{"product_id":"2940013750548","title":"The Lotus Eaters","description":"\"Whew!\" whistled \"Ham\" Hammond, staring through the right forward\u003cbr\u003eobservation port. \"What a place for a honeymoon!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Then you shouldn't have married a biologist,\" remarked Mrs. Hammond\u003cbr\u003eover his shoulder, but he could see her gray eyes dancing in the glass\u003cbr\u003eof the port. \"Nor an explorer's daughter,\" she added. For Pat Hammond,\u003cbr\u003euntil her marriage to Ham a scant four weeks ago, had been Patricia\u003cbr\u003eBurlingame, daughter of the great Englishman who had won so much of the\u003cbr\u003etwilight zone of Venus for Britain, exactly as Crowly had done for the\u003cbr\u003eUnited States.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I didn't,\" observed Ham, \"marry a biologist. I married a girl who\u003cbr\u003ehappened to be interested in biology; that's all. It's one of her few\u003cbr\u003edrawbacks.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe cut the blast to the underjets, and the rocket settled down gently on\u003cbr\u003ea cushion of flame toward the black landscape below. Slowly, carefully,\u003cbr\u003ehe dropped the unwieldy mechanism until there was the faintest\u003cbr\u003eperceptible jar; then he killed the blast suddenly, the floor beneath\u003cbr\u003ethem tilted slightly, and a strange silence fell like a blanket after\u003cbr\u003ethe cessation of the roaring blast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We're here,\" he announced.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"So we are,\" agreed Pat. \"Where's here?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's a point exactly seventy-five miles east of the Barrier opposite\u003cbr\u003eVenoble, in the British Cool Country. To the north is, I suppose, the\u003cbr\u003econtinuation of the Mountains of Eternity, and to the south is Heaven\u003cbr\u003eknows what. And this last applies to the east.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Which is a good technical description of nowhere.\" Pat laughed. \"Let's\u003cbr\u003eturn off the lights and look at nowhere.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe did, and in the darkness the ports showed as faintly luminous\u003cbr\u003ecircles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I suggest,\" she proceeded, \"that the Joint Expedition ascend to the\u003cbr\u003edome for a less restricted view. We're here to investigate; let's do a\u003cbr\u003elittle investigating.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This joint of the expedition agrees,\" chuckled Ham.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe grinned in the darkness at the flippancy with which Pat approached\u003cbr\u003ethe serious business of exploration. Here they were, the Joint\u003cbr\u003eExpedition of the Royal Society and the Smithsonian Institute for the\u003cbr\u003eInvestigation of Conditions on the Dark Side of Venus, to use the full\u003cbr\u003eofficial title.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf course Ham himself, while technically the American half of the\u003cbr\u003eproject, was in reality a member only because Pat wouldn't consider\u003cbr\u003eanything else; but she was the one to whom the bearded society and\u003cbr\u003einstitute members addressed their questions, their terms, and their\u003cbr\u003einstructions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd this was no more than fair, for Pat, after all, was the leading\u003cbr\u003eauthority on Hotland flora and fauna, and, moreover, the first human\u003cbr\u003echild born on Venus, while Ham was only an engineer lured originally to\u003cbr\u003ethe Venusian frontier by a dream of quick wealth in _xixtchil_ trading\u003cbr\u003ein the Hotlands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was there he had met Patricia Burlingame, and there, after an\u003cbr\u003eadventurous journey to the foothills of the Mountains of Eternity, that\u003cbr\u003ehe had won her. They had been married in Erotia, the American\u003cbr\u003eseitlement, less than a month ago, and then had come the offer of the\u003cbr\u003eexpedition to the dark side.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHam had argued against it. He had wanted a good terrestrial honeymoon in\u003cbr\u003eNew York or London, but there were difficulties. Primarily there was the\u003cbr\u003eastronomical one; Venus was past perigee, and it would be eight long\u003cbr\u003emonths before its slow swing around the Sun brought it back to a point\u003cbr\u003ewhere a rocket could overtake the Earth. Eight months in primitive,\u003cbr\u003efrontier-built Erotia, or in equally primitive Venoble, if they chose\u003cbr\u003ethe British settlement, with no amusement save hunting, no radio, no\u003cbr\u003eplays, even very few books. And if they must hunt, Pat argued, why not\u003cbr\u003eadd the thrill and danger of the unknown?","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47174153896176,"sku":"2940013750548","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013750548_p0.jpg?v=1763589757","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013750548","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}