "seasoned with a little common sense. -Eight vessels went through Ganymede's ghost shroud into oblivion. There -have been twenty-six attempts to conquer Jupiter. A little world cools -and solidifies much more rapidly than a big world. You ought to know -that."</p> - -<p>"But Ganymede isn't so little. You're forgetting it's the biggest -satellite in the solar system."</p> - -<p>"But still little—smaller than Mars. Chances are it has a solid crust, -like Callisto, Io, and Europa."</p> - -<p>There was a faint, rustling sound behind us. Joan and I swung about -simultaneously, startled by what was obviously a space-code infraction. -A silvery-haired, wiry little man was emerging through the beryllium -steel door of the pilot chamber, his face set in grim lines. I am not -a disciplinarian, but my nerves at that moment were strained to the -breaking point. "What are you doing here, Dawson," I rapped, staring -at him in indignation. "We didn't send for you."</p> - -<p>"Sorry, sir," the little man apologized. "I couldn't get you on the -visi-plate. It's gone dead, sir."</p> - -<p>Joan drew in her breath sharply. "You mean there's something wrong with -the cold current?"</p> - -<p>Dawson nodded. "Nearly every instrument on the ship has gone dead, sir. -Gravity-stabilizers, direction gauges, even the intership communication -coils."</p> - -<p>Joan leapt to her feet. "It must be the stupendous gravity tug of -Jupiter," she exclaimed. "Hadley warned us it might impede the -molecular flow of our cold force currents the instant we passed -Ganymede's orbit."</p> - -<p>Exultation shone in her gaze. I stared at her, aghast. She was actually -rejoicing that the Smithsonian physicist had predicted our destruction.</p> - -<p>Knowing that vessels were continually traveling to Io and Callisto -despite their nearness to the greatest disturbing body in the Solar -System, I had assumed we could reach Ganymede with our navigation -instruments intact. I had scoffed at Hadley's forebodings, ignoring the -fact that we were using cold force for the first time in an atomotor -propelled vessel, and were dependent on a flow adjustment of the utmost -delicacy.</p> - -<p>Dawson was staring at Joan in stunned horror. Our fate was sealed and -yet Joan had descended from the pilot dais and was actually waltzing -about the chamber, her eyes glowing like incandescent meteor chips.</p> - -<p>"We'll find out now, Richard," she exclaimed. "It's too late for -caution or regrets. We're going right through forty thousand miles of -mist to Jupiter's <i>solid</i> crust."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER II<br /> -THROUGH THE CLOUD BLANKET</p> - -<p>I thought of Earth as we fell. Tingling song, and bright awakenings and -laughter and joy and grief. Woodsmoke in October, tall ships and the -planets spinning and hurdy-gurdies in June.</p> - -<p>I sat grimly by Joan's side on the pilot dais, setting my teeth as I -gripped the atomotor controls and stared out through the quartz port. -We were plummeting downward with dizzying speed. Outside the quartz -port there was a continuous misty glimmering splotched with nebulously -weaving spirals of flame.</p> - -<p>We were already far below Jupiter's outer envelope of tenuous gases -in turbulent flux, and had entered a region of pressure drifts which -caused our little vessel to twist and lunge erratically. Wildly it -swept from side to side, its gyrations increasing in violence as I cut -the atomotor blasts and released a traveling force field of repulsive -negrations.</p> - -<p>I thanked our lucky stars that the gravity tug had spared the atomotors -and the landing mechanism. We hadn't anything else to be thankful for. -I knew that if we plunged into a lake of fire even the cushioning force -field couldn't save us.</p> - -<p>Joan seemed not to care. She was staring through the quartz port in an -attitude of intense absorption, a faint smile on her lips. There are -degrees of recklessness verging on insanity; of courage which deserves -no respect.</p> - -<p>I had an impulse to shake her, and shout: "Do you realize we're -plunging to our death?" I had to keep telling myself that she was still -a child with no realization of what death meant. She simply couldn't -visualize extinction; the dreadful blackness sweeping in—</p> - -<p>Our speed was decreasing now. The cushioning force field was slowing us -up, forcing the velocity needle sharply downward on the dial.</p> - -<p>Joan swung toward me, her face jubilant. "We'll know in a minute, -Richard. We're only eight thousand miles above the planet's crust."</p> - -<p>"Crust?" I flung at her. "You mean a roaring furnace."