Tarrano the Conqueror

  CHAPTER XVI

  _Playground of Venus_

  After a trip uneventful--save that to me, taking it for the first time,it was an experience never to be forgotten in a lifetime--we landed atthe Great City of Venus. We had sent no messages during the trip, andwith our grey-blue color, I think we escaped telescopic and even radioobservation by the Earth. Into our vessel's small instrument room, whereTarrano spent most of his time, reports of the news occasionally driftedin. But his connection--small and inadequate--was often broken. Nor didTarrano this time seem interested in having Wolfgar, Elza and me learnthe news. Yet it was not unfavorable to him. I gathered that the Earthformally had accepted his declaration of war. Relations with Venus--andwith Mars also, had been discontinued. The mails no longer left. Thehelios were stopped. But, so far as I could learn, the Earth wasundertaking no offensive action. For the present, certainly.

  Soon we were beyond reach of all messages save helios, which were not inoperation. And in another day news began reaching us from Venus. Butfrom this Tarrano barred us.

  I saw Venus, as we dropped upon it, first as a tremendous lovelycrescent of silver beneath us. A crescent first, and, as hours passed,the darkened area took shape. A ball hanging there in space. Growingalmost momentarily larger. Soon we could distinguish cloud areas. Thenthe land--the water. A ball filling half our lower segment of sky. Thenall of it.

  We reached the Venus atmosphere, passed through cloud masses, and outagain into the brilliant sunshine. Below us, glowing with the glory ofmid-day, lay the Venus Central State. Rolling hills with distantmountain peaks, the highest of them far-away, glittering white with thesunlight on their snow-caps.

  A land of warmth and beauty. Dazzling green, with a luxuriantvegetation, tropical yet strange.

  As we dropped lower, I sat alone, gazing downward. We were passing overthe land now, at an altitude of no more than twenty thousand feet. Avivid land. Vivid sunlight; inky shadows; a green to everything--asolid, brilliant green. Amid it, spots of other colors; splashes ofyellow; patches of scarlet as though some huge field were massed withscarlet blossoms. And trailing silver threads--rivers and streams. Oragain glittering silver lakes nestling in the hills.

  A fairyland of beauty. Yet as I gazed, it seemed not the fairyland of achild. Not childish, but mature; for I could not miss in its aspect, awarmth, a quality of sensuousness. A land of dalliance and pleasure ofthe senses. And I realized then why the Venus people derived all theiradvancement of science and industry from Earthly and Martian sources. Ahand of luxury and physical ease. People, not primitive--but decadent.

  I became aware of Wolfgar at my elbow. "It is very beautiful, eh, JacHallen?"

  "Beautiful--yes. You've been here before, Wolfgar?"

  He nodded. "Oh yes. Soon we will reach the Great City. That too isstrange and beautiful."

  Elza saw us together and joined us. The Great City presently came intodistant view. Wolfgar, with that gentle voice and smile characteristicof him began to describe to us what we should see. Abruptly Elza said:

  "I have never really thanked you, Wolfgar. You saved my life--there whenTara attacked me."

  He gestured. "Your thanks are more than such a service deserves."

  As though the subject had suggested Georg and Maida to him, he added,"I am wondering where Georg Brende and the Princess Maida may be."

  I fancied then that I saw a quality of wistfulness in his eyes. A gentlelittle fellow, this Mars man. Queer and brooding, with strange thoughtsnot to be fathomed. He added as though to himself: "I have oftenwondered--" Then stopped.

  Elza and I had discussed it. We felt sure that Georg and Maida had beentaken to Venus. They could have had only a few hours' start ofourselves. Yet this vessel we were in was unusually slow. We feltconvinced that they had already arrived on Venus--had been there perhapsalready for a day.

  We discussed it now with Wolfgar as the Great City came under us; butsoon we fell silent, gazing down into this beautiful capital of theCentral State.

  It lay in a broad hollow, a large, irregular circular bowl surrounded bygently sloping hillsides. The bowl was entirely filled by water--a broadflat lake of silver which from this height showed us its pearly bottom.On the water--seen from above--the houses seemed floating--clusters oflily pads on a placid shining pool. They were, in reality, flat cubicalbuildings solidly built of rectangular blocks of stone, standing justabove the water level on solid stone foundations. Always green andwhite--stones like blocks of smooth, polished marble, set in green andwhite patterns. Balconies and cornices of what might have been gleaming,beaten copper. Flat roofs, edged with scarlet flowers.

  Some of the buildings were low and small. Others of several stories,pretentious and ornate. One very large, like a palace, standing alone onits verdant island.

  The houses were mostly gathered in clusters of various shapes and sizes.Yet a semblance of order prevailed. Winding streets of open water laybetween the groups. There were trellised walks and arching spiderbridges, sometimes over the streets, sometimes joining one house toanother.

  Here and there I saw lagoons of open water, dotted with small greenislands like parks--islands on which the vegetation grew far higher andmore luxuriant than any even in the tropics of our Earth. Vegetationalways under careful training and control. Profuse with flowers, vividand gigantic. The houses too, were roofed with gardens--sometimeswith pergolas and trellises of the aerial scarlet blossoms.Occasionally--these latter details I observed as we descended close uponthe city--I saw houses with a tiny swimming pool on the roof--a privatepool hidden in masses of colored flowers.

  A playground--the playground of Venus. It seemed verybackward--uncivilized. And then Wolfgar pointed out the surroundinghillsides. On them, cleared of their vegetation, our modern civilizationstood gaunt and efficient. Towers, aerials, landing stages, aerialtrams, factories, tall stacks over the dynamo houses belching thickblack smoke, which artificial wind-generators carefully blew away fromthe city.

  In the midst of their hillside ring of necessary modernity, the peopleof the Great City had kept their playground inviolate. Work, science,industry--all necessary. But the real business of life was pleasure.Art, music, beauty.... And I am not far from thinking that unlessabused, their formula is better than ours.