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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36be10c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #68253 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68253) diff --git a/old/68253-0.txt b/old/68253-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0967b71..0000000 --- a/old/68253-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1816 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Thunder in the void, by Henry Kuttner - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Thunder in the void - -Author: Henry Kuttner - -Release Date: June 6, 2022 [eBook #68253] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, Alex White & the online - Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at - https://www.pgdpcanada.net. - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THUNDER IN THE VOID *** - - - - - - THUNDER IN THE VOID - - A NOVEL - - By Henry Kuttner - - “I keep my promises, my friend. I’m taking this boat - to Pluto, and I’ll kill a lot of them before they - finally get me. But—even though you have won, you have - lost as well. Because you’re going with me too!” - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Astonishing Stories, October 1942. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - FOREWORD - - -Late in the Twentieth Century Man, for the first time, burst through the -invisible barrier that had always kept him chained to his planet. A new -and almost uncharted ocean lay before him, its vastness illimitable, its -mysteries as yet unexplored. Magellan, Columbus, Leif Ericsson—these -primitives expected great wonders as the searoads opened before the -prows of their ships. But the first spacemen thought—mistakenly, as it -proved—that the airless void between the worlds could hold little -unknown to them. - -They did not foresee that actual experience of a thing is far different -from abstract knowledge of it. They did not foresee the death that -leaped upon them from the outer dark, the strange, enigmatic horror that -killed men without leaving trace or clue. The ships came back, crews -decimated. Out there lay a menace that slew with blind, ravening fury. - -For a time space held its secret. And then the Varra spoke to us, warned -us, told us why space was forbidden. - -The Varra—glowing balls of light that hung in the void, vortices of -electro-magnetic energy, alive and intelligent. For generations, they -said, they had tried to communicate with us. But they could not exist -except in airless space, or under specialized conditions. They were not -protoplasmic in nature; they were beings of pure energy. But they were -intelligent and friendly. - -From them we learned the nature of the menace. A race of beings dwelt on -Pluto, so different from both humanity and the Varra that they were -almost inconceivable. This race had never mastered space travel; it had -no need to leave its dark world. Only the immense power of the -Plutonians’ minds reached out through the void, vampiric, draining the -life-energy from living organisms over incredible distances. Like -medieval robber-barons they laired on their planet, and the tentacles of -their minds reached impalpably out for prey. Vampires of energy. - -Vampires of life. - -But the Varra they could not touch or harm. The peculiar physical -structure of the Varra rendered them safe from the Plutonian creatures. - -A World Fleet was sent out to subdue Pluto, against the advice of the -Varra. It did not return. - -In the end we made a pact with the Varra. They conveyed us through -space, protecting us, as far as they were able, from the Plutonian -vampires, though they did not always succeed. Each man who ventured into -the void was guarded and guided by a Varra, and therefore many lived who -would otherwise have died. No ship went beyond the orbit of Neptune; -even that was dangerous. No ship ever landed on Pluto. - -Only those guarded by the Varra were permitted to leave Earth. For the -rest—space was forbidden. - - - - - CHAPTER ONE - - Hijacker from Hell - - -The Arctic blizzard swept needles of stinging ice against Saul Duncan’s -face. Doggedly he plowed on, head lowered, heavy shoulders hunched -against the fury of the winds. Once he heard the drone of a heliplane -overhead, and flung himself flat till the sound had been swallowed by -the gale. Then for a few moments his body refused to obey the grim -demands of his mind. Deceptive warmth was stealing over him, inviting -him to