</p> - -<p>"No, Richard. If Jupiter were molten we'd be feeling it now. The -plates would be white-hot."</p> - -<p>It was true, of course. I hadn't realized it before. I wiped sweat from -my forehead, and stared at her with sombre respect. She had been right -for once. In her girlish folly she had out-guessed all the astronomers -on Earth.</p> - -<p>The deceleration was making my temples throb horribly. We were -decelerating far too rapidly, but it was impossible to diminish the -speed-retarding pressure of the force field, and I didn't dare resort -to another atomotor charge so close to the planet's surface. To make -matters worse, the auxiliary luminalis blast tubes had been crippled by -the arrest of the force current, along with the almost indispensable -gravity stabilizers.</p> - -<p>The blood was draining from my brain already. I knew that I was going -to lose consciousness, and my fingers passed swiftly up and down the -control panel, freezing the few descent mechanisms which were not -dependent on the interior force current in positions of stability and -maximum effectiveness, and cupping over the meteor collision emergency -jets.</p> - -<p>Joan was the first to collapse. She had been quietly assisting me, her -slim hands hovering over the base of the instrument board. Suddenly as -we manipulated dials and rheostats she gave a little, choking cry and -slumped heavily against me.</p> - -<p>There was a sudden increase of tension inside my skull. Pain stabbed at -my temples and the control panel seemed to waver and recede. I threw -my right arm about Joan and tried to prevent her sagging body from -slipping to the floor. A low, vibrant hum filled the chamber. We rocked -back and forth before the instrument board, our shoulders drooping.</p> - -<p>We were still rocking when a terrific concussion shook the ship, -hurling us from the dais and plunging the chamber into darkness.</p> - -<p>Bruised and dazed, I raised myself on one elbow and stared about me. -The jarred fluorescent cubes had begun to function again, filling the -pilot chamber with a slightly diminished radiance. But the chamber -was in a state of chaos. Twisted coils of <i>erillium</i> piping lay at my -feet, and an overturned jar of sluice lubricant was spilling its sticky -contents over the corrugated metal floor.</p> - -<p>Joan had fallen from the pilot dais and was lying on her side by the -quartz port, her face ashen, blood trickling from a wound in her cheek. -I pulled myself toward her, and lifted her up till her shoulders were -resting on my knees. Slowly her eyes blinked open, and bored into mine.</p> - -<p>She forced a smile. "Happy landing?" she inquired.</p> - -<p>"Not so happy," I muttered grimly. "You were right about Jupiter. -It's a solid world and we've landed smack upon it with considerable -violence, judging from the way things have been hurled about."</p> - -<p>"Then the cushioning force field—"</p> - -<p>"Oh, it cushioned us, all right. If it hadn't we'd be roasting merrily -inside a twisted mass of wreckage. But I wouldn't call it happy -landing. You've got a nasty cut there."</p> - -<p>"I'm all right, Richard."</p> - -<p>Joan reached up and patted my cheek. "Good old Richard. You're just -upset because we didn't plunge into a lake of molten zinc."</p> - -<p>"Sure, that's it," I grunted. "I was hoping for a swift, easy out."</p> - -<p>"Maybe we'll find it, Richard," she said, her eyes suddenly serious. -"I'm not kidding myself. I know what a whiff of absolute zero can do to -mucous membranes. All I'm claiming is that we've as good a chance here -as we would have had on Ganymede."</p> - -<p>"I wish I could feel that way about it. How do we know the atomotors -can lift us from a world as massive as Jupiter?"</p> - -<p>"I think they can, Richard. We had twelve times as much acceleration as -we needed on tap when we took off from Earth."</p> - -<p>She was getting to her feet now. Her eyes were shining again, -exultantly. You would have thought we were descending in a stratoplane -above the green fields of Earth.</p> - -<p>"I've a confession to make, Richard," she grinned. "Coming down, I was -inwardly afraid we <i>would</i> find ourselves in a ghastly bubble and boil. -And I was seriously wondering how long we could stand it."</p> - -<p>"Oh, you were."</p> - -<p>"Longer than you think, Richard. Did you know that human beings -can stand simply terrific heat? Experimenters have stayed in rooms -artificially heated to a temperature of four hundred degrees for as -long as fifteen minutes without being injured in any way."