... It was only a muffled gun-shot, deep in the
rank, fetid jungles of Venus—a single bullet from
the gun of the gaunt, blazing-eyed man called
Heinie. But it plunged the crew of the VENUS I
into a Hell from which there was no return....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories January 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Captain James McBride didn't know exactly what to make of it at first.The first Earthmen ever to set foot on Venus, he and his crew had comearmed to the teeth, fully prepared to fight wild elephants, gianttigers, pre-historic monsters or anything an imaginative mind mightdream up.
When they found evidence of absolutely no danger at all they stoodaround with their heavy weapons and felt mighty foolish. The only signsof animal life were the small creatures that scampered right up to themen and chattered at them, unafraid, and birds more evident by soundthan by sight. There were no trails made by giant animals, no heavy,frightening sounds in the jungle about them. Only a misty, drowsingcalm.
The mist was always there, they were to find out later, steaming upfrom the wet ground by day and condensing in a blanket of life-givingwater by night. Otherwise, Venus resembled mildly tropical Earthwithout storm and tempest. The lack of these made one think of thunderand lightning as some unseen, unknown entity bound to Earth alone inchains of gravity.
The only really unpleasant note was the condition of the ship in whichthey had come. The underside was a mass of twisted steel and buckledplates, where it had come down considerably harder than it had everbeen intended to come down. It was something that could never take tospace again, even if the "H" tanks hadn't been torn loose to gush outtheir contents.
Communication with Earth was out. A transmitter small enough to fit theship and yet powerful enough to breach millions of miles of space, aswell as penetrate two atmospheres, just wasn't made. The expedition wason its own.
The orders were conditional. If possible, they were to set up anoutpost on Venus, as others had done several years before on Mars.Consisting mainly of scientists, the crew was to find out all it couldabout the new world. In one year the second ship would follow, bringingengineers and laborers. The scientists were to have, by that time, theinformation required to form the first colony quickly, wisely, andsafely.
If confronted with insurmountable obstacles, they were to return atonce to Earth with whatever information they might have as to thenature of the obstacles.
McBride grinned in spite of his regret over the loss of his ship andlooked at the wreckage. That sort of made the orders unconditional.
Things could have been worse, he thought. Not one of the ten men in theexpedition had been lost or even badly injured. And, Venus being theland of plenty that it had turned out to be, it was beginning to lookas if the stay here would be a pleasant one.
He was just starting to get some of his old spunk back when JeffFlaunders came up to him with a worried frown on his face.
Because of the limited space aboard the ship, Flaunders was acombination of several men, as were most of the others. Speciallytrained for the expedition, he handled anything that went under theheading of botany, biology or zoology.
Now he was looking worried.
"You look a lot like bad news," McBride said as Flaunders drew near."Might have known there'd be a catch to this world."
"More than a catch," Flaunders said. "I hope none of the men has eatenanything native to