that until the rocket brakes have been turned on."
"Of course, Chief," was Mayer's grateful response. "Thanks for your permission. I believe I can see enough in the teleview either to confirm or to disprove my premonitions." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "I hope it will be the latter."
LIKE all modern spaceships, the Hyperion was equipped with a high powered teleview which not only magnified but also amplified the images of distant objects in much the same way that an old-fashioned radio set amplifies sound.
Keeping his eyes fixed on a crystal sphere about a foot in diameter, which bulged out from the complicated instrument board, Mayer adjusted two purple-colored dials. Presently the transparent globe seemed to become alive with swirling lights and shadows. Out of the flickering confusion a remarkably life-like, three dimensional image in natural colors soon materialized.
A few seconds of careful scanning focussed the teleview on a clearing which nudged into the dense forest surrounding Lake Tolako. The image had hardly become distinct when Mayer uttered an exclamation which made both his space shipmates jump.
"What's the matter, Dan?" Sullivan gasped as he tumbled out of his hammock and, pulling himself hand over hand along the side rail, hurried to Mayer's side.
Captain Brink was a split-instant ahead of him.
"Something wrong?" he asked anxiously.
Mayer simply pointed at the objective of the teleview. That really wasn't necessary, for both the others were already staring at the crystal sphere, their eyes protuberant with horror.
In the spot where there should have been a picturesque village with happy men, women and children, working and playing among neat rows of hexagonal houses, the teleview revealed nothing but a desolation of smoldering embers, with which were jumbled hundreds of grotesquely sprawling bodies. Not a hut remained standing. Not a moving creature could be discerned.
Lieutenant Sullivan uttered a low oath in a tone which made it sound like a reverent prayer.
Ensign Mayer was silent, but the look of anguish, which distorted his handsome features, betrayed his feeling far more vividiy than any words could have done.
Captain Brink was the only one of the trio who retained his normal composure. Speaking softly and gently, he said: "Excuse me, Dan. Better let me take the controls. You crawl into the hammock until you get a grip on yourself." Then to Sullivan he yelled: "Hi, Jimmy! You man the rocket brakes. We're going to set her down!"
So terrific was the speed of the spaceship that it took several minutes for the powerful rockets to decelerate the velocity sufficiently to make a safe landing possible. Meanwhile Captain Brink maneuvered the craft in a wide spiral. Finally he turned on the gravinul which nullified the gravitational attraction of the satellite just enough to enable him to set the huge flyer down as gently as a leaf falling on the bosom of the lake.
Leaving to Lieutenant Sullivan the task of guarding the spaceship, Brink quietly requested Mayer to accompany him in his inspection of the stricken village.