</p> - -<p>"Very interesting," I said. "But that doesn't concern us now. We've -got to find out if our crewmen are injured or badly shaken up. Chances -are they'll be needing splints. And we've got to check the atmosphere -before we can think of going outside, even with our helmets clamped -down tight.</p> - -<p>"Chances are it's laden with poisonous gases which the activated carbon -in our oxygen filters won't absorb. If the atmosphere contains phosgene -we'll not be stepping out. I'm hoping we'll find only carbon monoxide -and methane."</p> - -<p>"Nice, harmless gases."</p> - -<p>"I didn't say that. But at least they'll stick to the outside of the -particles of carbon in the filter and not tear our lungs apart."</p> - -<p>"A thought, Richard. Suppose we find nickel carbonyl. That's harmless -until it is catalyzed by carbon. Then it's worse than phosgene."</p> - -<p>"There are lots of deadly ingredients we <i>could</i> find," I admitted -with some bitterness. "Gases in solid toxic form—tiny dust granules -which would pass right through the filters into our lungs. Jupiter's -atmosphere may well be composed entirely of gases in solid phase."</p> - -<p>"Let's hope not, Richard."</p> - -<p>"We've been talking about lung corrosives," I said, relentlessly. "But -our space suits are not impermeable, you know. There are gases which -injure the skin, causing running sores. Vesicant gases. The fact that -there are no vesicants on Io and Europa doesn't mean we won't encounter -them here. And there are nerve gases which could drive us mad in less -time than it takes to—"</p> - -<p>"Richard, you always were an optimist."</p> - -<p>I stared at her steadily for an instant; then shrugged. "All right, -Joan. I hope you won't fall down on any of the tests. We've got to -project an ion detector, a barometer and a moist cloud chamber outside -the ship through a vacuum suction lock, in addition to the atmosphere -samplers. And we've got to bandage that face wound before you bleed to -death."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER III<br /> -WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED</p> - -<p>A half hour later we had our recordings. Joan sat facing me on the -elevated pilot dais, her head swathed in bandages. Dawson and the two -other members of our crew stood just beneath us, their faces sombre in -the cube-light.</p> - -<p>They had miraculously escaped injury, although Dawson had a badly -shaken up look. His hair was tousled and his jaw muscles twitched. -Dawson was fifty-three years old, but the others were still in their -early twenties—stout lads who could take it.</p> - -<p>The fuel unit control pilot, James Darnel, was standing with his -shoulders squared, as though awaiting orders. I didn't want to take -off. I had fought Joan all the way, but now that we were actually on -Jupiter I wanted to go out with her into the unknown, and stand with -her under the swirling, star-concealing mist.</p> - -<p>I wanted to be the first man to set foot on Jupiter. But I knew now -that the first man would be the last. The atmospheric recordings had -revealed that there were poisons in Jupiter's lethal cloud envelope -which would have corroded our flesh through our space suits and burned -out our eyes.</p> - -<p>Joan had been compelled to bow to the inevitable. Bitterly she sat -waiting for me to give the word to take off. I was holding a portable -horizon camera in my hand. It was about the smallest, most incidental -article of equipment we had brought along.</p> - -<p>The huge, electro-shuttered horizon camera which we had intended to use -on Ganymede had been so badly damaged by the jar of our descent that -it was useless now. We had projected the little camera by a horizontal -extension tripod through a vacuum suction lock and let it swing about.</p> - -<p>I didn't expect much from it. It was equipped with infra-red and -ultra-violet ray filters, but the atmosphere was so dense outside I -didn't think the sensitive plates would depict anything but swirling -spirals of mist.</p> - -<p>I was waiting for the developing fluid to do its work before I broke -the camera open and removed the plates. We had perhaps one chance in -ten of getting a pictorial record of Jupiter's topographical features.</p> - -<p>I knew that one clear print would ease Joan's frustration and -bitterness, and give her a sense of accomplishment. But I didn't -expect anything sensational. Venus is a frozen wasteland from pole to -pole, and the dust-bowl deserts of Mars are exactly like the more arid -landscapes of Earth.</p> - -<p>Most of Earth is sea and desert and I felt sure that Jupiter would -exhibit uniform surface features over nine-tenths of its crust. Its -rugged or picturesque regions would be dispersed amidst vast, dun -wastes. The law of averages was dead against our having landed on the -rim of some blue-lit, mysterious cavern measureless to man, or by the -shores of an inland sea.