Read Online Journey Into Space by Charles Chilton - Free Book Online Page B

began as a high-pitched, almost musical note. As it descended, it increased in volume and on its loudest and lowest note it paused, reverberated like the pedal note of a mighty organ in a deep canyon, and then faded out. But before it disappeared a second note was heard. Like its predecessor, it swooped bass-wards like an imitation of an acrobatic aircraft or the rush of water over a fall.
    Then came a third note, a fourth, a fifth; more and more, too many to count, sliding down the whole range of audible frequencies, one just behind the other, each blending harmoniously with the next. A kaleidoscopic pattern of sound, swooping and descending with a slight lift at the end of each run, like the flight of a gull towards the sea.
    The overall noise grew louder and Lemmy seemed deeply moved by it. He began to tremble slightly. He licked his lips and, with his eyes wide open, said: “It gives you the creeps, doesn’t it?”
    “Haven’t you any idea what it is, Lemmy?”
    “It sounds like music. But music I never heard before.”
    It was like music--music of another age; mysterious, spine-chilling, unearthly. I put my ear close to the speaker. Somewhere within that surging, eerie symphony I thought I could detect, very faintly, a voice. “Can you hear a voice there?” I asked.
    “I dunno, Doc,” Lemmy was extremely agitated. “I can’t make it out.”
    By this time the sound filled the whole cabin. Jet and Mitch looked up from their work in surprise.
    “Is the radio working now?” asked Jet, coming over to where Lemmy and I were standing.
    “Can you get Control?” queried Mitch.
    “She’s working all right, and that should be Control you’re hearing, but it isn’t.”
    “Are you sure she’s on the right frequency, Lemmy?”
    “Why shouldn’t she be? Impossible for her to drift off, with all those crystal stabilisers in there.”
    The weird sound emanating from the amplifier had, until then, been loud, but almost as soon as Jet and Mitch reached us it began to fade. Just as Lemmy finished explaining about the crystals, there was a rapid upward surge of sound, culminating in a number of high-pitched, tremulous notes like the harmonics of a thousand violins playing in unison. Then silence.
    Lemmy was perspiring. “It’s gone. Packed in again.” He was so disappointed his eyes filled with tears.
    “Call them once more, Lemmy,” said Jet gently. “Give them one more try.”
    There was a break in Lemmy’s voice as, for at least the hundredth time, he switched on the microphone. “Hullo, .Earth. Hullo, Control. Rocketship Luna calling. Can you hear us? Come in please. ”The last sentence he repeated in a tone of desperation. But less than two seconds later his expression changed to one of joy for from the radio came the clear, calm and familiar voice of Earth.
    “Hullo, Luna. Hearing you loud and clear. Strength 4.5.”
    “It’s them. We made it!” Lemmy was doing his best to hop from one foot to the other.
    Jet pushed him to one side and reached for the mike switch. “Hullo, Control. This is Morgan. Can you still hear us?”
    “Of course we can,” came back the reply. “We’ve been hearing you ever since take-off.”
    “Eh?” Lemmy stopped his dance. His mouth dropped open in surprise. “You mean you’ve been hearing us all the time?” he asked incredulously.
    “Except when you took the radio to pieces.” Mitch shot an enquiring glance in Lemmy’s direction. The voice of Control continued. “There must be something wrong with your receiving circuit.”
    Mitch was about to speak but before he could get a word out Lemmy, as though appealing to Earth for support, yelled into the microphone: “But I couldn’t find anything wrong-- nothing. All I did was take the works to pieces and put them back together again. They’re just the same now as when we took off. I can’t understand it. It doesn’t make sense.” He stepped back from the table with a defiant look on his face.
    “Well,