The Planet Man! The Planet Man! This is the fascinating story of Danso the Planet Man. Troubleshooter for the League of Planets Organization. The law enforcement body for peace and justice in the celestial world. Whose headquarters and center of operations are situated on the capital of all the planets, Planaria Rex. From Mercury to Pluto, wherever danger threatens the universe, you will find Danso the Planet Man fighting for fair play. In a moment, The Planet Man. You will remember that Billy, Jing and Pat Darrow were about to take off from Planaria Rex with Danso the Planet Man for Venus. They are starting on a goodwill tour of the members in the League of Planets. Judge Augustus warned Danso that although Marsden's power was destroyed, his collaborators on the planets were still a threat to the Earth people. That they might even resort to violence in their determination to keep Earth from becoming a member of the League. We find our party preparing for their blast off from the space port on Planaria Rex. In five minutes or so, we'll blast off of Venus. Are you excited Billy? Little? Listen to him, a little he says. Why he's been practically jumping up and down for the last four hours. You've been excited yourself, so don't talk about me. I'm afraid we don't know an awful lot about Venus, Danso. Well it isn't exactly Earth you know. The clouds that shroud the planet are dust. I thought they were like the ones back home, you know, water vapors. No, no they're dust. As a matter of fact, the surface of the planet is almost covered with dust. The Venusians have evolved a culture that's quite different from any other planet in the League. They even look different as you know. Their noses for instance. You've noticed how big they are, that's because of the dust. They have a kind of filter that's part of their bodies that enables them to breathe. Oh, I wondered about that. And about the extra eyelids they seem to have. It's transparent. I guess that's to protect their eyes from the dust. Yes, exactly Pat. But do they live out in the middle of the dust all the time? Doesn't it get into their food and everything? Sometimes they did. But for centuries they've lived under tremendous transparent domes. Their cities are covered by them. We'll be quite comfortable inside them. Won't we ever go outside? Oh yes, but when we do we'll have to wear respirators to filter out the dust. I couldn't help laughing when I first saw the Venusian ambassador's big nose. But I guess nature knows what she's doing. They'll have to laugh on us with our respirators. Well they're much too polite to laugh. But you're right about nature. You'll find as we travel around that some of the races in the League of Planets will look pretty funny to you. But there's always a good reason for it. They've each adapted to the environment of the place they live. That's why even the people back on your Earth are different. Isn't that getting close to blast off time? Oh, just about Billy. I want to give the ship a quick check though before we go up. That's funny. What's funny? I may be just imagining things but the controls don't feel right to me. Particularly the counter gravity stabilizer. Gee, you don't think it's possible do you? Will it delay our trip? Not fast, Billy. It's broken. Gee whiz, what's the deletion? You know what I mean. Will it dance or will it delay us? Don't be sassy, Billy. Oh that's alright. After all Billy wants to learn. A pilot needs to know his ship. Sure, you women don't understand these mechanical things. Now what seems to be the trouble? I'm afraid it's a little too technical even for you, Billy. I better call the flight engineer. I checked the entire ship with him myself before but I'll ask him to go over this counter gravity stabilizer again. Flight engineer, report the control deck at once. Flight engineer Mako, sir. What's up? It's probably nothing but the controls don't seem to respond quite right. We checked them together. Can you give them a quick once over just for luck? Of course sir. Can I help? I'm almost a pilot, you know. I know, I've been hearing about you. Sure, you can hold these tools and hand them to me as I need them. How many people are there on Venus, Tantrum? About a billion people, Jane. Any animals? Of course. And like the Venusians, they've all adapted themselves to the dust. There's another inhabitant of Venus that's almost a legend. Very few of them have ever been seen. There isn't even a picture of one and most Venusians doubt that they exist. He sounds mysterious. What are they? Well, the Venusians call them dusties. They're almost humanoid in appearance from the stories I've heard. No one really knows much about them but they've been credited with almost magical powers. Do you believe that? I'm afraid I don't know what to believe, Jane. I've traveled around the solar system and seen too many unbelievable things to be sure of anything. There's certainly no evidence to support that belief though. Probably just a sort of legend more than anything else. Oh, and any luck, Mako? Nothing wrong so far, sir. Have you checked the stabilizer? I'm just going over it now. Seems okay. Wait a minute. Billy, hand me that round tube. It can't be. Trouble? I'm afraid so. I'm not sure yet but