Astounding Science Fiction, February 1952 (British Edition) — page 53: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PROMETHEUS provided a barren environment for artistic creation. Madeleine meditated a last effort in New York. Beyond that, she had no plans. In the few days remaining before the trip, Daniel and Madeleine rediscovered each other. Together they wandered through the deserted parts of New York and won- dered at departed magnificence. Together they looked out over the city from the Empire State tower, still serviced by a lone elevator for the tourist trade. And together ‘they sailed in the great harbor in a boat Daniel borrowed from Martin Brennan. Madeleine even sustained one triumph in New York, small but sweet, when Daniel arranged for a performance at Columbia. The auditorium was filled by friends of Daniel and Robin, ardent members of the Manhattan Clique, most of whom were in on the secret of the flight. In their exhila- tated state they found the performance highly acceptable. Of course Daniel told Madeleine about the Manhattan Project and communicated his enthusiasm to her. Secretly she was chilled by the knowledge that Daniel was to be one of the crew, but of this she was Wise enough to say nothing. Instead she laid plans to celebrate his return with a recital to be composed entirely of songs of aspiration and victory. Of the flight itself, Daniel’s memory was unclear. He remembered only the confu- sion and agony of the launching. The smail group of newspapermen and government officials, who had been gathered and in- formed at the eleventh hour, together with co-workers of the Manhattan Project watched the rocket break upward at an acceleration much greater than had been intended. Robin Wark and Charles Rem- ington escaped disabling injury, but Daniel spent the flight in a haze of torment with a crushed arm and a fractured thigh. Only his hysterical protests prevented the aban- donment of the flight. One moment in mid-passage he remem- bered clearly; it was during a lucid interval when his fever had temporarily abated and he looked through the port to see the stars in clear space. A sense of loneliness and terror swept through him. He shut his eyes, and with every fiber of his being, tried to imagine himself back in the warm safe Tree in which he had been born. An intuition came to him that time had run out om the race of man and whatever the result of the flight, the effort was doomed; | that a soul born and nurtured in the warm womb of a Tree needed more than a thin steel shell to shield it from cold space and the stars. Nevertheless, Venus was attained, With- out shedding its motor and gliding, the — rocket could safely penetrate only the thinnest fringes of the atmosphere, and nothing could be seen of the surface of the planet through the eternal clouds. So Robin sowed his seed blind over the invisible world. The bacterial cultures were simply sprayed out. Some seeds were dropped en- closed in little nutrient capsules which also contained nitrifying bacteria, hoping they would fall on dry land. Others, buoy- ant and designed to germinate at slight ion concentration, would float indefinitely until cast on shore and washed by rain. Diatoms and algae were permitted to fall in solidi- fied nutrient gelatin droplets. Provision was made for a later flora which could flourish only at a time when terrestrial conditions would ‘prevail, after the early species had done their work. These went down in finned time-bombs containing two explosive charges. The first blast would clear away accumulated overlying deposits, the second would fire the friable seed containers into the air. So Venus was fertilized and the rocket went home. Daniel remembered the approach to Earth, tail-foremost. He remembered the screaming glide after the motor was jet- tisoned and he remembered nothing more. The deceleration and the rough landing finished him off. He emerged into clarity weeks later in Columbia Infirmary to find Madeleine be- side him, pale and drawn. She had been in a purgatory all her own during the flight and afterwards, while Daniel lay in a coma. She helped nurse him through con- valescence. Robin was his first visitor. “Well, we did it Robby, in spite of every- thing!” Daniel was full of plans for im- provements and added controls which would have prevented the near-tragedy of the first launching, “Next time there'll be no slip-up!” Robin smiled crookedly. “What's the matter, were a success, aren’t we? Space is wide open now!” “Not exactly, Dan. There will be no next time.” | “J don’t understand. A little accident isn’t enough to stop us!” “That's not it.. Remember Brennan’s pre- diction? He was right. The government Oo Conniclooo ‘S (@)