Page 11 (1/2)

More of the prohtened The corona did not vanish (there was no atlows), but it seemed less important now The stars were still out and would stay out, Lucky knew, even when Mercury&039;s sun was full in the sky, but who could pay attention to theerly in the steady stride which he couldunduly tired Under the circumstances, he felt he could have ravity

And then, with no warning, no prelow in the sky, no hint from any atmosphere, there was the Sun!

Rather, there was a hairline that was the Sun It was an unbearable line of light edging a notch of broken rock on the horizon, as though soray stone in brilliant white

Lucky looked backward Across the uneven ground that lay behind him there were the splotches of prominence-red But now, just at his feet, there was a wash of white, catching crystal forhts

He ht becaer one

The boundary of the Sun was clearly visible, lifting a bit above the horizon in its center, curving gently down on each side The curve esomely flat to one whose eyes were accustomed to the curvature of Earth&039;s Sun

Nor did the Sun&039;s blaze drown out the pro red snake-hair The proe could they be seen On the Sun&039;s face, they were lost alare below

And over all was the corona

Lucky marveled, even as he watched, at the manner in which the inso-suit had been adapted to its purpose

A glance at the edge of Mercury&039;s Sun would have been blinding to unprotected eyes, blinding forever The visible light was bad enough in its intensity, but it was the hard ultra-violet, unfiltered by atmosphere, that would have meant death to vision and to life itself, eventually

Yet the glass of the inso-suit&039;s face-plate was so arranged row less transparent in direct proportion to the brightness of the light that fell upon it Only a small fraction of a percent of the Solar blaze penetrated the plate, and he could stare at the Sun without danger, alht of the corona and the stars coh undiminished

The inso-suit protected hinated with lead and bish to block out ultraviolet and x-radiation froe to deflect netic field eak, but Mercury was close to the Sun and the cose Still, cosed protons, and like charges repel like

And, of course, the suit protected hi co surface, a pseudo-liquid molecular layer that could be activated by a touch on the controls

In fact, Lucky reflected, when the advantages of the inso-suit were considered, it seemed a pity that it was not standard protection under all conditions Unfortunately, he realized, its structural weakness, as a result of lacking metal in real quantity, ainst heat and radiation were paramount considerations

Lucky was a mile into the Sun-side now and not conscious of undue heat

This did not surprise hie of space to the sub-etheric thriller shows, the Sun-side of any airless planet was si heat

This was an oversih the Sun was in the sky From this point on Mercury, for instance, with only a portion of the Sun above the horizon, comparatively little heat reached the surface, and that little was spread over a lot of ground as the radiation struck aled as one went deeper into the Sun-side and finally, when one reached that portion where the Sun was high in the sky, it was everything the sub-etherics said it was

And besides, there were always the shadows In the absence of air, light and heat traveled in a straight line Neither could reach within the shadow except for small fractions which were reflected or radiated into it fro sunlit portions The shadoere therefore frosty cold and carbon black though the Sun was ever so hot and bright

Lucky was growing more aware of these shadows At first, after the upper line of Sun had appeared, the ground had been alht Now, as the Sun rose higher and higher, the light spread and coalesced until the shadoere distinct things hovering behind boulders and hills

At one tied into the shadow of a rise of rock a hundred yards across, and it was as though for a long minute he were back on the dark-side The heat of the Sun, which he had scarcely noticed while it beat upon him, became evident by its decrease in the shadow All around the shadow the ground gliht, but within the shadow his suit-light was necessary to guide his steps

He could not help noticing the difference in the surfaces that were in the shadow froht For on the Sun-side, at least, Mercury did have a kind of aten, carbon dioxide, or water vapor, nothing like that On the Sun-side, however, mercury would boil in places Sulfur would be liquid and so would a number of volatile co to Mercury&039;s superheated surface These vapors froze out in the shadows

This was brought forcibly to Lucky&039;s ers brushed over the dark surface of one outcropping and ca in his suit-light It changed quickly into clinging liquid droplets as he eed into the Sun and then, more slowly, evaporated away

Slowly, the Sun see hotter That did not worry Lucky Even if it grew uncoe into a shadow to cool off when necessary

Short-wave radiation was perhaps a more important consideration Lucky doubted even that was serious in this short-term exposure Workers on Mercury had a horror of radiation, because they were continually exposed to small amounts Lucky recalled Mindes&039;s emphasis on the fact that the saboteur he had seen had re in the Sun It was natural that Min-des should be disturbed at that When exposure was chronic any lengthening of the time of exposure was foolish In Lucky&039;s own case, however, exposure would be short-terround that stood out soray The reddish gray was fah It resembled the soil of Mars, a ave it that ruddy tinge

The black was round was definitely hotter, since black absorbed more of the Sun&039;s heat

He bent as he ran and found the black areas cruritty Soauntlet He looked at it It ht be any of a nu some variety of impure iron sulfide

He paused in the shadow of a rock, finally, and took stock In an hour and a half, he esti from the fact that the Sun was just about entirely above the horizon now (At the ly at the suit&039;s supply of liquid nutrientdistance, however)