Venza shifted her silk-sheathed legs. "Don't talk in code!"
"Not normally visible," I repeated. "A world one-fifth as large as the Moon could be seen plainly by our 'scopes when well beyond Pluto. It's now between Jupiter and Mars, invisible to the naked eye, of course, but still it's not very far away. I've been out there myself. With instruments, we ought to be able to see its surface; see whether it has land and water, inhabitants perhaps. You should be able to distinguish an object on its surface as large as a city, but you can't."
"Why not?" asked Anita. "Are the clouds too thick? What causes it?"
"They don't even know that," I retorted. "There is something abnormal about the light-waves coming from it. Not exactly blurred, but a distortion, a fading. It's some abnormality of the light-waves."
A swift rapping on our door-grid interrupted me, and Snap Dean burst in.
"Hola-lo, everybody! Is it a conference? You look so solemn."
He dashed across the room, kissed Venza, pretended that he was about to kiss Anita, and winked at me. He was a dynamic little fellow, small, wiry, red-headed and freckle-faced, and had been the radio-helio operator of the ill-fated Planetara. He was a perfect match for Venza, for all the millions of miles that separated their native lands. Venza, too was small and slim, her manner as readily jocular as his.
"And where have you been?" Venza demanded.
"Me? My private life is my own, so far. We're not married yet, since you insist on us going to Grebhar for the ceremony."
"Do stop it," protested Anita. "We've been talking of...."