Read The Red Planet for Free Online

due course Jet got the information he required and had it radioed back to Base.
    As to the cause of the strange, deep sleep that had so suddenly overtaken Whitaker, I was none the wiser, nor, apparently, was he. But, if I learned nothing else, after spending an hour or more in his company I could appreciate how difficult Frank Rogers had found him. There was some indefinable--well--’atmosphere’--surrounding Whitaker that made me uneasy just to be near him.
    When Whitaker was fit enough to take up his duties again and began moving around the cabin, Jet and Lemmy noticed his strangeness, too. Tension in the ship began to mount and then, less than twenty-four hours after Whitaker had joined us, something happened that drove all thoughts of his behaviour from our minds.
    A report came through from Freighter No 5. Every ship took its turn at radar watch and No 5 had just started its two-hour vigil when Grimshaw, one of its crew, made a startling discovery.
    “Unless I’ve gone crazy, sir,” The Canadian was saying excitedly, “there’s something pretty solid in front of us. And it lies right across our path.”
    “How strong are the signals?” Jet asked him.
    “Very faint, but they’re there, skipper.”
    “All right, Number Five,” said Jet. “Keep constant watch, will you? I’ll get the other ships to see if they can pick up anything.”
    A few minutes later we were getting signals on our own radar and as more reports came in it became obvious that the object which blocked our path, whatever it was, was colossal.
    ‘What do you may of it, Doc?” Jet asked me after the series of reports had been received.
    “I don’t know what to say,” I told him. “It could be a cloud of meteors or even tiny asteroids. How far are we from it now?”
    “Well, I estimate we’ll reach it in about twenty-one hours, if we stay on our present course.”
    “Then don’t you think we should notify Control and see what they have to say?”
    “Yes,” said Jet; “perhaps we should.”
    It was more than four hours (by which time Lemmy had retired to his bunk) before we received a reply to our urgent message, and then all Control could say was: “Unable to say with certainty what the object is. Possibility that it may be one of these things: meteor swarm, comet dust or a cloud of ionised gas. If either of the first two, suggest evasive action be taken as soon as practicable. If ionised gas, you can expect to pass through it safely with no adverse results other than a temporary upsetting of electronic equipment. Please keep us fully informed. End of message.”
    “Well,” said Jet, “with regard to the first two objects they’re much the same thing and equally as dangerous. But if it is ionised gas then we can take a chance and plunge straight through it.”
    “And how are we to tell which it is?” I reminded him.
    “I don’t think we will be able to, Doc, until we get fairly close to it--and by then it will be too late to get out of its way. We’ll see what Mitch thinks.”
    The Australian was sure that the swarm we were approaching was composed of meteors. “For safety’s sake, Jet, I think we should treat it as though it were and take evasive action,” he said.
    “That will mean changing course,” said Jet, “and once we start that we may never reach Mars.”
    ”If we’re battered to pieces by meteors we’ll never reach it either.”
    “WeII, wp’re not likely to meet the outer layers of that swarm for some hours yet,” Jet went on, “and that gives us plenty of time to get you back into the ship. If we decide change course, you’ll have to be here.”
    “And I shan’t be sorry,” said Mitch. “Being a member of a freighter crew can get darned dull.”
    “Very well,” said Jet. “I’ll call you later.” And with that he switched off the receiver and again turned to me. “Well, Doc,” he asked, “what is our estimated distance from it now?”
    “About half a million miles,” I told him.