But before long he settled down to the serious business of observing and mentally recording everything in sight.
There were none of the mysterious ‘canals’ in view, which was disappointing; one piece of glamour the publicity boys would necessarily forego until the next trip. The ice cap itself, if such it could be called, was almost equally disappointing. On Earth it would have been dismissed as a mere frost patch, if this section was typical. For a radius of many yards the ground was blasted bare by the action of the exhaust and nowhere in sight did there appear to be more than the flimsiest covering of white over the brown sandy soil.
“Not even lichens,” muttered Brown in disgust.
But disgust cannot long stand [93] ]against the magic of a fresh new planet and Brown continued his avid, though barren, search until hunger forced his return to the ship. He had been able to detect no life and was completely unaware of his close proximity to the planet’s dominant species. It had been considered neither practical nor particularly desirable to build a microscope into the space suit. Simplicity and the least possible weight had been the watchwords here as with everything designed to go aboard the ship.
In any case, a microscope would have done Brown little good in trying to detect the submicroscopic beings of the Rell.
The Rell, who had somewhat lost their fear of Brown, hastily retreated when they saw him returning to the still awesome ship.
“But are you sure he’s completely self-powered?” the speculative bank queried. “No Rell inside him at all?”
“There are many Rell-like beings in various parts of him
,” replied the interpretive bank. “Some help digest his food, others are predators, and still others their enemies. But most are too big and clumsy to have developed intelligence, and even the small ones appear completely mindless.”
“But where do the thought waves come from? We all felt them.”