Mada's strongest sensation was one of light. It was falling in a brilliant mosaic onto the ground through the leaves of the trees, whose trunks resembled compactly grown roots. Above, they spread out like transparent canopies filled with light. Each fruit up there was like a tiny star.
A stream of foam, tumbling down from a stone ledge, was lit up by a quivering rainbow. The smooth lake that fed the current lay tranquilly there, crossed by a sparkling mother-of-pearl footpath.
Round the banks grew fantastic trees bearing golden apples. And the water lured Mada from the depths with the same vivid fruits, very slightly tinged with haze, that you could touch so easily by just reaching out your hand.
She thought how ugly the two unwieldy, clumsy creatures seemed in such a setting. They moved about on their hind legs, holding their bodies erect but rolling from side to side at each step. Their sturdy bodies, with belts high on the hips, were decorated with a spiral ornament Their upper and lower extremities were covered with inflated bubbles and their heads were enclosed in hard spheres with slits for the eyes.
Two enormous birds were swimming across the lake with proudly upcurved necks; they turned their heads with their red beaks and made trustingly for the shore.
Several light quadrupeds came out of the forest. They had the same wondrous trees with root-branches growing on their heads, but without fruits or foliage. The creatures began drinking the water.
A mighty beast with greenish, glittering eyes softly sprang onto the bright patches in the shade of the canopied trees. His hide merged with the bright mosaic. Lithe and powerful, he made his way soundlessly towards the water, paying no attention to the horned denizens of the forest nor to the strange newcomers.
"I'm not even frightened," said Mada through her helmet intercom.
"A virgin, unfrightened world," responded Ave.
"And there's so much light!"
"The experts on Faena thought it could kill."
"It can kill only darkness, ignorance and hatred. We have found a world where evil and hatred do not and cannot exist."
Mada went up quite close to the watering place. A young reindeer looked round curiously, leapt out of the water and dug its wet muzzle into Mada's glove.
"Could you think of such a thing on Faena?" she cried.
"Alas, there's no room left for them there!"
"These are children of light. Open your visor and look. Don't be afraid, the eye is a most self-accommodating organ. They won't believe our stories on Faena."
"Millions of Faetians are waiting for them."
"Aren't we cheating this way? Why this envelope shutting us off from the new world. I've opened my visor all the way!"
"Mada, my dear!" warned Ave. "That's dangerous."
"We've found a world of amazing beauty, but we haven't proved that we can live on it."
"We must remember Um Sat's warning."
"What is there to be afraid of? Dangerous invisible beings? But light is the best medicine for them. I myself am a Sister of Health. Our ancestors didn't take thought, they injected themselves with illness-creating microbes in order to rid all Faetians of deadly diseases. It is the doctor on Terr who should be the first to shed a space-suit! It is a duty! Besides, I want to bathe in the lake. Will my Ave, who tamed the ocean waves on a board, back out now? Take the tablets I gave you. They will protect you from the unknown world of the Planet of Light. And its light will help us. Take off your space-suit! And help me."
"Why are you tempting me, Mada?"
"So that we can be the first to do what must be done anyway. After all, we can't go back to Faena without having tried to live here in real freedom. And not in a shell."
So saying, Mada plucked a golden apple and held it out to Ave.
"Peel it for me, please. It has a skin as bright as Sol and as tough as one of our space-suits."
When Quest began approaching the orbit of Terr, the members of the expedition found the brilliant light of Sol more and more intolerable. It became particularly searing when the ship went into orbit round the planet.
Mada established that Terr's atmosphere was strikingly like that of Faena. Except that there was little carbon dioxide and there was no greenhouse effect. The planet freely emitted the excess solar heat into space. The conditions of existence on it were consequently similar to those on Faena, as Ave Mar had once suggested.
Toni Fae, the astronomer, observed the planet with the enthusiasm of a poet. Most of it was under water and seemed to be hatched with the lines of the waves. The land and sea surfaces were strikingly varied in colour. But most of all, there were clouds over Terr. Singly, they cast distinct shadows onto the surface of the planet, and in the misty oceans here and there it was possible to distinguish the spiral whirlwinds of hurricanes raging down below.
But nowhere, neither on land nor on the sea coast, could they see the patches of towns stretching out the tendrils of roads. This was what struck everyone at the first sight of Terr from space.
"Must be a dead planet," suggested Flight Engineer Gor Terr.
"It's a live one!" exclaimed Toni Fae. "The green of the continents means vegetation. And the others..."
"That's the whole point; you won't guess what they mean."
