Beulah

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The one-man scout car separated from Capricorn, the mother ship, like a wee thistle expelled by a gtiant pod. Smithson endured the brief G-stress of acceleration matter-of-factly, and when Capricorn was a planetoidal pinpoint of light behind him, he reached from his harness, punched the green button that turned the scout car over to CompNec system, and watched Beulah waltz closer in the visi-screen.

A soft whistle brushed Smitty’s teeth as Beulah flaunted her details. Such a lovely and fragile looking little planet! A swirl of pink, gold, and lavender. A crystal ball splashed with joyous colors by a happily uninhibited artist.

Like the raiment of the expensive prostitutes of Maumaut-One (Smitty had the second thought) where spacemen who violated off-limits regulations sometimes paid for a night’s indescribable pleasure with their sanity.

He heard the faint click as CompNec triggered the Faran detector for the first pass around planet Beulah. A tall, lean, blond offshoot of the rugged stock so carefully chosen to colonize Mars more than a century ago, Smitty stripped his mind of vagrant musings of Maumaut-One and Beulah’s enticing beauties. His objective was frightful in its Gordian-knot simplicity: locate the starcraft — Zenith — which had disappeared without forewarning or protest on Beulah’s bosom.

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