There was a jolt which nearly snapped the strong bands of webbing which strapped the two men into their control seats. Followed then that horrible, oppressive feeling of excessive weight, which told the experienced space-pilots that their velocity was being decelerated rapidly—far more rapidly than any sensible pilot would dare to retard his flight by means of braking rockets.
Like a swimmer trying to fight his way out of the clutches of a dangerous riptide, LeDoux strove to steer the Goddard diagonally across the powerful current of quivering, menacing energy, but his attempts to maneuver the rocket-ship out of the beam's perilous influence were fruitless.
With inexorable power, the beam seemed to be sucking the space-ship toward the surface of the satellite, while at the same time it was retarding the Goddard's terrific speed.
Closer and closer loomed the enormous globe of Callisto, until it blotted out everything else. Finally, with an almost imperceptible jar, the rocket-ship pancaked into a nest of grotesque vegetation which clothed the perilous satellite.
Verger, who had closed his eyes to guard himself against blindness, opened them just in time to see a preposterous object thrust itself out of an enormous hole only a few feet away, and wrap itself about the space-ship. It was not a snake, nor was it exactly similar to the tentacle of a large cephalopodous animal. There was something about its creepy, slithering movements which suggested the pseudopodia of an amoebean organism, if one could stretch one's imagination sufficiently to conceive of an amoeba of such cosmic size.
Tearing his fascinated gaze away from this horrible object, which seemed to be holding the space-ship imprisoned in its ominous embrace, Verger unbuckled the straps of his control seat and hurried back to the women's quarters. Fortunately, all the girls had been zipped snugly in their spring-braced hammocks at the moment when the beam had struck the space-ship. Although they were all somewhat shaken and badly frightened, none of them was seriously injured.
CHAPTER III
Music on Ganymede