The descent presented no problems, and the contact with the planet's surface could have been called a perfect three-point-landing, had the crew been in an airplane, where the term would have made scientific sense.  Some of them were calling it that anyway, but of course they were being called on it by the officers, who demanded that their use of language be faultless.

       “Proper English usage is all-important here,” they were told.  “These Venusians don't speak any earth language, and for that reason, those with whom we have contact have not come near to mastering English…although to give them credit for it, they have been trying.”

     “You can't do better than that,” said a deck-hand. “A good try is worth three shots in the small of the back.”

     “It has a different purpose, too,” the medical officer  said.  “You're thinking of trying to zero in with a weapon.  Perhaps you are over-educated on the matter of combat.  Remember this is a peace mission.”

     “As are all missions,” another  swabbie volunteered.  “remember the missionaries.  If they'd arrived with weapons blazing, they'd have been accused of trickery.”

     “They probably would have been accused of it anyway, if they'd arrived on venus,” the chaplain put in, feeling this was his territory.  “the talk here is rather loose, to put it mildly.  The people  seem like they'd gotten loose.  Everything we've seen here resembles a general amok, but they say that's the way life proceeds.  As a matter of fact, that's exactly the way they put it.  It's one of their clichés.”

     They had not arrived in a jungle or wasteland, or in a desert, although the first landings on venus had been that way.  There had been talk of keeping it that way, as some venusian sentiment regarded space travel as trashy.  “travel the way we do—astral transmission,” they advised the adventurers.

     “I notice that astral transmission has never brought you to earth,” said the captain.

     “Nor has space travel brought you here, prior to this time.  Perhaps we will simulate that travel, using our own methods.”

     “don't use your own language, that's all I ask,” the captain joked.

     The earth technology had not included translators, but the development of communication had been augmented by telepathy, much to the fright and consternation of the earthmen.  However, the telepathic means proved a definite plus, and they all bought it after a time. At any rate, the present arrival was at a nicely-appointed site  with appropriate edifices and a number of people ready to meet them.  A huge transmitting station on earth had conveyed news of their coming arrival to a similar station on venus, and they were expected; further, the intentions of their visit were known, and study of the culture was well within the prescribed territory of the venusian criterion.  A military study was not one with which they had much affinity, but they expressed a willingness to adapt to it.

     “they say life's kind of soft here,” the co-pilot said to a receiving agent as they approached the “hangars”. (The term resulted from a linguistic confusion, and described a place where the arrivals were paraded and introduced to the people who would be their first contacts on venus.)

     “all the more reason why it should appeal to hard men,” the receiving man said.

     They were lined up on display and walked one by one in front of the crowds, while a voice droned, “Private Talisman, corporal wrench, midshipman oblingata, (he couldn't get past a spell check), Goodman fra leipzig, alf Gordon, rank unknown...”  The speaker added the known attributes of each man.  Occasionally there was cheering from the crowds.

     The in-processing took most of the day, and by the time they were actually nearing the venusian city, they had traversed miles and miles of territory and been at two earthly military stations.  Now they stood on a high ramp on a hillside overlooking the city, which was beginning to illuminate itself with night lights of many fabulous colors.

     “They used to say there was no life on venus,” wrench told a fellow named corporal harris. 

     “they were liars to the first degree,” chuch replied.  “that's life there, all right, or I'm mistaken.”

     “not so much liars, as mistaken,” oblingata said. “they really believed there was no life on venus.”

     “the first expeditions found no life signs,” the captain said.

     “true, but they were in a chasm, looking at an incursion from hell.  And the kind of matter they have here wasn't visible through the kind of atmosphere they have here.  Not that it can't be breathed.  I'm breathing.”

     “What about the scientists?  They had proof that the sun's heat would fry the surface.”

     “They had forgotten that the sun's energy is radiant energy. It doesn't even scorch mercury.”

     Their guides were entertained by this conversation.  “again, you have named other planets after gods?”

     “yours is called by the name of the goddess of love among our people.”

     “oh, really?  That's quite appropriate.  No doubt a coincidence, even a grand coincidence.  You should tell us more about the goddess of love.”

     “I can't do that,” the captain came up and said.  “she didn't really exist. The people who dreamed her up saw her as a woman.”

     “a pity she doesn't.  we've heard of her before, from your people, and the people here have wanted to meet her.”

     “you can't meet someone who doesn't exist,” the captain said.  “there are limits to possibility.  Besides, if she had existed, she'd be dead by now.  The greeks thought her up in about 350 b.c.”

     “I'm not so sure she'd be dead,” the guide said.  “perhaps there's something in your atmosphere.”

     “it must be in yours, too, or you'd be overpopulated,” the pilot said.

     They were taken down to a place of entertainment.  “you're likely to be all business,” the guide said, “but we have found a place of entertainment to be the best means of mixing arrivals in so that commerce is possible. People are more willing to talk here.”

     “take a look around,” the co-pilot said.  “You'll be awol if you take a few steps.  This isn't militarily recommended, as the guide implied when he said that they had found this to be so.  However, there's no such thing as not following some of the open customs of the people.”

     They began to mix and socialize with the Venusians.  Plainly these people had been chosen as a further reception because they were people who especially liked travelers.  In no time at all they were no longer in the welcome room, but distributed throughout the building, which was about a mile in total size, although it had breaks in its totality where there were what appeared to be parks. 

     “this is really living,” the pilot told the co-pilot.  They were in the same room together, along with the midshipman.  “I love it, don't you?”

     “you  said it before I could,” the co-pilot said.  “I think there's not only life here, but the veritable high life.”

     “or the low life, one,” the midshipman said.

     They went on living.  That's one thing that could be said for the venusian arrangements.  But, as the Venusians added, that wouldn't be true everywhere on venus.