the others had turned in the
wake of the dismal defeat he could not guess. His head was pounding
and he felt old and though he wanted to it was hard to care. Never had
he felt so helpless.

After the death of the ore-planet the Canton assault had been swift and
overpowering. The Laurian wings had fought well enough, considering
their numbers and outdated equipment. But they were no match for the
grim machination thrown against them. He had seen almost at once how
the battle would go. But while there was any chance at all.....

The red-brown planet loomed closer. It had a somewhat ominous look:
the knotted lacing of deep-cut ravines, the jagged mountains, so
massive their outlines were visible even from here.

THEY ALL LOOK STARK AND ALIEN AT FIRST. But this one was something
peculiar, no denying. Almost it had an aura of strangeness. If he
hadn't been so desperately short of oxygen he might have kept
searching..... For a moment he had forgotten the Cantons.

Again he studied the star system readout on the ship's console,
switched to the more detailed graphic of Centaurus III, Newman's
Planet. Touching the fingerboard, he summoned all the relevant data
his computer possessed. The cursor darted back and forth across the
screen.

Centaurus III

diameter: 16,000 kil
gravity: .6 relative
Earth
atmos density: .4 relative Earth
CO2 72.1
O2 19.4
N 5.2
CH4 3.0
Trace .3
temp:
120 to 35F tropic
100 to 20F sub tropic
70 to -15F up mid latitude
30 to -90F polar sub pol
wind: 5 to 220 kph
humid: .15 to .02 relative
Earth
flora: positive
fauna: