CHAPTER XVI
The period of Ganymede's revolution round its gigantic primary is sevendays, three hours, and forty-three minutes, practically a terrestrialweek, and on their return to their native world both the daringnavigators of Space described this as the most interesting anddelightful week in their lives, excepting always the period which theyspent in the Eden of the Morning Star. Yet in one sense, it was evenmore interesting.
There the inhabitants had never learnt to sin; here they had learnt thelesson that sin is mere foolishness, and that no really sensible orproperly educated man or woman thinks crime worth committing.
The life of the Crystal Cities, of which they visited four in differentparts of the satellite, using the _Astronef_ as their vehicle, was oneof peaceful industry and calm, innocent enjoyment. It was quite plainthat their first impressions of this aged world were correct. Outsidethe cities spread a universal desert on which life was impossible. Therewas hardly any moisture in the thin atmosphere. The rivers had dwindledinto rivulets and the seas into vast, shallow marshes. The heat receivedfrom the Sun was only about a twenty-fifth of that which falls on thesurface of the Earth, and this was drawn to the cities and collected andpreserved under their glass domes by a number of devices which displayedsuperhuman intelligence.
The dwindling supplies of water were hoarded in vast subterraneanreservoirs, and, by means of a perfect system of redistillation, thepriceless fluid was used over and over again both for human purposes andfor irrigating the land within the cities. Still the total quantity wassteadily diminishing, for it was not only evaporating from the surface,but, as the orb cooled more and more rapidly towards its centre, itdescended deeper and deeper below the surface, and could now only bereached by means of marvellously constructed borings and pumpingmachinery which extended several miles below the surface.
The fast-failing store of heat in the centre of the little world, whichhad now cooled through more than half its bulk, was utilised for warmingthe air of the cities, and to drive the machinery which propelled itthrough the streets and squares. All work was done by electric energydeveloped directly from this source, which also actuated the repulsiveengines which had prevented the _Astronef_ from descending.
In short, the inhabitants of Ganymede were engaged in a steady,ceaseless struggle to utilise the expiring natural forces of their worldto prolong their own lives and the exquisitely refined civilisation towhich they had attained to the latest possible date. They were, indeed,in exactly the same position in which the distant descendants of thehuman race may one day be expected to find themselves.
Their domestic life, as Zaidie and Redgrave saw it while they were theguests of their host, was the perfection of simplicity and comfort, andtheir public life was characterised by a quiet but intenseintellectuality which, as Zaidie had said, made them feel very much likechildren who had only just learnt to speak.
As they possessed magnificent telescopes, far surpassing any on Earth,their guests were able to survey, not only the Solar System, but theother systems far beyond its limits as no others of their kind had everbeen able to do before. They did not look through or into thetelescopes. The lens was turned upon the object, and this was thrown,enormously magnified, upon screens of what looked something like groundglass some fifty feet square. It was thus that they saw, not only thewhole visible surface of Jupiter as he revolved above them and theyabout him, but also their native Earth, sometimes a pale silver disc orcrescent close to the edge of the Sun, visible only in the morning andthe evening of Jupiter, and at other times like a little black spotcrossing the glowing surface.
But there was another development of the science of the Crystal Citieswhich interested them far more than this--for after all they could notonly see the Worlds of Space for themselves, but circumnavigate them ifthey chose.
During their stay they were shown on these same screens the pictorialhistory of the world whose guests they were. These pictures, which theyrecognised as an immeasurable development of what is called thecinematograph process on Earth, extended through the whole gamut of thesatellite's life. They formed, in fact, the means by which the childrenof Ganymede were taught the history of their world.
It was, of course, inevitable that the _Astronef_ should prove an objectof intense interest to their hosts. They had solved the problem of theResolution of Forces, as Professor Rennick had done, and, as they wereshown pictorially, a vessel had been made which embodied the principlesof attraction and repulsion. It had risen from the surface of Ganymede,and then, possibly because its engines could not develop sufficientrepulsive force, the tremendous pull of the giant planet had dragged itaway. It had vanished through the cloud-belts towards the flamingsurface beneath--and the experiment had never been repeated.
Here, however, was a vessel which had actually, as Redgrave hadconvinced his hosts by means of celestial maps and drawings of his own,left a planet close to the Sun, and safely crossed the tremendous gulfof six hundred and fifty million miles which separated Jupiter from thecentre of the system. Moreover, he had twice proved her powers by takinghis host and two of his newly-made friends, the chief astronomers ofGanymede, on a short trip across Space to Calisto and Europa, the secondsatellite of Jupiter, which, to their very grave interest, they foundhad already passed the stage in which Ganymede was, and had lapsed intothe icy silence of death.
