I stood looking from the space ship into the dense fog banks which rolled about us. We were descending through the dense cloud blanket of Venus. How near we actually were to the ground I did not know. Nothing but an unbroken white haze spread mistily, everywhere I looked.
With jarring suddenness, a terrific shudder throbbed the length of the C-49, rattling the loose articles on the desk nearby. The dictatyper, with which I had lately been composing a letter, crashed violently to the floor. I reeled unsteadily to the door. It was nearly flung open in my face.
"Hantel!"
Captain Cragley steadied himself on the threshold of my room. The captain and I had become intimate friends during the trip from the earth. In his eyes I saw concern.
"What's wrong?" I queried.
"Don't know yet! Come—get out of there, man! We may have to use the emergency cylinder!"
I followed Cragley. The crew, numbering seven, were gathered in the observation chamber. Most of the passengers were there too.
The C-49 carried twelve passengers, all men, to the Deliphon settlement of Venus. In the earlier days of space travel, few women dared the trip across space.
Several of the crew worked feverishly at the controls above the instrument board.
"What's our altitude?" demanded Cragley.