The moon era
I remembered the powerful prism binoculars hanging on the wall beside
me. I seized them, focused them hurriedly. The weird jungle leaped
toward me in the lenses.
The things were doubtless balloons. Huge spheres of purple, very
bright in the sunlight. Anchored with long red cables. Some of them, I
estimated, were thirty feet in diameter. Some, much smaller. I could
make out no baskets. But there seemed to be small dark masses upon
their lower sides, to which the red ropes were attached.
I left them and surveyed the jungle again.
A mass of the yellow vegetation filled the lenses. A dense tangle of
slender yellow stems, armed with terrible rows of long, bayonet-like
thorns. A thick tangle of sharp yellow thorns, it seemed, with no more
stalk than was necessary to support them against the moon's feeble
pull. A wall of cruel spikes, impenetrable.
I found a patch of green. A mass of soft, feathery foliage. A sort of
creeper, it seemed, covering rocks, and other vegetation--though it
did not mingle with the yellow scrub. Enormous, brilliantly white,
bell-shaped blooms were open upon it here and there.
A flying thing darted across my vision. It looked like a gigantic moth,
frail wings dusted with silver.
Then I made out a little cluster of curious plants. Black, smooth,
upright stalks, devoid of leaf or branch. The tallest looked a foot in
diameter, a score in height. It was crowned with a gorgeous red bloom.
I noticed that no other vegetation grew near any of them. About each
was a little cleared circle. Had they been cultivated?
Hours went by as I stared out through the ports, at this fascinating
and bewildering moonscape.
Finally I recalled the pictures that my uncle had requested me to make.
For two or three hours I was busy with the cameras. I made exposures in
all directions, with ordinary and telescopic lenses. I photographed the
scene with color filters. And finally I made motion pictures, swinging
the camera to take a panoramic view.
It was almost sunset when I had done. It seemed strange that the day
was passing so swiftly, until I looked at the chronometer, found that
it was not keeping pace with the sun, and decided that the period of
rotation must be rather less than twenty-four hours. I later found it
to be about eighteen hours, divided into days and nights of very nearly
equal length.
* * * * *
Darkness came very swiftly after sunset, due to the comparatively small
size and quick rotation of the moon. The stars burst out splendidly
through the clear air, burning in constellations utterly strange.
A heavy dew was soon obscuring the ports. As I later discovered,
clouds almost never formed in this light atmosphere. Nearly the entire
precipitation was in the form of dew, which, however, was amazingly
abundant. The tiny droplets on the glass were soon running in streams.
After a few hours, a huge and glorious snow-white sphere rose in the
east. The earth. Wondrous in size and brilliance. The weird jungle was
visible in its silvery radiance almost as in daylight.
Suddenly I realized that I was tired, and very sleepy. The anxiety and
prolonged nervous strain of the landing had been exhausting. I threw
myself down upon the reclining chair, and fell into immediate oblivion.
The white sun was high when I woke. I found myself refreshed. Keenly
hungry. And conscious of a great need for physical exercise. Accustomed
to an active life, I had been shut up in that little round room for
seven days. I felt that I must move, breathe fresh air.
Could I leave the machine?
My uncle had told me that it would be impossible, because of lack of
atmosphere. But there was plainly air about me, on this young moon.
Would it be breathable?
I pondered the question. The moon, I knew, was formed of materials
thrown off the cooling earth. Then should its atmosphere not contain
the same elements as that of earth?
I decided to try it. Open the door slightly, and sniff experimentally.
Close it immediately if there seemed anything wrong.
I loosened the screws that held the heavy door, tried to pull it open.
It seemed fastened immovably. In vain I tugged at it, looked to see
if I had left a screw, or if something was amiss with the hinges. It
refused to budge.
For minutes I was baffled. The explanation came to me suddenly. The
pressure of the atmosphere outside was much less than that within the
machine. Since the door opened inward, it was the unbalanced pressure
upon it that held it.
I found the valve which was to be opened to free the chamber of any
dangerous excess of oxygen that might escape, and spun it open. The air
hissed out noisily.
I sat down in the chair to wait. At first I felt no symptoms of the
lessening pressure. Then I was conscious of a sensation of lightness,
of exhilaration. I noticed that I was breathing faster. My temples
throbbed. For a few minutes I felt a dull ache in my lungs.
But the sensations did not become unduly alarming, and I left the valve
open. The hissing sound gradually decreased, and finally died away
completely.
I rose and went to the door, feeling a painful shortness of the breath
as I moved. The heavy door came open quite easily now. I sniffed the
air outside. It bore a strange, heavy, unfamiliar fragrance which must
have been carried from the jungle in the valley. And I found it oddly
stimulating--it must have been richer in oxygen than the air in the
machine.
With the door flung wide, I breathed deeply of it.
At first I had thought merely of strolling up and down for a while, in
the moss outside the machine. But now I decided, quite suddenly, to
hike to the lower edge of the green-carpeted plateau, perhaps a mile
away, and look at the edge of the jungle.
