The Lost Planet by Angus MacVicar

Author:Angus MacVicar [MacVicar, Angus]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Venture Press
Published: 2015-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11 - The Peace of Hesikos

SLOWLY SPIKE got to his feet and, like the rest of us, began to unfasten his safety-belt. I remember thinking: “We’re alive — that’s the important thing. We’re alive, and the first people to have landed on another planet. Outside the ship there’s a world no human being has ever seen before.”

But Madge broke the spell. “Cor, lumme,” she exclaimed, unexpectedly, “I feel as if I’d jumped down from St. Paul’s!”

We all laughed — even Uncle Lachlan.

Spike crossed to the switch operating the main hatch. For a moment he paused. Then he put his hand up and pulled down the lever, and with a slow rumble the hatch rolled back.

A glare struck our eyes, and the yellow light from the electric bulbs became dim in comparison. But the effect of unbearable brightness lasted only for a moment. Almost at once we crowded to the open hatchway and looked out, the terrors of the crash and the damage to our motor temporarily forgotten.

The picture took my breath away. There below us, under a pale silvery sky, was the countryside of Hesikos — a strange countryside, pale green and uncultivated, and dotted here and there with tufts of what looked like a white flower. Above a line of pointed hills swung the red disc of the sun, appearing slightly smaller than on Earth. In some ways the landscape, though beautiful, looked natural enough. But there was something odd about it, too — something I just couldn’t take in all at once. It had to do with the shape of things, with the pale pastel colours and the closeness of the horizon.

Janet was holding my arm, tightly. “There’s not a living thing to be seen,” she said.

“Except the plants and the grass,” I returned, pedantically.

Behind me Uncle Lachlan switched off the lights and said: “I don’t think it’s grass — as we know it. A species of moss, I imagine.”

But I knew — and Uncle Lachlan knew — that what Janet had actually meant was that Hesikos appeared to be uninhabited by living creatures like ourselves. Signs of cultivation were entirely absent. There were no roads or buildings — just a plain, untouched countryside rolling away to the pointed hills. Nor was there any evidence of the existence of beasts or birds. We got the impression that this locality at any rate had lain peaceful and deserted for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.

Soon, however, we got over our initial and illogical feeling of disappointment. There was a wonderful scent. We all remarked on it — a scent that was neither sweet nor cloying but unexpectedly satisfying, like the perfume of a rose in October. The warm air was clear and fresh, and details of the landscape stood out with such crystal clarity that we might have been looking at them through the magnifying lens of some expensive camera. Professor Bergman said that it reminded him of a summer day in Northern Sweden.

“At the same time, the atmosphere is a good deal more rarefied than on Earth,” remarked Uncle Lachlan.

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