</p> - -<p>But Joan's eyes were shining again, so I didn't voice my misgivings. -Joan's eyes were fastened on the little camera as though all her life -were centered there.</p> - -<p>"Well, Richard," she urged.</p> - -<p>My hands were shaking. "A few pictures won't give <i>me</i> a lift," I said. -"Even if they show mountains and crater-pits and five hundred million -people gape at them on Earth."</p> - -<p>"Don't be such a pessimist, Richard. We'll be back in a month with -impermeable space suits, and a helmet filter of the Silo type. You're -forgetting we've accomplished a lot. It's something to know that the -temperature outside isn't anything like as ghastly as the cold of -space, and that the pebbles we've siphoned up show Widman-statten lines -and contain microscopic diamonds. That means Jupiter's crust isn't -all volcanic ash. There'll be something more interesting than tumbled -mounds of lava awaiting us when we come back. If we can back our -geological findings with prints—"</p> - -<p>"You bet we can," I scoffed. "I haven't a doubt of it. What do you -want to see? Flame-tongued flowers or gyroscopic porcupines? Take your -choice. Richard the Great never fails."</p> - -<p>"Richard, you're talking like that to hide something inside you that's -all wonder and surmise."</p> - -<p>Scowling, I broke open the camera and the plates fell out into my hand. -They were small three by four inch positive transparencies, coated on -one side with a iridescent emulsion which was still slightly damp.</p> - -<p>Joan's eyes were riveted on my face. She seemed unaware of the presence -of the crewmen below us. She sat calmly watching me as I picked up the -top-most plate and held it up in the cube-light.</p> - -<p>I stared at it intently. It depicted—a spiral of mist. Simply that, -and nothing more. The spiral hung in blackness like a wisp of smoke, -tapering from a narrow base.</p> - -<p>"Well?" said Joan.</p> - -<p>"Nothing on this one," I said, and picked up another. The spiral was -still there, but behind it was something that looked like an ant-hill.</p> - -<p>"Thick mist getting thinner," I said.</p> - -<p>The third plate gave me a jolt. The spiral had become a weaving ghost -shroud above a distinct elevation that could have been either a -mountain or an ant-hill. It would have been impossible to even guess at -the elevation's distance from the ship if something hadn't seemed to be -crouching upon it.</p> - -<p>The mist coiled down over the thing and partly obscured it. But enough -of it was visible to startle me profoundly. It seemed to be crouching -on the summit of the elevation, a wasplike thing with wiry legs and -gauzy wings standing straight out from its body.</p> - -<p>My fingers were trembling so I nearly dropped the fourth plate. On the -fourth plate the thing was clearly visible. The spiral was a dispersing -ribbon of mist high up on the plate and the mound was etched in sharp -outlines on the emulsion.</p> - -<p>The crouching shape was unmistakably wasplike. It stood poised on the -edge of the mound, its wings a vibrating blur against the amorphously -swirling mist.</p> - -<p>From within the mound a companion shape was emerging. The second -"wasp" was similar to the poised creature in all respects, but its -wings did not appear to be vibrating and from its curving mouth-parts -there dangled threadlike filaments of some whitish substance which was -faintly discernible against the mist.</p> - -<p>The fifth and last plate showed both creatures poised as though for -flight, while something that looked like the head of still another wasp -was protruding from the summit of the mound.</p> - -<p>I passed the plates to Joan without comment. Wonder and exaltation -came into her face as she examined them, first in sequence and then -haphazardly, as though unable to believe her eyes.</p> - -<p>"<i>Life</i>," she murmured at last, her voice tremulous with awe. "<i>Life -on Jupiter.</i> Richard, it's—unbelievable. This great planet that we -thought was a seething cauldron is actually inhabited by—<i>insects</i>."</p> - -<p>"I don't think they're insects, Joan," I said. "We've got to suspend -judgment until we can secure a specimen and study it at close range. -It's an obligation we owe to our sponsors and—to ourselves. We're here -on a mission of scientific exploration. We didn't inveigle funds from -the Smithsonian so that we could rush to snap conclusions five hundred -million miles from Earth.