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    The Planet of Doubt
    The Planet of Doubt
    The Planet of Doubt
    Ebook44 pages39 minutes

    The Planet of Doubt

    By Stanley Weinbaum

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    HAMILTON HAMMOND started nervously as the voice of Cullen, the expedition's chemist, sounded from his station aft. "I see something!" he called. Ham bent over the floor port, staring into the eternal green-gray fog that blankets Uranus. He glanced hastily at the dial of the electric plumb; fifty- five feet, it said with an air of positiveness, but that was a lie, for it had registered that same figure for a hundred and sixty miles of creeping descent. The fog itself reflected the beam. The barometer showed 86.2 cm. That too was an unreliable guide, but better than the plumb, for the intrepid Young, four decades earlier in 2060, had noted an atmospheric pressure of 86 in his romantic dash from Titan to the cloudy planet's southern pole. But the Gaea was dropping now at the opposite pole, forty-five thousand miles from Young's landing, and no one knew what vast hollows or peaks might render his figures utterly useless...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJovian Press
    Release dateJan 2, 2017
    ISBN9781537814803
    The Planet of Doubt

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      Book preview

      The Planet of Doubt - Stanley Weinbaum

      THE PLANET OF DOUBT

      ..................

      Stanley Weinbaum

      JOVIAN PRESS

      Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review or connect with the author.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2016 by Stanley Weinbaum

      Interior design by Pronoun

      Distribution by Pronoun

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      The Planet of Doubt

      THE PLANET OF DOUBT

      ..................

      HAMILTON HAMMOND STARTED NERVOUSLY AS the voice of Cullen, the expedition’s chemist, sounded from his station aft. I see something! he called.

      Ham bent over the floor port, staring into the eternal green-gray fog that blankets Uranus. He glanced hastily at the dial of the electric plumb; fifty- five feet, it said with an air of positiveness, but that was a lie, for it had registered that same figure for a hundred and sixty miles of creeping descent. The fog itself reflected the beam.

      The barometer showed 86.2 cm. That too was an unreliable guide, but better than the plumb, for the intrepid Young, four decades earlier in 2060, had noted an atmospheric pressure of 86 in his romantic dash from Titan to the cloudy planet’s southern pole. But the Gaea was dropping now at the opposite pole, forty-five thousand miles from Young’s landing, and no one knew what vast hollows or peaks might render his figures utterly useless.

      I see nothing, Ham muttered.

      Nor I, said Patricia Hammond, his wife—or more officially, biologist of the Smithsonian’s Gaea expedition. Or—yes! Something moved! She peered closer. Up! Up! she screamed. Put up!

      Harbord was a good astrogator. He asked no questions, nor even took his glance from his controls. He simply slapped the throttle; the underjets roared in crescendo, and the upward thrust pressed all of them hard against the floor.

      Barely in time. A vast gray wave of water rushed smoothly below the port, so close that its crest was carved by the blast, and spray clouded the glass.

      Whew! whistled Ham. That was close. Too close. If we’d touched that it would have cracked our jets for sure. They’re white-hot.

      Ocean! said Patricia disgustedly. Young reported land.

      Yeah, forty-five thousand miles away. For all we know this sea is broader than the whole surface of the Earth.

      She considered this, frowning. Do you suppose, she asked, that this fog goes right down to the surface everywhere?

      Young says so.

      But on Venus the clouds form only at the junction of the upper winds and the underwind.

      Yes, but Venus is closer to the Sun. The heat here is evenly distributed, because the Sun accounts for practically none of it. Most of the surface heat seeps through from within, as it does on Saturn and Jupiter, only since Uranus is smaller, it’s also cooler. It’s cool enough to have a solid crust instead of being molten like the larger planets, but it’s considerably colder than the Venusian twilight zone.

      But, she objected, "Titan is as cold as a dozen Nova

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