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Updated: June 3, 2025
He saw that they had blundered its black bulk was visible against the stars. Phobos hadn't risen; Deimos, the farther moon, was too small to furnish appreciable light. Something touched him from behind, and he recoiled, pushing Nance back. He yanked the machete from his belt, and struck blindly... Oh, no! you didn't get caught like this not usually, he told himself. Not in their actual grip!
"This is Titan spaceport calling Deimos spaceport! Come in, Deimos spaceport." There was a flood of static, and then, very faintly, the voice of the tower operator on Deimos answered. "This is Deimos spaceport. Go ahead, Titan." "Transmitting request for information by Captain Steve Strong of the Solar Guard," the Titan operator called into the microphone.
Although the cloud curtain still rested on the planet it was probable that the Martians would send some of their airships up to its surface in order to determine what our fate had been. From that point of vantage with their exceedingly powerful glasses, we feared that they might be able to detect anything unusual upon or in the neighborhood of Deimos.
As a transfer point for the great passenger liners that rocketed between Venusport, Atom City, and Marsopolis, the refueling station at Deimos was well staffed and expertly manned. Standing at the air lock, Tom and Sticoon heard the blasting roar of the Good Company coming down in a fast, expert touchdown, and they hurried across the spaceport to greet their rivals.
Sticoon completed the three circling passes around Deimos and shouted to Tom over his shoulder. "Stand by, Corbett. We're ready to go in!" Tom strapped himself into his acceleration chair and, watching the atmospheric altimeter, a delicate instrument that recorded their height above the surface of a heavenly body, began to call off the indicated figures.
When about fifteen thousand miles from Mars, they sighted Deimos directly ahead, and saw that they should pass on its left i. e., behind for it was moving across them. The sun poured directly upon it, making it appear full and showing all its features.
Deimos proved to be, as we had expected, about six miles in diameter. Its mean density is not very great so that the acceleration of gravity did not exceed one two-thousandths of the earth's. Consequently the weight of a man turning the scales at 150 pounds at home was here only about one ounce.
"Can't blame them," said Walters, surveying the quiet spaceport. The two Solar Guard officers climbed into another waiting jet boat and shot away from the Polaris toward the tower. Inside the shimmering crystal control tower, Steve Strong paced up and down behind the enlisted spaceman trying to contact the Deimos spaceport across the millions of miles of space.
"Boy, you certainly are burning up space! What have you got in your fuel tanks? Light speed?" "Just a little thing we whipped up," said Astro with a grin. "What is your ETA on Deimos, Tom?" "Less than five minutes. Four minutes and thirty seconds, to be exact. Think you can beat that?" "If we can't beat it, we can equal it!" said Astro. "See you on the Martian moon, buddy! End transmission!"
The phases of Phobos would probably be discernible to the naked eye, but those of Deimos would require a telescope in order to be seen, for, notwithstanding their nearness to the planet, Mars's moons are inconspicuous phenomena even to the Martians themselves.
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