</p> - -<p>"<i>Insectlike</i> would be a safer word. I've always believed that life -would evolve along parallel lines throughout the entire solar system, -assuming that it could exist at all on Venus, Mars, or on one of -the outer planets. I've always believed that any life sustaining -environment would produce forms familiar to us. On Earth you have the -same adaptations occurring again and again in widely divergent species.</p> - -<p>"There are lizards that resemble fish and fish that are lizardlike. The -dinosaur Triceratops resembled a rhinoceros, the duck-billed platypus -a colossal. Porpoises and whales are so fishlike that no visitor from -space would ever suspect that they were mammals wearing evolutionary -grease paint. And some of the insects look just like crustaceans, as -you know.</p> - -<p>"These creatures <i>look</i> like insects, but they may not even -be protoplasmic in structure. They may be composed of some -energy-absorbing mineral that has acquired the properties of life."</p> - -<p>Joan's eyes were shining. "I don't care what they're composed of, -Richard. We've got to capture one of those creatures alive."</p> - -<p>I shook my head. "Impossible, Joan. If the air outside wasn't poisonous -I'd be out there with a net. But there are limits to what we can hope -to accomplish on this trip."</p> - -<p>"We've siphoned up specimens of the soil," Joan protested. "What's to -stop us from trying to catch up one of them in a suction cup?"</p> - -<p>"You're forgetting that suction cups have a diameter of scarcely nine -inches," I said. "These creatures may be as huge as the dragonflies of -the Carboniferous Age."</p> - -<p>"Richard, we'll project a traveling suction cup through one of the -vacuum locks and try to—"</p> - -<p>Her teeth came together with a little click. Startled, I turned and -stared at her. Despite her elation she had been sitting in a relaxed -attitude, with her back to the control panel and her latex taped legs -extended out over the dais. Now she was sitting up straight, her face -deathly pale in the cube-light.</p> - -<p>The creatures were standing a little to the right of the rigidly -staring crewmen, their swiftly vibrating wings enveloped in a pale -bluish radiance which swirled upward toward the ribbed metal ceiling of -the pilot chamber.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>The creature was standing, wings swiftly vibrating, enveloped in a pale, bluish radiance.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Enormous they were—and unutterably terrifying with their great, -many-faceted eyes fastened in brooding malignance upon us.</p> - -<p>Joan and I arose simultaneously, drawn to our feet by a horror such as -we had never known. A sense of sickening unreality gripped me, so that -I could neither move nor cry out.</p> - -<p>Dawson alone remained articulate. He raised his arm and pointed, his -voice a shrill bleat.</p> - -<p>"Look out, sir! Look out! There's another one coming through the wall -directly behind you."</p> - -<p>The warning came too late. As I swung toward the quartz port I saw -Joan's arm go out, her body quiver. Towering above her was a third -gigantic shape, the tip of its abdomen resting on her shoulders, its -spindly legs spread out over the pilot dais.</p> - -<p>As I stared at it aghast it shifted its bulk, and a darkly gleaming -object that looked like a shrunken bean-pod emerged from between Joan's -shoulder blades.</p> - -<p>Joan moaned and sagged on the dais, her hands going to her throat. -Instantly the wasp swooped over me, its abdomen descending. For an -awful instant I could see only a blurred shapelessness hovering over me.</p> - -<p>Then a white-hot shaft of pain lanced through me and the blur receded. -But I was unable to get up. I was unable to move or think clearly. My -limbs seemed weighted. I couldn't get up or help Joan or even roll over.</p> - -<p>My head was bursting and my spine was a board. I must have tried to -summon help, for I seem to remember Dawson sobbing: "I'm paralyzed too, -sir," just before my senses left me and I slumped unconscious on the -dais.</p> - -<p>How long I remained in blackness I had no way of knowing. But when I -opened my eyes again I was no longer on the dais. I was up under the -ceiling of the pilot chamber, staring down at the corrugated floor -through what looked like a glimmering, whitish haze.</p> - -<p>Something white and translucent wavered between my vision and the -floor, obscuring the outlines of the great wasps standing there.</p> - -<p>There were five wasps standing directly beneath me in the center of the -pilot chamber, their wings a luminous blur in the cube-light.