something isn't the way it should be here. Let it go over it carefully. Don't worry, sir. I will. Hand me that scanner, Billy. Can it be serious? I mean, if it didn't work right? Serious enough to end our trip before we had hardly gotten started. And as a stabilizer, we'd never clear the gravity field if we were nary erect. It could make us crash if it were badly enough warped. Jumping sun talks, this is awful. Did I give you the wrong tool? No, no. The tool's all right but something else is awfully wrong. Will you come over to the engineering maintenance for a moment, sir? I'd like to talk to you. Can I come? You'd better stay here with the tools, Billy. It's pretty technical anyhow. And I've got to look at some relay charts. I'll explain it to you when I get back. What's the trouble? I didn't want to tell you in front of the kids and Miss Darrow, sir. There's no sense worrying them. But that gravity stabilizer is absolutely useless. You wouldn't get two miles off the nary erect, you'd come down like a meteor. Why, you could have told me in front of them they're not the kind that get frightened easily. That's not why I asked you to step out. That equipment is useless and it's no accident. What do you mean? It's been tampered with. Tampered with, are you sure? You went over it with me, sir. It was in perfect shape then. But are you sure it's been deliberately damaged? The way it is, it couldn't have been an accident. The connections have been switched and the tube shorted. Whoever did it knew exactly what he was doing. You wouldn't have had a chance of landing without a crash. You'd better check the rest of the controls. I'll make some excuse to Miss Darrow and the kids and check it thoroughly. Don't worry, I'll go over everything with a micro scanner. There's trouble ahead for the League of Planets group before they even take off on their goodwill trip. Who is behind this sabotage? We'll be back in a moment. So, level up! When we left Dantzl, he was informed by the flight engineer that the proposed interplanetary goodwill spaceship, the Planeteers, had been sabotaged. Now we find Dantzl talking with Billy, Jane and Pat in the control cabin. But not letting on to what is really wrong. Do you think we'll make it this time, Dantzl? Well, I think so, Billy. What happened before was just one of those accidents. It should teach you a good lesson, though. Always check your ship before you take it up. Even the best technicians slip sometimes and it's your life that's at stake and sometimes others. You bet I will. Can I stand here a while while you blast off? Oh, me too. You may be in the way. Oh, it's all right, Pat. There's no trouble at all and not very complicated. I keep forgetting how different from the old constitution these ships are. No dangerous acceleration, no recurl couches. It's almost like going up in an elevator. There goes the signal to blast off. Right, Billy. Here we go. Boy, this ship really travels. Can I take over the control, Bill? Maybe not this trip, Billy. Don't worry, you'll have a lot of chance to be traveling a lot for a while now. We'll be out of these dust clouds in a minute and then you'll be able to take your first look at Venus. I've always thought that the clouds were water vapor like the clouds on Earth. Well, if they were, Venus would be a lot better off. As it is, they have waves that will seem quite strange to you. Oh, but you'll see it yourself in a little while now. There. There, now you can see the planet. Why, it looks like a big desert. Hey, what's that thing down there? It looks like a big bubble. That's Venus port. I told you their cities were covered with tremendous domes to keep out the dust storms. But how do we get in? Well, they have locks like the airlocks on a spaceship. You go through one door, which seals, and then we can go through the second, through to the city itself. Do they know what's coming? Well, I've already signaled ahead. You see that directional arrow? If we keep it lined up with the beam, we will come right onto the port. I see it. It's that round opening. That's right. We'll have to slow down. There, a second door ahead of us now. What's opening? The outer door must be closed then. Here we go. See the landing field is below us. Yes, and there's a delegation waiting for us to land. They'll probably make us speak. This is quite an event for Venus. Not often they have visitors from the other planets. On behalf of the people of Venus, I welcome you to Venus port. Our planet is yours. Do you think you mean the equiability? This is a very serious occasion. As I grasp the hands of each of you from Earth, may it be a symbol of the future unity for the people of Venus and the people of your home planet. The first leg on the interplanetary goodwill tour has been made without incident, except for the attempted sabotage of a planet here at takeoff. Now on the planet Venus, the planet of dust, the Earth people in Tantra are to be the most honored guests in many a century. We'll be back in a moment, but first here is a message the planet man wants you to hear. Tune in again for more transcribed thrills and adventures. Rocket millions of light years into space with Tantra, the planet man. Tune in again for more transcribed thrills and adventures.