Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

MISSION OF GRAVITY followed them down their sides grew steeper until they attained a perpendicular junction with the channel floors. A few of these little walls extended almost to the center of the valley, but they cut off with startling abruptness before actually reach- ing it. They did not all point toward the same spot; there were gentle curves in their courses that gave them the appear- ance of the flanges of a centrifugal pump rather than the spokes of a wheel. Their tops were too narrow for a man to walk on; even one of Barlennan’s people would have had difficulty in maintaining footing on what looked from this distance almost like a sharp edge, from which the sides sloped away at better than a forty-five degree angle and grew even steeper as they descended until they merged with the perpendicular lower walls. Lackland judged that channels and separating walls alike were some fifteen or twenty feet wide where they broke off. The walls themselves, therefore, were quite thick enough to be lived in, especially for Mesklinites; and the exis- tence of numerous openings scattered over their lower surfaces lent strength to the idea that they actually were dwellings. The glasses showed that those openings not directly at the bottom of the walls had ramps leading up to them; and be- fore he saw a single living thing, Lack- land was sure he was examining a city. Apparently the inhabitants lived in the separating walls, and had developed the entire structure in order to dispose of rain. Why they did not live on the outer slopes of the hills, was a question that did not occur to him. He had reached this point in his thoughts when Barlennan asked him to pull the Bree over the brow of the hill before the sun made good seeing impos- sible. The moment the tank began to move, a score of dark figures appeared in the openings that he had suspected were doorways; no details were visible at that distance, but the objects, whatever they were, were living creatures. Lack- land heroically refrained from stopping the tank and snatching up the glasses once more until he had pulled the Bree into a good viewing position. As it turned out, there was no need 19 for him to have hurried. The things re- mained motionless, apparently watching the newcomers, while the towing maneu- ver was completed; he was able to spend the remaining minutes before sunset in a careful examination of the beings. Even with the glasses some details were indis- tinguishable—for one reason, they seemed not to have emerged entirely from their dwellings; but what could be seen sug- gested strongly that they belonged to the same race as Barlennan’s people. The. bodies were long and caterpillarlike; several eyes—they were hard to count at that distance—were on the foremost body segment, and limbs very similar to, if not identical with, Barlennan’s pincer-equip- ped arms were in evidence, though once again it was difficult to tell just how many were possessed by each individual. The coloration was.a mixture of red and black, as in the Bree’s complement. Barlennan could not see all this, but Lackland relayed the description to- him tensely until the city below faded from sight in the dusk. When he stopped talk- ing the captain issued a_boiled-down version in his own language to the tensely waiting crew. When that was done: “Have you ever heard of people living this close to the Rim, Barl? Would they be at all likely to be known to you, or even speak the same language?” “IT doubt it very much. My people become very uncomfortable, as you know, north of what you once called the ‘hundred-G line.” I know several lan- guages, but I can’t see any likelihood of finding one of them spoken here.” “Then what shall we do? Sneak around this town, or go through it on the chance its people are not belligerent? [’d like to see it more closely, I admit, but we have an important job to do and I don’t want to risk its chances of success. You at least know your race better. How do you think they’ll react to us?” “There’s no one rule, there. They may be frightened out of their wits at your tank, or my riding on it—though they might not have normal instincts about height, here at the Rim. We’ve met lots of strange people in our wanderings, and sometimes we’ve been able to trade and sometimes we’ve had to fight. In general, EGomichoo Sal)