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He and Zircon were now connected by a ten-foot length of rope, necessary to keep them from becoming separated in the darkness. He submerged and dove straight down into the blackness. His thumb compressed the button on the side of the case and the camera started, the infrared light turning on.
With contragravity, of course, terms like "escape-velocity" and "mass-ratio" were of purely antiquarian interest. "How long," he asked Pearson, "would it take to fit that vehicle with a full set of detection instruments radar, infrared and ultraviolet vision, electron-telescope, heat and radiation detectors, the whole works and spot it about a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles above Keegark?"
He changed to a fresh battery, then replaced the film in the camera with the special infrared-sensitive film. Whatever the infrared illuminated could be seen through special glass. Rick had ordered lenses ground from the glass and had placed them in frames made to fit into a face mask. These frames could be purchased at any diving-equipment supply house.
The switch which cut off the soft white light from the glow plates did not cut off the infrared radiation which enabled his hosts to watch him while he slept. Every sound was heard and recorded. But none of that bothered MacMaine. On the contrary, he was glad of it. He wanted the Kerothi to know that he had no intention of escaping or hatching any plot against them.
There was none, but he recalled a repair kit for the plastic floats in their tool supply. He found it and took it back to the house. Using the awl blade on his scout knife, he bored a hole through the plastic back of the case and installed the switch. Then he reconnected his circuits so the new switch would turn on only the infrared light.
These ruby rods were the heart of the power system, converting the random wave fronts of noncoherent light received from the mirror into a tremendous beam of coherent infrared energy which could be bundled in such a pattern as to reach Earth's surface in a focal point adjustable from here to be something between twenty-two feet in diameter to approximately one mile in diameter.
The reef was closer to the surface than on the western side. Rick had to swim along it until he found a place where they could cross without being buffeted by breakers. Once across, he swam down the face of the reef, knowing that the trip was hard on Tony, because the underwater world was completely dark to one without light, or glasses with which to see the infrared illumination.
14th November: Sir did not arrive today either. With the help of Jagan I used the Infrared Moisture Balance to find out the moisture content of the soil samples which we had taken on Saturday. After we finished one sample, the voltage started fluctuating so we used the tulgren funnel instead. Then Jagan sent me to get soil samples from the field and from the area near the Boarding.
"Let's rope together and swim straight out." They waded in, awkward in the fins, until they were deep enough for swimming. Then all adjusted mouthpieces and started out. Rick tried the infrared light intermittently, but not until they were in about twenty feet of water did the roiled bottom allow its use. He led the way to the reef, the others following in file.
It could see quite well, even in the close darkness of the starless night; its eyes were of a nature capable of perceiving infrared radiations as light. There were plenty of these; the jeep's engine, lately running on four-wheel drive, was quite hot. Had he been standing alone, especially on this raw, chilly night, Verkan Vall's own body-heat would have lighted him up like a jack-o'-lantern.
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