ey could see that indescribable effects were being produced on
them, and on the ship. Arcot alone could know the enormous gravitation,
and his accelerometer told him now that he was subject to a
gravitational acceleration of three thousand four hundred and
eighty-seven feet per second, or almost exactly one hundred and nine
times Earth's pull.

"The _Thought_ weighs one billion, two hundred and six million, five
hundred thousand tons, with tender, on Earth. Here it weighs
approximately one hundred and twenty-one billion tons," said Arcot
softly.

"Can you set it down? It may crush under this load if the gravity drive
isn't supporting it," asked Torlos anxiously.

"Eight inches cosmium, and everything else supported by cosmium. I made
this thing to stand any conceivable strain. Watch--if the planet's
surface will take the load," replied Arcot.

They were still sinking, and now a number of small marvelously
streamlined ships were clustered around the slowly settling giant. In a
few moments more people, hundreds, thousands of men were flying through
the air up to the ship.

A cruiser had appeared, and was very evidently intent on leading them
somewhere, and Arcot followed it as it streaked through the dense air.
"No wonder they streamline," he muttered as he saw the enormous force it
took to drive the gigantic ship through this air. The air pressure
outside their ship now was so great, that the sheer crushing effect of
the air pressure alone was enormous. The pressure was well over nine
tons to the square inch, on the surface of that enormous ship!

They landed approximately fifty miles from a large city which was the
capital. The land seemed absolutely level, and the horizon faded off in
distance in an atmosphere absolutely clear. There was no dust in the air
at their height of nearly three hundred feet, for dust was too heavy on
this world. There were no clouds. The mountains of this enormous world
were not large, could not be large, for their sheer weight would tear
them down, but what mountains there were were jagged, tortured rock,
exceedingly sharp in outline.

"No rain--no temperature change to break them down," said Wade looking
at them. "The zone of fracture can't be deep here."

"What, Wade, is the zone of fracture?" asked Torles.

"Rock has weight. Any substance, no matter how brittle, will flow if
sufficient pressure is brought to bear from all sides. A thing which can
flow will not break or fracture