The Second Metal
The Second MetalTed Penton, of the team of Penton and Blake, regarded his companion, Rod Blake, and grinned. In the great audience hall below, twelve hundred of Callisto’s scientists were assembling to hear the message of the visitors from space.
“Plenty has happened to us since Earth kicked us out for taking off some of the three hundred square miles of territory, spang in the center of Europe in an atomic explosion. It’s their own fault if they can’t find us—outlawing research on atomic power. It was obvious when we developed atomic power that we’d be the first men to reach the other planets. And nobody can follow to bring us back unless they accepted the hated atomic power and used it.”
“One,” interrupted Rod Blake, ticking it off on his finger, “I learned the Martia
