A Fall of Moondust Read Online Free PDF

radio traffic,
     for the whole Earthward-facing side of the Moon lay spread beneath it.
    The hundred-centimetre telescope had been designed to look at objects billions of
     times further away than the Moon, but it was admirably suited for this job. From so
     close at hand, even with the low power, the view was superb. Tom seemed to be hanging
     in space immediately above the Sea of Rains, looking down upon the jagged peaks of
     the Appenines as they glittered in the morning light. Though he had only a sketchy
     knowledge of the Moon’s geography, he could recognise at a glance the great craters
     of Archimedes and Plato, Aristillus and Eudoxus, the dark scar of the Alpine Valley,
     and the solitary pyramid of Pico, casting its long shadow across the plain.
    But the daylight region did not concern him; what he sought lay in the darkened crescent
     where the sun had not yet risen. In some ways, that might make his task simpler. A
     signal lamp—even a hand-torch—would be easily visible down there in the night. He
     checked the map co-ordinates, and punched the control buttons. The burning mountains
     drifted out of his field of view, and only blackness remained, as he stared into the
     lunar night that had just swallowed more than twenty men and women.
    At first he could see nothing—certainly no winking signal light, flashing its appeal
     to the stars. Then, as his eyes grew more sensitive, he could see that this land was
     not wholly dark. It was glimmering with a ghostly phosphorescence as it lay bathed
     in the earthlight, and the longer he looked, the more details he could see.
    There were the mountains to the east of Rainbow Bay, waiting for the dawn that would
     strike them soon. And there—my God, what was that star shining in the darkness? His
     hopes soared, then swiftly crashed. That was only the lights of Port Roris, where
     even now men would be waiting anxiously for the results of his survey.
    Within a few minutes, he had convinced himself that a visual search was useless. There
     was not the slightest chance that he could see an object no bigger than a bus, down
     there in that faintly luminous landscape. In the daytime, it would have been different;
     he could have spotted
Selene
at once by the long shadow she cast across the Sea. But the human eye was not sensitive
     enough to make this search by the light of the waning Earth, from a height of fifty
     thousand kilometres.
    This did not worry Dr. Lawson. He had scarcely expected to see anything, on this first
     visual survey. It was a century and a half since astronomers had had to rely upon
     their eyesight; today, they had far more delicate weapons—a whole armoury of light-amplifiers
     and radiation-detectors. One of these, Tom Lawson was certain, would be able to find
Selene
.
    He would not have been so sure of this, had he known that she was no longer upon the
     surface of the Moon.

CHAPTER FOUR
    When
Selene
came to test, both crew and passenger were still too stricken by astonishment to
     utter a sound. Captain Harris was the first to recover, perhaps because he was the
     only one who had any idea of what had happened.
    It was a cave-in, of course; they were not rare, though none had ever been recorded
     in the Sea of Thirst. Deep down in the Moon, something had given way; possibly the
     infinitesimal weight of
Selene
had itself triggered the collapse. As Harris rose shakily to his feet, he wondered
     what line of talk he had better use to the passengers. He could hardly pretend that
     everything was under control and that they’d be on their way again in five minutes;
     on the other hand, panic was liable to set in if he revealed the true seriousness
     of the situation. Sooner or later he would have to, but until then it was essential
     to maintain confidence.
    He caught Miss Wilkins’ eye as she stood at the back of the cabin, behind the expectantly
     waiting passengers. She was very pale, but quite composed; he knew that he could rely
     on her,