Explore "Planet Explorer" by Murray Leinster on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Bordman knew there was something wrong when the throbbing, acutely / uncomfortable vibration of rocket-blasts shook the ship. Rockets were / strictly emergency devices, these days, so when they were used there / was obviously an emergency.
He sat still. He had been reading in the passenger-lounge of the / _Warlock_ -- a very small lounge indeed -- but as a Senior Colonial / Survey Officer with considerable experience he was well-traveled / enough to know when things did not go right. He looked up from the / book-screen, waiting. Nobody came to explain the eccentricity of a / space-ship using rockets. The explanation would have been immediate on / a regular liner, but the _Warlock_ was practically a tramp. This / trip it carried just two passengers. Passenger service was not yet / authorized to the planet, and would not be until Bordman had made the / report he was on his way to compile. At the moment, though, the rockets / blasted, and stopped, and blasted again. There was something definitely / wrong.