A Fall of Moondust Read Online Free PDF Page B

and flashed her a reassuring smile.
    “We seem to be in one piece,” he began in an easy, conversational style. “We’ve had
     a slight accident, as you’ll gather, but things could be worse.” (How? a part of his
     mind asked him. Well, the hull could have been fractured…. So you want to prolong
     the agony? He shut off the interior monologue by an effort of will.) “We’ve been caught
     in a landslip—a Moonquake, if you like. There’s certainly no need to be alarmed; even
     if we can’t get out under our own power, Port Roris will soon have someone here. Meanwhile,
     I know that Miss Wilkins was just going to serve refreshments, so I suggest you all
     relax while I—ah—do whatever proves necessary.”
    That seemed to have gone over quite well. With a silent sigh of relief, he turned
     back to the controls. As he did so, he noticed one of the passengers light a cigarette.
    It was an automatic reaction, and one that he felt very much like sharing. He said
     nothing; that would have destroyed the atmosphere his little speech had created. But
     he caught the man’s eye just long enough for the message to go home; the cigarette
     had been stubbed out before he resumed his seat.
    As he switched on the radio, Pat heard the babble of conversation start up behind
     him. When a group of people was talking together, you could gather their mood even
     if you could not hear the individual words. He could detect annoyance, excitement,
     even amusement—but as yet, very little fear. Probably those who were speaking did
     not realise the full danger of the situation; the ones who did were silent.
    And so was the ether. He searched the wave-bands from end to end, and found only a
     faint crackle from the electrified dust that had buried them. It was just as he had
     expected; this deadly stuff, with its high metallic content, was an almost perfect
     shield. It would pass neither radio waves nor sound; when he tried to transmit, he
     would be like a man shouting from the bottom of a well that was packed with feathers.
    He switched the beacon to the high-powered emergency setting, so that it automatically
     broadcast a distress signal on the MOONCRASH band. If anything got through, this would; there was no point in trying to call Port
     Roris himself, and his fruitless efforts would merely upset the passengers. He left
     the receiver operating on
Selene
’s assigned frequency, in case of any reply; but he knew that it was useless. No one
     could hear them; no one could speak to them. As far as they were concerned, the rest
     of the human race might not exist.
    He did not brood over this set-back for very long; he had expected it, and there was
     too much else to do. With the utmost care, he checked all the instruments and gauges.
     Everything appeared to be perfectly normal, except that the temperature was just a
     shade high. That also was to be expected, now that the dust blanket was shielding
     them from the cold of space.
    His greatest worry concerned the thickness of that blanket, and the pressure it was
     exerting on the boat. There must be thousands of tons of the stuff above
Selene
—and her hull had been designed to withstand pressure from within, not from without.
     If she went deep, she might be cracked like an eggshell.
    How deep the cruiser was, he had no idea. When he had caught his last glimpse of the
     stars, she was about ten metres below the surface, and she might have been carried
     down much further by the suction of the dust. It would be advisable—even though it
     would increase their oxygen consumption—to put up the internal pressure and thus take
     some of the strain off the hull.
    Very slowly, so that there would be no tell-tale popping of ears to alarm anyone,
     he boosted the cabin pressure by twenty per cent. When he had finished, he felt a
     little happier. He was not the only one, for as soon as the pressure gauge had stabilised
     at its new level a quiet voice said over his shoulders: “I