"Why not?" said Toni Fae animatedly. "It's easy!"
"R-really?" said Gor Terr, astonished.
"The priests in ancient times believed that every living being was surrounded by an aura. Its colour was supposed to enable the 'psychic vision' to recognize the most secret thoughts and feelings."
"You mean the pr-riests would have looked on Terr as a living cr-reature?"
"Yes, so as to draw a map of it," laughed Toni Fae.
"All r-right, let's get on with it. I can see black gaps in the mountain r-range."
"That means the Mountains of Bitterness and Hate."
"Much as on our Faena. There are dirty green valleys r-running into the distance."
"The Valleys of Jealousy."
"And the black and gr-reen ones?"
"Base Deceit."
"Is it worth it, starting with such gr-rim names?"
"Then look at the big land areas."
"Bright gr-reen."
"The priests considered that colour to be a sign of worldly wisdom and subtle deceit."
"Let's be indulgent to Terr and call the dry land the Continent of Wisdom without any deceit. And here is a narrow sea with r-red lightning flashing over it."
"The Sea of Wrath."
"It has a pink bay."
"The Bay of Love."
"And the sea coast here is r-russet brown."
"The Coast of Greed."
"Not bad for future Terrans. Will it be better with the dark blue ocean, perhaps?"
"The Ocean of Hope."
"And its light blue bay?"
"The Bay of Justice."
"That's better already. And these fire-breathing mountains with the r-red flames and the black smoke?"
"The Volcanoes of Passions."
As they carried on with their game, the young Faetians gradually drew the first map of Terr with amusing names recalling the members of the expedition.
"As for Mada's aura," continued Toni Fae, "that's a spectrum of dawn in space."
"And what about Toni Fae himself? Hasn't he been blazing with a bright r-red aura ever since the visit to Deimo?"
Toni looked embarrassed.
"You see," continued Gor Terr, "I interpret your aura no worse than one of those ancient pr-riests." And he laughed knowingly.
"It's not so difficult," said Toni Fae in an attempt at self-defence. "You can see into Ave and even into Smel Ven."
"R-really?.. Even into Smel Ven?"
"We're all blazing red," sighed Toni Fae, "only the shades are all different."
"Then shouldn't we name the seas after lovers?" said Gor Terr, clutching at this playful idea.
"It would be better to call Terr the Planet of Eternal Passions."
Toni Fae had been right not only about Terr, but about Smel Ven. If he had an aura, then it must inevitably be fiery red. He was burning with love for Mada, and the feelings she inspired would have streaked his own aura with black and dirty-green.
Fate's darling on Faena, a celebrated astronaut, the favourite of the Faetesses, he had not even dared to make Mada's acquaintance although he had often admired her on the Great Shore. He had hoped that the prompt departure into space would cure him, but.. Mada was close at hand to humiliate and destroy him with her marriage to an insignificant half-breed whose father had gained the Ruler's chair by nefarious means.
Like many longfaces, Smel Ven never did things by halves. Which is why he had become a celebrated and fearless astronaut and had flown to Terr. He had not been unpleasant or cunning as a young man, but Mada's contempt had stirred up the hidden sides of his character. Seeing how happy Mada and Ave were together and hating them for that reason, he brooded on plans of revenge as cunning as they were cruel... But he had to remain beyond all suspicion. The planet Terr itself was going to help him!
Quest, its braking engines switched on, was decelerating, without friction in the atmosphere and without any overheating of the cabin's outer surface. Gor Terr, the ship's designer, carried out the landing as "lift off in reverse", in his own words. He did not apply the parachute brakes typical of the early stages in Faetian astronavigation. The spaceship could make landfall as slowly as it had lifted off.
Quest came down on its three landing feet, towering above the tallest trees and listing dangerously. The automatic controls immediately straightened it up.
The astronauts pressed their faces up against the portholes. A dense forest of unrecognizable trees rose on either side of a river.
"This is Terr," announced Um Sat, "that is to be the birthplace _ of our successors! In the meantime, however, we must refrain from taking off our space-suits. We have yet to explore the unknown world of this planet."
First, they lowered the instruments through the open hatch, then dropped the ladder, and strange figures wearing stiff space-suits began climbing down to the ground.
The last to emerge were Smel Ven and Mada. Smel Ven helped Mada to put on her helmet.
"Could it be that a Faetess like Mada Jupi..."
"Mada Mar," she corrected him.
"Could it be that a Faetess like Mada could agree with Um Sat and disgrace herself with this garb?"
"You are suggesting a brave deed that is worthy of you, Smel Ven."