rest. But that, he knew, meant death then and there. - -If he kept going, there was a chance of safety and freedom—not much of -a chance, though, for few men ever escaped alive from the Transpolar -Penitentiary. Situated within the Arctic Circle, the grim, guarded -fortress of stone and metal and tough plastics was safer than Alcatraz -had been a century and a half ago. Yet Duncan had escaped.... - -His bitter lips twisted in a harsh smile. Escape! Into a polar -blizzard—but that was the only possible time when a prisoner could -evade the guard planes that patrolled the frigid waste. And Duncan could -not have made his escape without aid from outside. - -With stiff fingers he fumbled out a compass-like instrument that had -been smuggled to him in the penitentiary. The needle held motionless, -pointing directly into the teeth of the gale. If he kept on in that -direction, sooner or later he would reach Olcott’s plane. But how long -it would take he did not know. - -Still, even dying in the blizzard was better than another five years in -Transpolar—five years that had ravaged and embittered Saul Duncan, -hardening his no-longer-youthful face, putting ice into his glance and -hatred in his heart. But physically he had thrived. If a prisoner -survived the first year at Transpolar, he grew tougher, harder—and more -dangerous. - -Duncan trudged on, shaking with cold. Ten years for murder—second -degree murder. Well, he hadn’t been framed. He’d wanted to kill -Moriarty. And he had succeeded, in a moment of blind, crimson rage that -had flooded his brain and sent his fist smashing into Moriarty’s face -with the impact of a pile-driver. The man had put his filthy hands on -Andrea.... - -Damn him! Even now Duncan’s muscles grew tight at the memory. He -recalled how he and Andrea had fought their way up, slum-bred, facing a -future of poverty and crime, and how they had seized a chance of -escaping from that dark future. It meant arduous work, years of -training, for learning to pilot a spaceship is no easy task. But he had -done it, and Andrea had been willing to wait, scraping along on just a -little more than nothing, in preparation for the day when Duncan could -draw the pay of a first-rate pilot. - -But Moriarty had been Duncan’s superior officer. And there had been no -witnesses except Andrea and Duncan. The verdict was murder, with -extenuating circumstances. A recommendation for mercy. - -Mercy—ten years in Transpolar, of which Duncan had already served five! -Five years of knowing that Andrea, ticketed as a jailbird’s wife, could -scarcely earn enough to keep alive. Five years, and there were patches -of iron gray along Saul Duncan’s temples. - -He had grown bitter. He hated the society that had sent him to a living -hell, and when Olcott offered escape.... - -At a price, of course. But Duncan was ready to pay that price. His gray -eyes were savage as he marched on, staggering sometimes, snow crusting -on his lashes so that he could scarcely see. - - * * * * * - -So well was the plane camouflaged that he almost lurched into the white -hull before he realized that he had reached the end of the march. Sudden -weakness overtook Duncan, and he found it difficult to move the few -steps to the cabin’s door. He pounded on the alloy with fists that had -no feeling. - -There was a click, and the panel slid open, letting a gust of warm air -play about Duncan’s cheeks. - -Brent Olcott stood there, tall, dark-haired and arrogantly handsome. He -was a big man, like Duncan, but so well proportioned that his movements -were tigerishly graceful. His teeth flashed under a well-kept mustache -as he extended a hand. - -It was impossible to speak above the gale’s shriek. Not till the panel -had been shut, cutting off the uproar, did Olcott say tersely, “Glad you -made it, Duncan. I didn’t count on a storm like this.” - -“I made it. That’s the important part.” It was difficult to articulate -with almost frozen lips. Olcott looked at him sharply. - -“Frost-bite? Can’t have that. Strip down and rub yourself with that.” He -nodded toward an auto-refrigerated bucket of chopped ice on a shelf. “If -we’re ordered down, I’ve a secret compartment you can slide into. -Crowded quarters, but you won’t be found there. Now—” He turned to the -controls as Duncan, shivering, peeled off his wet garments. - -It was a difficult take-off, despite the triple-powered motor. Only a -gyro-equipped plane could have made it. The ship lurched and rocked -dangerously in the blast. - -Duncan fought