Asteroid Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

just as it had prevented the bomb from exploding. Apparently there was no force field. Then why hadn't the bombs gone off? He gritted his teeth in a desperate effort to bring every focal ounce of his concentration to bear on the problem in hand. There had to be a reason for everything, he told himself. Cause and effect. The whole universe was cause and effect. If it wasn't, then nothing made sense. Today's effects were being caused by yesterday. Tomorrow's would be caused by today's. He lapsed into a long, thoughtful silence. The enigmatical crater, and the smoking gun in his hand prodded at his mind. Prodded at him like an electric ox goad moving a sluggish beast into motion. His brain was the sluggish beast. It didn't want to think. It didn't want to trouble. It wanted to lie down and relax. But he was going to make it think. His will was stronger than his intelligence. He had to find an answer, to come up with a solution. Everything had a solution if only a man looked for it long enough.
    He was convinced of that, too. If you think about a thing for long enough, you're bound to come up with an answer. He had faith in human intelligence. He believed that
homo sapiens
deserved the second part of his appellation…
    Man had risen by brain and courage to be leader of the brute creation. He had come from primeval slime by the sweat of his brow, by his nerve, by his brains and by his courage. If he was going to stay out of the primeval slime, he needed those things more than ever in the 23rd century. He wondered if the force field was situated at a distance from the asteroid. Maybe only a small distance, and once he was through it, it was no longer operational. Yet that didn't make sense, either. Because having passed through it, the bombs would become operational again as soon as they hit the planet's surface. They were not the type of bomb that exploded in the air. There would have to be a better reason. What if the force field was operated on some sort of time basis? If the nullifying power came into effect only when it was needed? He sat thinking that one over for a time, and then, still no nearer the solution, he went over the edge of the crater he had blasted into the rock and peered down.
    "Didn't know the guns were as effective as that," he muttered to himself. He kept on peering down. "By the stars, it's a hole!" It seemed to be about twelve feet deep. There wasn't much sign of a definite bottom even after that. It could have been much bigger…
    He cursed the red mist fogging his helmet. "Wonder what the devil it is." He realized he was talking to himself. "Got to stop it," he said out loud. "Got to stop it. This place is getting me. It's giving me the screaming heebies, and the Mongolian habdabs." He laughed at his own joke. "First man to land on asteroid dies of Mongolian habdabs. How's that for a TV headline?" He kept peering as intently as the red mist would permit. The more he gazed, the more perplexed he became. "But I didn't fire at that angle," he whispered half to himself. He retraced his steps, stood where he had stood before, and aimed an empty hand as though he still pointed a gun at the crater. Penetration angle should have been approximately thirty degrees to the surface, away from him. It did go in this direction a matter of about three feet, which was normal limitation for that kind of power charge. After that, it tailed off in another direction. The maximum twelve-foot depth appeared to be practically vertical. He regarded the crater more closely. The edge where the power charge had cut was smooth and shining where the rocks fused and ran together under the instantaneous heat of the gun's discharge. That was to be expected. But the twelve-foot shaft, with the murky, mysterious bottom, led off in another direction altogether, and its outline appeared to have been drilled or dug—it was not seared.
    Fantastic, he thought. If I wasn't functioning on about half brain power, I should have realized what I've