It was these two journeys which led to the last adventure of the_Astronef_ in the Jovian System. Both Redgrave and Zaidie haddetermined, at whatever risk, to pass through the cloud-belts ofJupiter, and catch a glimpse, if only a glimpse, of a world in themaking. Their host and the two astronomers, after a certain amount ofquiet discussion, accepted their invitation to accompany them, and onthe morning of the eighth day after their landing on Ganymede, the_Astronef_ rose from the plain outside the Crystal City, and directedher course towards the centre of the vast disc of Jupiter.
She was followed by the telescopes of all the observatories until shevanished through the brilliant cloud-band, eighty-five thousand mileslong and some five thousand miles broad, which stretched from east towest of the planet. At the same moment the voyagers lost sight ofGanymede and his sister satellites.
The temperature of the interior of the _Astronef_ began to rise as soonas the upper cloud-belt was passed. Under this, spread out a vast fieldof brown-red cloud, rent here and there into holes and gaps like thosestorm-cavities in the atmosphere of the Sun, which are commonly known assun-spots. This lower stratum of cloud appeared to be the scene ofterrific storms, compared with which the fiercest earthly tempests weremere zephyrs.
After falling some five hundred miles further they found themselvessurrounded by what seemed an ocean of fire, but still the internaltemperature had only risen from seventy to ninety-five. The engines werewell under control. Only about a fourth of the total R. Force was beingdeveloped, and the _Astronef_ was dropping swiftly, but steadily.
Redgrave, who was in the conning-tower controlling the engines, beckonedto Zaidie and said:
"Shall we go on?"
"Yes," she said. "Now we've got as far as this I want to see whatJupiter is like, and where you are not afraid to go, I'll go."
"If I'm afraid at all it's only because you are with me, Zaidie," hereplied, "but I've only got a fourth of the power turned on yet, sothere's plenty of margin."
The _Astronef_, therefore, continued to sink through what seemed to be afathomless ocean of whirling, blazing clouds, and the internaltemperature went on rising slowly but steadily. Their guests, withoutshowing the slightest sign of any emotion, walked about the upper decknow, singly and now together, apparently absorbed by the strange sceneabout them.
At length, after they had been dropping for some five hours by_Astronef_ time, one of them, uttering a sharp exclamation, pointed toan enormous rift about fifty miles away. A dull, red glare was streamingup out of it. The next moment the brown cloud-floor beneath them seemedto split up into enormous wreaths of vapour, which whirled up on allsides of them, and a few
minutes later they caught their first glimpseof the true surface of Jupiter.
It lay, as nearly as they could judge, some two thousand miles beneaththem, a distance which the telescopes reduced to less than twenty; andthey saw for a few moments the world that was in the making. Throughfloating seas of misty steam they beheld what seemed to them to be vastcontinents shape themselves and melt away into oceans of flames. Wholemountain ranges of glowing lava were hurled up miles high to take shapefor an instant and then fall away again, leaving fathomless gulfs offiery mist in their place.
_Whole mountain ranges of glowing lava were hurled upmiles high._]
Then waves of molten matter rose up again out of the gulfs, tens ofmiles high and hundreds of miles long, surged forward, and met with aconcussion like that of millions of earthly thunder-clouds. Minute afterminute they remained writhing and struggling with each other, flingingup spurts of flaming matter far above their crests. Other waves followedthem, climbing up their bases as a sea-surge runs up the side of asmooth, slanting rock. Then from the midst of them a jet of living fireleapt up hundreds of miles into the lurid atmosphere above, and then,with a crash and a roar which shook the vast Jovian firmament, thebattling lava-waves would split apart and sink down into theall-surrounding fire-ocean, like two grappling giants who had strangledeach other in their final struggle.
"It's just Hell let loose!" said Murgatroyd to himself as he looked downupon the terrific scene through one of the port-holes of theengine-room; "and, with all respect to my lord and her ladyship, thosethat come this near almost deserve to stop in it."
Meanwhile, Redgrave and Zaidie and their three guests were so absorbedin the tremendous spectacle, that for a few moments no one noticed thatthey were dropping faster and faster towards the world which Murgatroyd,according to his lights, had not inaptly described. As for Zaidie, allher fears were for the time being lost in wonder, until she saw herhusband take a swift glance round upwards and downwards, and then go upinto the conning-tower. She followed him quickly, and said:
"What is the matter, Lenox, are we falling too quickly?"
