IT HAD NO SHAPE, NO arms, no features—yet it was alive. It moved sluggishly toward the bank like a great solidified wave that towered a hundred feet in the air. It glowed with the phosphorescent fire of the ocean, and preceding it came a tangible aura of unspeakable menace.
“God!” Johnson croaked, “what is it?”
Val Kenton holstered his handguns, caught up his rifle, blasted a charge of unleashed energy into the vast bulk rising from the ocean. The thing seemed to jump, and the flame of the shot glowed deep within its bulk.
Then it settled again, without sound, moved closer to the beach.
“It’s alive!” Val Kenton gasped, and knew instinctively why the other expeditions’ ships were crushed and empty hulls on Venus.
The thing was a great blob of gelatinous substance that quivered and shoo
