The Venus Trap
By EVELYN E. SMITH
Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS
Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science FictionJune 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
One thing Man never counted on to take along into space withhim was the Eternal Triangle—especially a true-bluetriangle like this!
"What's the matter, darling?" James asked anxiously. "Don't you like theplanet?"
"Oh, I love the planet," Phyllis said. "It's beautiful."
It was. The blue—really blue—grass, blue-violet shrubbery and,loveliest of all, the great golden tree with sapphire leaves and palepink blossoms, instead of looking alien, resembled nothing so much as afairy-tale version of Earth.
Even the fragrance that filled the atmosphere was completely delightfulto Terrestrial nostrils—which was unusual, for most other planets, nomatter how well adapted for colonization otherwise, tended, from thehuman viewpoint, anyway, to stink. Not that they were not colonizednevertheless, for the population of Earth was expanding at too great arate to permit merely olfactory considerations to rule out an otherwisesuitable planet. This particular group of settlers had been lucky,indeed, to have drawn a planet as pleasing to the nose as to theeye—and, moreover, free from hostile aborigines.[Pg 79]
As a matter of fact, the only apparent evidence of animate life were thesmall, bright-hued creatures winging back and forth through the clearair, and which resembled Terrestrial birds so closely that there hadseemed no point to giving them any other name. There were insects, too,although not immediately perceptible—but the ones like bees were devoidof stings and the butterflies never had to pass through the grub stagebut were born in the fullness of their beauty.
However, fairest of all the creatures on the planet to James Haut—justthen, anyhow—was his wife, and the expression on her face was not alovely one.
"You do feel all right, don't you?" he asked. "The light gravity getssome people at first."
"Yes, I guess I'm all right. I'm still a little shaken, though, and youknow it's not the gravity."
He would have liked to take her in his arms and say somethingcomforting, reassuring, but the constraint between them had not yet beenworn off. Although he had sent her an ethergram nearly every day of thevoyage, the necessarily public nature of the messages had kept them fromachieving communication in the deeper sense of the word.
"Well, I suppose you did have a bit of a shock," he said lamely."Somehow, I thought I had told you in my 'grams."
"You told me plenty in the 'grams, but not quite enough, it seems."
Her words didn't seem to make sense; the strain had evidently been alittle too much. "Maybe you ought to go inside and lie down for awhile."
"I will, just as soon as I feel less wobbly." She brushed back the long,light brown hair which had got tumbled when she fainted. He remembered agolden rather than a reddish tinge in it, but that had been under theyellow sun of Earth; under the scarlet sun of this planet, it took on adif