With radio altimeter registering five hundred feet, Ken began a careful examination of the area. It was larger than he had guessed from a distance, and he found himself unable to decide on its nature. The planet had some queer minerals, of course; the brief look he had had of the specimens he had just brought in showed that. Directly below he could make out no details at all; but over near the edge of the area, the trees that rimmed it were reflected—
“Lee! Hold up!” The pilot obeyed without thought, stung by the urgency of his tone.
“What is it?” The eternal suspicion was lacking even from Drai’s, voice, this time.
“It’s a liquid — see how the reflection at the edge trembles in the air currents!”
“So what?”
“The only liquid I’ve encountered on this planet behaved an awful lot like that queer oxide we found on Four — the one that nearly froze my feet. I saw some before here, and dipped a handler in it; the stuff vaporized instantly, and it was minutes before I could put a tentacle in the sleeve again. I think its that heat-drinking stuff— hydrogen oxide.”
“Why didn’t you mention this before?” The suspicion was back in Drai’s tone.
“What chance have I had? Besides, I don’t care if you leave yourself a frozen memorial on this planet — it’s just that I’m with you at the moment. If you don’t want to believe me, at least put a torpedo down on it first. You must have plenty of those.”
Even Drai could find no fault with this suggestion, and he gestured to Feth. The mechanic, with a censorious glance at Ken, went to his control board and without comment launched another of the projectiles. The one Ken had used was available, but it was the only one fitted with manual control, and he did not want to waste it. He was already convinced of the correctness of Ken’s hypothesis.
The slim projectile appeared outside the control room port, and drifted gently down to the surface of the lake. It was still hot, having been stowed inside the ship; and contact with the liquid surface was heralded by a burst of steam. Feth hastily lifted it a short distance, and waited for it to cool somewhat.