</p> - -<p>My perceptions were surprisingly acute. I wasn't confused mentally, -although my mouth felt parched and there was a dull, throbbing ache in -my temples.</p> - -<p>The position in which I found myself and the whitish haze bewildered -me for only an instant. I knew that the "haze" was a web the instant I -studied its texture. And when I tried to move and couldn't the truth -dawned in all its horror.</p> - -<p>I was suspended beneath the ceiling of the chamber in a translucent, -hammock-like web. I was lying on my stomach, my limbs bound by fibrous -strands as resistant as whipcords.</p> - -<p>Minutes which seemed like eternities passed as I lay there with fear -clutching at my heart. I could only gaze downward. The crewmen had -vanished and the wasps were standing like grim sentinels in front of -the control panel.</p> - -<p>I was almost sure that Joan and the crewmen were suspended in similar -webs close to me. I thought I knew what the wasps had done to us.</p> - -<p>I had talked to Joan about life evolving along parallel lines -throughout the Solar System, but I hadn't expected to encounter life as -strange and frightening as this—insectlike, and yet composed of some -radiant substance that could penetrate solid metal and flow at will -through the walls of a ship.</p> - -<p>Some radiant substance that had weight and substance and could touch -human flesh without searing it. Nothing so ghastly strange and -yet—indisputably the creatures were wasplike. And being wasplike their -habit patterns were similar to those of so-called social wasps on Earth.</p> - -<p>Social wasps sting caterpillars into insensibility, and deposit eggs in -their paralyzed flesh. When the wasp-grubs hatch they become ghoulish -parasites, gruesomely feasting until the caterpillars dwindle to -repulsive, desiccated husks.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IV<br /> -EDDINGTON'S OSCILLATIONS</p> - -<p>Horror and sick revulsion came into me as I stared down at the great -wasps, with their many-faceted eyes seeming to probe the Jovian mists -through a solid metal bulkhead!</p> - -<p>They thought we were Jovian caterpillars! Evidently there were flabby, -white larva-shapes out in the mist as large as men—with the habit -perhaps of rearing upright on stumpy legs like terrestrial measuring -worms. We looked enough like Jovian caterpillars to deceive those -Jovian wasps.</p> - -<p>They had apparently seen us through the walls of the ship, and their -egg-laying instincts had gone awry. They had plunged ovipositors into -our flesh, spun webs about us and hung us up to dry out while their -loathsome progeny feasted on our flesh.</p> - -<p>The whitish substance exuding from the mouth-parts of one of the -photographed wasps had evidently been mucilaginous web material.</p> - -<p>There was no other possible explanation. And suddenly as I lay there -with thudding temples something occurred which increased my horror -ten-fold.</p> - -<p>Zigzagging, luminous lines appeared on the ribbed metal wall opposite -the quartz port and a wasp materialized amidst spectral bands of -radiance which wavered and shimmered like heat waves in bright sunlight.</p> - -<p>A coldness itched across my scalp. Dangling from the wasp's right -fore-leg was the web-enmeshed form of the fuel unit control pilot. -Young Darnel's hair was tousled, and his metacloth pilot tunic had been -partly torn away, leaving his ribs exposed.</p> - -<p>I had never seen anything quite so horrible. Embedded in Darnel's -flesh was a huge, faintly luminous grub, its rudimentary mouth-parts -obscurely visible beneath the drum-tight skin over his breastbone.</p> - -<p>His hands closed and unclosed as I stared down at him. His forehead was -drenched with sweat and he writhed as though in unbearable anguish, a -hectic flush suffusing his cheeks.</p> - -<p>My throat felt hot and swollen but I managed to whisper: "Darnel. -Darnel, my lad."</p> - -<p>Slowly his eyelids flickered open and he stared up at me, a grimace of -agony convulsing his haggard features.</p> - -<p>"Nothing seems quite real, sir," he groaned. "Except—the pain."</p> - -<p>"Is it very bad?"</p> - -<p>"I'm in agony, sir. I can't stand it much longer. It's as though a -heated iron were resting on my chest."</p> - -<p>"Where did that wasp take you?"</p> - -<p>"Into the chart room, sir. When I struggled in the web it carried me -into the chart room and stung me again."</p> - -<p>I swallowed hard. "Did you experience any pain before that, lad?"</p> - -<p>"I felt a stab the first time it plunged its stinger into me, but when -I came to in the web there was no pain. The pain started in the chart -room."