"Much faster than we should," he replied, sending a signal to Murgatroydto increase the force by three-tenths.
The answering signal came back, but still the _Astronef_ continued tofall with terrific rapidity, and the awful landscape beneath them--alandscape of fire and chaos--broadened out and became more and moredistinct.
He sent two more signals down in quick succession. Three-fourths of thewhole repulsive power of the engines was now being exerted--a forcewhich would have been sufficient to hurl the _Astronef_ up from thesurface of the Earth like a feather in a whirlwind. Her downward coursebecame a little slower, but still she did not stop. Zaidie, white to thelips, looked down upon the hideous scene beneath and slipped her handthrough Redgrave's arm. He looked at her for an instant and then turnedhis head away with a jerk, and sent down the last signal.
The whole energy of the engines was now directing the maximum of the R.Force against the surface of Jupiter, but still, as every moment passedin a speechless agony of apprehension, it grew nearer and nearer. Thefire-waves mounted higher and higher, the roar of the fiery surges grewlouder and louder. Then in a momentary lull, he put his arm round her,drew her close up to him and kissed her and said:
"That's all we can do, dear. We've come too close and he's too strongfor us."
She returned his kiss and said quite steadily:
"Well, at any rate, I'm with you, and it won't last long, will it?"
"Not very long now, I'm afraid," he said between his clenched teeth. Andthen he pulled her close to him again, and together they looked downinto the storm-tossed hell towards which they were falling at the rateof nearly a hundred miles a minute.
Almost the next moment they felt a little jerk beneath their feet--ajerk upwards; and Redgrave shook himself out of the half stupor intowhich he was falling and said:
"Hullo, what's that? I believe we're stopping--yes, we are--and we'rebeginning to rise, too. Look, dear, the clouds are coming down uponus--fast too! I wonder what sort of miracle that is. Ay, what's thematter, little woman?"
Zaidie's head had dropped heavily on his shoulder. A glance showed himthat she had fainted. He could do nothing more in the conning-tower, sohe picked her up and carried her towards the companion-way, past histhree guests, who were standing in the middle of the upper deck round atable on which lay a large sheet of paper.
He took her below and laid her on her bed, and in a few minutes he hadbrought her to and told her that it was all right. Then he gave her adrink of brandy-and-water and went back to the upper deck. As he reachedthe top of the stairway one of the astronomers came towards him with asheet of paper in his hand, smiling gravely, and pointing to a sketchupon it.
He took the paper under one of the electric lights and looked at it. Thesketch was a plan of the Jovian System. There were some signs writtenalong one side, which he did not understand, but he divined that theywere calculations. Still, there was no mistaking the diagram. There wasa circle representing the huge bulk of Jupiter; there were four smallercircles at varying distances in a nearly straight line from it, andbetween the nearest of these and the planet was the figure of the_Astronef_, with an arrow pointing upwards.
"Ah, I see!" he said, forgetting for a moment that the other did notunderstand him, "that was the miracle! The four satellites came intoline with us just as the pull of Jupiter was getting too much for ourengines, and their combined pull just turned the scale. Well, thank Godfor that, sir, for in a few minutes more we should have been cinders!"
The astronomer smiled again as he took the paper back. Meanwhile the_Astronef_ was rushing upward like a meteor through the clouds. In tenminutes the limits of the Jovian atmosphere were passed. Stars and sunsand planets blazed out of the black vault of Space, and the great discof the World that Is to Be once more covered the floor of Space beneaththem--an ocean of cloud, covering continents of lava and seas of flame,the scene of the natal throes of a world which some day will be.
They passed Io and Europa, which changed from new to full moons as theysped by towards the Sun, and then the golden yellow crescent of Ganymedealso began to fill out to the half and full disc, and by the tenth hourof Earth-time, after they had risen from its surface, the _Astronef_ wasonce more lying beside the gate of the Crystal City.
At midnight on the second night after their return, the ringed shape ofSaturn, attended by his eight satellites, hung in the zenithmagnificently inviting. The _Astronef's_ engines had been replenishedafter the exhaustion of their struggle with the might of Jupiter. Theysaid farewell to their friends of the dying world. The doors of theair-chamber closed. The signal tinkled in the engine-room, and a fewmoments later a blurr of white lights on the brown background of thesurrounding desert was all they could see of the Crystal City underwhose domes they had seen and learnt so much.