Einstein's planetoid

An Engrossing Tale of An Incredible World
by PAUL DENNIS LAVOND
(Author of “Something from Beyond,” “A Prince of Pluto,” etc.)
Paul Dennis Lavond is a pseudonym known to be used by three different authors: C. M. Kornbluth, Robert A. W. Lowndes, and Frederick Pohl.
They were the heirs of space-flight: They planned to be the first humans to land on Alpha Centauri, but the original Hartnett expedition had been lost and they had to find it first. They followed the signals and found that they led to what looked like a one-way excursion to the screwiest planetoid in the galaxy!
Nick Hartnett stepped off the upper lip of the thousand-foot shaft and floated gently downwards. When he had fallen about half the distance, he reached out for a stanchion, grasped it easily and pulled himself gracefully into the lounge-room of the Columbia.
What he saw there was precisely what he expected to see. There was Dorothy Gilbert, curled in a spring-hammock, reading a book. Nick was looking over’ her shoulder before she knew he had entered.
“Bodie’s ‘Parecliptic Orbits,’ ” he read aloud. “Dorothy, don’t you ever think of anything but your job?”
She looked up, smiling, brushing aside a lock of tousled hair that sought her eye. “Often, Nick. But where would we be if I didn’t check my courses against those plotted by a competent authority?”
“Just about where we’ll be if you do,” he guessed, tugging at his ear with long, knobby fingers. “You’re my idea of a competent authority yourself.”
“Thanks, Nick. How are the contracels holding out?”
“Wonderfully!” he grinned. “It seems as if my father did a fair job of inventing there—though maybe not quite good enough.” He knelt and touched a button inset in the floor; instantly the metallic luster of it dulled and clouded, then the clouds seemed to vanish as the floor became transparent. In an instant it appeared to have vanished entirely, revealing an immense sweep of blackness interspersed with white-hot, tiny specks of light that were stars and planets.