</p> - -<p>I was thinking furiously. Stinger—ovipositor. A few species of -stinging terrestrial insects possessed organs which combined the -functions of both. Evidently the wasps had simply stung us at -first—to paralyze us. Now they were completing the gruesome process of -providing a feast for their avaricious progeny. One of the wasps had -taken Darnel from the web, and deposited a fertile, luminous egg in his -flesh.</p> - -<p>It was becoming hideously clear now. The wasp's retreat into the chart -room had been motivated by a desire to complete its loathsome task -in grim seclusion. It had withdrawn a short distance for the sake of -privacy, passing completely through the wall out of sight.</p> - -<p>My stomach felt tight and hollow when I contemplated the grub, which -had apparently hatched out almost instantly. It seemed probable that -Darnel's anguish was caused by the grub's luminosity searing his flesh, -as its mouth-parts were still immobile.</p> - -<p>"Darnel," I whispered. "The paralysis wore off. They couldn't sting us -into permanent insensibility. The pain may go too."</p> - -<p>He looked at me, his eyes filming. "I don't understand, sir. Paralysis?"</p> - -<p>I had forgotten that Daniel wasn't even aware of what we were -up against. He couldn't see the grub. He didn't know that we -were—caterpillars.</p> - -<p>He was in torment, and I was powerless to help him. I was glad he -didn't know, despite my certain knowledge that I was about to share his -fate. I whispered hoarsely: "Can you see Joan, lad. Is she—"</p> - -<p>"She's lying in the web next to you, sir. Dawson and Stillmen have been -out."</p> - -<p>"<i>Taken out.</i>"</p> - -<p>"There are two empty webs, sir. Oh, God, the pain—I can't stand it."</p> - -<p>The great wasp was moving now. It was moving slowly across the chamber -toward the quartz port, between its motionless companions. Its wings -were vibrating and it was raising Darnel up as though it were about to -hurl him out through the inches-thick quartz into the mist.</p> - -<p>Suddenly as I stared the utter strangeness of something that had -already occurred smote me with the force of a physical blow. The wasp -had carried Darnel <i>right through the wall</i>—from the pilot chamber to -the chart room, and back again.</p> - -<p>Apparently the great wasps could make us tenuous too! Close and -prolonged contact with the energies pouring from them had made Darnel's -body as permeable as gamma light. Horribly it was borne in on me that -Darnel's anguish was caused by a <i>pervasive</i> glow which enveloped him -from head to foot. It was fainter than the radiance which poured from -the wasps and was almost invisible in the fluorescent cube-light, but I -could see it now.</p> - -<p>The wasp didn't hurl Darnel out. It simply vanished with him through -the quartz port, its wings dwindling to a luminous blur which hovered -for an instant before the inches-thick crystal before it dwindled into -nothingness.</p> - -<p>The same instant a voice beside me moaned. "Richard, I can't move."</p> - -<p>"Joan," I gasped. "Oh, my dearest—"</p> - -<p>"Richard, I can't move. I'm in a sort of web, Richard. It's—it's like -a mist before my eyes."</p> - -<p>I knew then that Joan was trussed up on her side, gazing through her -web directly at me. I was glad that she couldn't see the wasps.</p> - -<p>"Joan."</p> - -<p>"Yes, Richard."</p> - -<p>"Did you just wake up?"</p> - -<p>"Wake up? You mean I've been dreaming, Richard. Those wasps—"</p> - -<p>"Darling, do you want it straight?"</p> - -<p>"You don't need to ask that, Richard."</p> - -<p>I told her then—everything I suspected, everything I <i>knew</i>. When I -stopped speaking, she was silent for ten full seconds. Then her voice -came to me vibrant with courage.</p> - -<p>"We can't live forever, Richard."</p> - -<p>"That's what I've been thinking, darling. And you've got to admit -we've had the best of everything."</p> - -<p>"Some people I know would call it living," she said.</p> - -<p>"Darling?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Richard."</p> - -<p>"I've a confession to make. I've liked being out in space with you. -I've liked the uncertainty, the danger—the desperate chances we both -took with our lives."</p> - -<p>"I'm glad, Richard."</p> - -<p>"I don't glow outwardly—you know that. You've had a lot to contend -with. I've reproached you, and tried to put a damper on your -enthusiasm, and—"</p> - -<p>"You've been a wonderful husband, Richard."</p> - -<p>"But as a lover—"</p> - -<p>"Richard, do you remember what you said to me when we were roaring -through the red skies above Io? You held my fingers so tightly I was -afraid you'd break them, and your kisses were as fiery as a girl could -ask for. And you said I reminded you of someone you'd always loved, and -that was why you'd married me.</p> - -<p>"And when I scowled and asked her name you said she had no name and had -never existed on Earth. But that I had her eyes and hair and thoughts, -and was just as slim, and that when I walked I reminded you of her, and -even when I just sat on the pilot dais staring out into space.</p> - -<p>"I knew then that you had always been in love with love, and that means -everything to a woman."</p> - -<p>"I didn't do so badly then?"</p> - -<p>"Richard, you've never done badly at any time. Do you think I could -love a man who was all flattery and blather?"</p> - -<p>"I've always loved you, Joan."</p> - -<p>"I know, Richard my darling."</p> - -<p>"If only it didn't have to end."</p> - -<p>"It will be over swiftly, dearest. They'll take us out into the mist -and into one of their nests, but we'll be beyond pain ten seconds after -the atmosphere enters our lungs. Darnel and Dawson are at peace now."</p> - -<p>"But we could have gone on, and—" I broke off in stunned bewilderment.</p> - -<p>The vibrating wings of the wasps beneath me seemed to be casting less -massive shadows on the walls of the pilot chamber. The wasps themselves -seemed to be—</p> - -<p>My heart gave a sudden, violent leap. For perhaps ten seconds utter -incredulity enveloped me. Unmistakably the wasps had grown smaller, -dimmer.</p> - -<p>Even as I stared they continued to dwindle, shedding their awesome -contours and becoming no larger than ourselves.</p> - -<p>"Good God!" I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>"Richard, what is it?"</p> - -<p>"The wasps, Joan. They're getting smaller!"</p> - -<p>"Richard, you're either stark, raving mad, or your vision is swimming -from the strain of watching them."</p> - -<p>"No, Joan. I'm quite sane, and my eyes are all right. I tell you, -they're shrinking."</p> - -<p>"Richard, how <i>could</i> they shrink?"</p> - -<p>"I—I don't know. Perhaps—wait a minute, Joan. <i>Eddington's -oscillations.</i>"</p> - -<p>"Eddington's <i>what</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Oscillations," I exclaimed, excitedly. "A century ago Eddington -pictured all matter throughout the universe as alternating between a -state of contraction and expansion. Oh, Joan, don't you see? These -creatures are composed not of solid matter, but of some form of -vibrating energy. They possess an oscillatory life cycle which makes -them contract and expand in small-scale duplication of the larger pulse -of our contracting and expanding universe. They become huge, then -small, then huge again. They may expand and contract a thousand times -before they die. Perhaps they—"</p> - -<p>A scream from Joan cut my explanation short. "Richard, the web's -slackening. I'm going to fall."</p> - -<p>Fifteen minutes later we were rocketing upward through Jupiter's -immense cloud blanket, locked in each other's arms.</p> - -<p>Joan was sobbing. "It's unbelievable, Richard. We were saved by—by a -miracle."</p> - -<p>"No, Joan—Eddington's oscillations. Although I'll admit it seemed like -a miracle when those tiny wasps became frightened by enormous <i>us</i> -descending upon them, and flew straight through the quartz port into -the mist."</p> - -<p>"What do you suppose made the web slacken?"</p> - -<p>"Well," I said. "That web was spun out of the bodies of those dwindling -wasps. It seems to have been a sort of energy web, since it shriveled -to a few charred fibers before we could pluck it from our tunics. -Apparently it was sustained by energies emanating from the wasps which -burned out the instant the wasps dwindled."</p> - -<p>"Richard, hold me close. I thought we would never see Earth again."</p> - -<p>"I'm not sure that we will," I warned her. "We've lost our crew and we -can't even set our course by the stars. Perhaps the direction gauges -will function again when the atomotors carry us beyond Jupiter's orbit, -but I wouldn't bank on it."</p> - -<p>"Oh, Richard, how could you? You said you liked uncertainty, danger. -You said—"</p> - -<p>"Never mind what I said. I'm just being realistic, that's all. Do you -realize how heavily the cards are stacked against us?"</p> - -<p>"No, and I don't particularly care. Kiss me, Richard."</p> - -<p>Grumblingly I obeyed. It would have been better if we could have saved -our energies for the grim ordeal ahead of us, but it was impossible to -reason with Joan when she was in one of her reckless moods.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIBRATION WASPS ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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