"There is nothing in the world that could frighten me. But I am the ship's pilot, and an element of return is vital to Um Sat."
Mada frowned at his pompousness.
"You consider yourself the most valuable?" Smel Ven restrained himself; it was not in his interests to annoy Mada.
"You are a Sister of Health yourself and will feel a need to discard that clothing as soon as you go into the new world."
Mada pulled down her visor.
The sunset on Terr was spreading over the river.
In space, the astronauts had become familiar with Sol and his furious, raging brilliance. But here, in the evening of their first day on Terr, it was possible to stare with the naked eye at the reddish, flattened Sol, shorn of his space corona. Elongated clouds were beginning to gather near its oval disc. Two of them, coming from different directions, joined up and divided Sol into two. And then a miracle happened. Instead of one, two heavenly bodies hung over the horizon one after the other, each of them purple in colour.
Mada could not take her eyes off this spectacle as she watched the two bodies change in size: the lower one touched the sea of forest, the upper one became thinner and thinner, dwindling to a mere segment of a disc and finally disappearing altogether. The lower part of Sol also vanished behind a big cloud. Now the whole sky flickered with fire. And, as if in a crimson ocean spreading above the clouds, there hung lilac waves, and very high up, illumined by the sinking Sol, there floated a solitary white island, its red-hot edges blazing.
The sunset glow was gradually dying away, but the little cloud burned on without going out. Then, as if all of a sudden, darkness came down on Terr. Night had fallen, just as on Faena. And even the stars were the same.
Except that Terr did not have at that time a magnificent nocturnal luminary like Faena's satellite, Lua, which gave such beauty to the Faetian night and which had appeared near Terr a million years later. The planet Ven, however, was particularly brilliant here. Toni Fae pointed out to Mada the evening star that had begun shining on the horizon like a spark in the flames of dawn. It was still the brightest object in the night sky.
The astronauts continued admiring the sky of Terr for quite some time. Strange nocturnal sounds came from the forest.
Urn Sat suggested spending the night in the rocket.
Mada went back inside reluctantly, although she could take off her heavy space-suit in there.
She could not shake off the unpleasant impression made by Smel Ven's remarks.
Next morning, the Faetians went for a stroll through the forest in pairs. They were to assemble by the rocket at a prearranged time.
Long shadows lay on the ground. According to the instruments, it had turned cooler. They were about to see Sol set on Terr for the second time.
Ave and Mada were late. Urn Sat was alarmed. Toni Fae painstakingly kept calling the missing pair. Mada and Ave did not reply, as if electromagnetic communications had broken down.
Gor Terr sent up two signal rockets in succession. They soared up into the colourful evening sky, leaving curly trains of smoke behind them. The red and yellow curves floated across the heavens for a long time.
"From red to yellow," quipped Toni Fae. "From love to wisdom. A hopeless call."
Gor Terr shook the inflated sleeve of his space-suit at him.
Smel Ven kept apart as if nothing had happened. His helmet concealed tightened lips and downcast eyes.
His hopes were finally fulfilled. Mada ran out of the forest in her skin-tight, wet undergarment. She had taken off her space-suit!
Smel Ven trembled and raised his visor.
This was the Mada whom the sculptors had tried to catch sight of on the Great Shore and whom Smel Ven himself had admired. Head flung back on the slender neck, dark blue, ecstatic eyes. She was holding a golden apple in each hand.
"Ave and I are now the first inhabitants of Terr. It'll go down in the planet's history!"
Ave followed behind her, also without his space-suit. They had evidently been enjoying a swim. He was also carrying two golden fruits.
"Maybe we are at fault," he said in response to the reproach in Um Sat's eyes, "but it's now been proved that Faetians can live on Terr. The planet will feed them. The labours of the colonists will be generously rewarded. This means an end to overpopulation on Faena!"
Um Sat merely gave Ave a look; the other bowed his head in embarrassment.
"We simply carried out an experiment. Someone had to, otherwise there would have been no point in flying here."
Smel Ven waited for many days, but in vain. Ave and Mada, Terr's first inhabitants, enjoyed all the benefits of the paradise they had found and did not succumb to any form of illness.
After a sufficient period of time had elapsed. Um Sat permitted the other Faetians to take off their space-suits.
They took this alien world of nature at once: the air, filled with strange perfumes, the bright light, unknown on Faena, and the unfamiliar sounds coming from the forest. Something would be walking about in there, hiding, leaping from branch to branch, shrieking, bellowing. Then, suddenly, all the noises would die down and from the depths of the forest Silence itself would seem to be watching the uninvited guests.