I looked about for equipment that I should take, got together a few
items. A light camera, in case I should see something worth taking. The
binoculars. A vacuum bottle full of water, and a little food, so that I
should not have to hasten back to eat.
And finally I took down the automatic pistol on the wall, a .45 Colt.
It must have been included with the machine's equipment merely as a way
of merciful escape, in case some failure made life in the little round
compartment unendurable. There was only one box of ammunition. Fifty
cartridges. I loaded the weapon, and slipped the remainder into my
pocket.
Gathering up the other articles, I scrambled through the oval door, and
stood upon the rim of the lower copper disk, drawing the door to behind
me, and fastening it.
And stepped off, upon the moon.
The thick, fibrous moss yielded under my foot, surprisingly. I
stumbled, fell into its soft green pile. And in scrambling to my feet,
I forgot the lesser gravity of the moon, threw myself into the air,
tumbling once more into the yielding moss.
In a few minutes I had mastered the art of walking under the new
conditions, so that I could stride along with some confidence, going
clear of the ground at every step, as if I had worn seven league
boots. Once I essayed a leap. It carried me twenty feet into the
air, and twice as far forward. It seemed that I hung in the air an
unconscionable time, and floated down very slowly. But I was helpless,
aloft, sprawling about, unable to get my feet beneath me. I came down
on my shoulder, and must have been painfully bruised had it not been
for the thick moss.
I realized that my strength upon the moon was quite out of proportion
to my weight. I had muscles developed to handle a mass of 180 pounds.
Here my weight was only 30 pounds. It would be some time, I supposed,
before I could learn the exact force required to produce the result
desired. Actually, I found myself adapted to these new conditions in a
surprisingly short space of time.
* * * * *
For a time I was conscious of shortness of the breath, especially after
violent exertion. But soon I was accustomed to the lighter air as well
as the lesser gravitation.
In half an hour I had arrived at the edge of the red plateau. A steep
slope fell before me to the edge of the jungle, perhaps two-thirds
of a mile farther below. A slope carpeted with the thick fiber of the
green moss.
A weird scene. Clear cerulean sky, darkly, richly blue. Huge white
globe of the hot earth setting beyond the farther range of green
mountains. The wide valley, with the broad silvery stream, winding
among golden forests, and patches of green. The purple balloons
floating here and yon, huge spheres swaying on the red cables that
anchored them above the jungle.
I seated myself on the moss, where I could overlook that valley of
eldritch wonder. I remained there for some time, staring out across it,
while I ate most of the food that I had brought, and half-emptied the
bottle of water.
Then I decided to descend to the edge of the jungle.
The sun was just at the meridian--the whole of the short afternoon,
four hours and a half, was yet before me. I had ample time, I thought,
to go down the slope to the edge of the jungle and return before the
sudden nightfall.
I had no fear of getting lost. The glittering armor of the machine was
visible over the whole plateau. And the jagged, triple peak to the
northward of it was a landmark which should be visible over the whole
region. There should be no difficulty about return.
Nor, while I realized that the jungle might hide hostile life, did I
fear attack. I intended to be cautious, and not to penetrate beyond
the edge of the jungle. I had the automatic, which, I was sure, gave
me greater power of destruction than any other animal on the planet.
Finally in case of difficulty, I could rely upon the superior strength
of my muscles, which must be far stronger, in proportion to my weight,
than those of native creatures.
I found progress easy on the long, mossy incline. My skill at traveling
under lunar conditions of gravity was increasing with practice: I found
a way of moving by deliberate, measured leaps, each carrying me twenty
feet or more.
In a few minutes I found myself approaching the edge of the jungle.
But that was not so sharp a line as it had appeared from above. The
first vegetation other than the moss was scattered clumps of a plant
resembling the cactus of my native Southwest.
Thick, fleshy disks growing one upon another, edge to edge. They were
not green, however, but of a curious pink, flesh-like color. They bore
no thorns, but were studded with little black protuberances or knobs,
of doubtful function. The plants I first approached were small and
appeared stunted. The lower clumps seemed larger, and more thickly
spaced.
I paused to examine one. Walked around it curiously. Photographed
it from several angles. Then I ventured to touch it with my foot.
Several of the little black knobs broke--they proved to be thin-walled
vesicles, containing a black liquid. An overpowering and extremely
unpleasant odor assailed me, and I retreated hastily.
A hundred yards farther on, I came upon the green creepers. Thick
stems coiled like endless serpents over the ground, with innumerable
fronds rising from them, terminating in feathery sprays of green. Here
and there were huge white blooms, nearly six feet across, resembling
great bells of burnished silver. From them, evidently, came the heavy
perfume that I had noticed upon opening the door of the machine.
The creepers formed an unbroken mass of green, several feet deep.
It would have been impossible to penetrate it without crushing the
delicate foliage. I decided to go no farther in that direction. The
creeper might have such means of protection as the malodorous sacs
of the fleshy plants above. Or dangerous creatures, counterparts of
terrene snakes, might lie concealed beneath the dense foliage.