 What is hiding underneath the gigantic mound on the alien planet?
Two hours since, the sun of this solar system had been a vast glaring disk off to port, with streamers and prominences erupting about its edges. Now it lay astern, and Moran could see the planet that had been chosen for his marooning. The ice-cap, by its existence and circular shape, proved that the planet rotated at a not unreasonable rate. A water-ice ice-cap said that there were no poisonous gases in the planet's atmosphere. Its size, too, told about temperature-distribution on the planet. A large cap would have meant a large area with arctic and sub-arctic temperatures, with small temperate and tropical climate-belts. A small one like this meant wide tropical and sub-tropical zones. The fact was verified by the thick, dense cloud-masses which covered most of the surface,—all the surface, in fact, outside the ice-cap. But since there were ice-caps there would be temperate regions. In short, the ice-cap proved that a man could endure the air and temperature conditions he would find. Two of the Nadine's four-man crew watched out the same ports as the planet seemed to approach. The process would be to find a planet and check its climate and relationship to other planets, and its flora and fauna against descriptions in the Directory. If they left a beacon, they may have left an identification of the planet. All five of its proper company watched as the planet's surface enlarged. If somebody were wrecked on an even possibly habitable planet, the especially developed seed-strains would provide food in a minimum of time. But space-travel regulations are especially designed to prevent such escapes. Now the space-yacht moved toward a vast mass of fleecy whiteness without any visible features. At twenty-five thousand feet there were clouds, which would be particles of ice so small that they floated even so high. It was not until six thousand feet above the surface that the planet-wide cloud-level seemed to begin. Anything could exist in that dense, almost palpable grayness. But there were patches of blue, and curious veinings of black, and here and there were other colors, all of them unlike the normal color of vegetation on a planet with a sol-type sun. Except for the patches of color, it was the only considerable landmark within the half-mile circle in which anything could be seen at all. But around her there was a monstrous tumult of smoke and steam.
 An empty spacecraft where a crew member had survived long enough to set up a marker
 A pulsing, reeking object egg casing that contains countless unhatched beetle eggs  An empty spacecraft where a crew member had survived long enough to set up a marker  A 'yard-worm,' which is an uncontrolled type of an 'inch-worm'  The remains of a crew that had landed on the alien planet a century earlier