47 minute read
I The exploring-ship Franklin made its first landing on a remarkable wide beach on the western coast of Chios, the largest land-mass on Thalassia. Using the longest axis of the continent as a base, and the pointed end as seen from space as 0°, this beach bears 246° from the median point of the base-line. The Franklin later berthed inland some four miles 360° from Firing Plaza Number One on the chart. There is a pleasant savannah here, with a stream of water apparently safe for drinking.— Astrographic Bureau Publication 11297, Appendix to Space Pilot Vol. 460, Sector XXXIV, pg. 58-59. It was not plausible that Brett Carstairs should find a picture of a girl, to all appearances human, in millenia-old ruins on a planet some hundreds of lightyears from earth. But the whole affair was unlikely, beginning with the report of the exploring-ship which caused the Thalassia-Aspasia Expedition in...