his way beside Olcott. “Got rockets?” - -“Auxiliaries, yes. But—” - -“They won’t be seen in this storm.” - -Olcott spread his hands in a meaning gesture. Few atmosphere pilots -could handle the tricky manipulations of rocket-tubes. They were for -emergency only, but this, Duncan thought, was an emergency. He thrust -Olcott away and slid into the cushioned cradle-chair. His fingers, still -stiff, poised over the keys. - -Then his old-time skill came back, the intricate series of what were -really conditioned reflexes that made a pilot capable of handling a bank -of tube keys. Split-second thinking wasn’t quite enough. Reactions had -to be almost without thought. The ship spun down, and Duncan’s hands -flashed into swift movement on the studs. - -The sudden acceleration hit him in the pit of the stomach. Olcott had -braced himself, but was almost torn loose from his grip. For a moment -the plane bucked and jolted madly, rocket fighting rocket, both fighting -the gale. Then, without warning, they were above the storm, in air -almost too thin for the prop, leveling off at an easy keel. - - * * * * * - -Duncan set the course due south and turned to Olcott for instructions. -The latter was at another keyboard, carefully studying a visiplate -before him. It showed the sky, dark blue and empty. After a moment -Olcott made a few adjustments and came back to take over the controls. - -“Nice work. You’re a better pilot than I’d hoped. But you’ll need to -be—” Olcott didn’t finish. - -Duncan was rubbing his skin with ice. “I know rockets. Say, isn’t this -dangerous? We may be spotted from below.” - -“We won’t. This plane’s a chameleon. The man we’re going to see invented -the trick for me. We’ve a double hull, and the outer skin’s transparent -plastic. The space between the skins can be filled with certain colored -gases—I’ve a wide range of colors. On the snowfield I used white, to -blend with surroundings. Here it’s a blue gas. From below we’re -invisible against the sky.” Olcott rose to make an adjustment. “I’d -better lighten the color a bit. We’re going south fast, and the sky’s -not so dark now.” - -Duncan nodded appreciatively. He had heard stories about Brent Olcott, -few of them savory, but all hinting at the man’s intelligence and power. -He was one of those who, in the Twenty-first Century, made money without -being too scrupulous about his methods. Technically Olcott owned a firm -named “Enterprises, Ltd.” Unlimited would have been more suitable. His -finger was in plenty of pies, but he had always managed to pull out -plums without getting his hands soiled. Legally his record was clean. - -But he was dangerous. When Duncan had accepted Olcott’s offer of help, -he had known what that meant—a job, and a dirty one. Nevertheless, it -would pay plenty—and it would mean freedom from Transpolar, and being -with Andrea again. - -Duncan dressed in the clothes Olcott had provided, an unobtrusive dark -fabricoid blouse and trousers, gathered at the ankles in the -conventional fashion. In the heated cabin no more clothing was -necessary. - -“There’s a bottle over there,” Olcott suggested. - -Duncan gulped whiskey, feeling the hot tingling of the liquid spread out -from his stomach. He felt better, though there was a curious air of -unreality about the whole thing. A port, showed him the storm cloud, -below and behind now. Somewhere in that troubled darkness lay the grim -fortress of Transpolar Penitentiary, the hell that had swallowed five -years of Duncan’s life, and drained him of hope and ideals. - -There was hope again. But ideals— - -He up-ended the bottle. - -Olcott looked up from the controls. The air was clear, and the -tremendous power of the engines hurled them southward at fantastic -speed. - -“Sit over here, Duncan,” he invited. “I want to talk to you.” - -“Okay. Let’s have it. You’ve got a job lined up for me, I know that. The -question is—why me?” - -Olcott picked his words carefully. “There aren’t many qualified space -pilots in the system. And those are well paid; I couldn’t get at any of -’em. I tried, I’ll admit—but not after I heard about you. Would you -like to make half a million credits?” - -“Keep talking.” - -“With that many credits, you’d never need to work again. I know a good -surgeon who’d remold your face and graft new fingers on your hands, so -you wouldn’t have to worry about prints. You probably couldn’t be -convicted even if they arrested you—not without complete -identification.” - -Duncan didn’t answer, but his lips had gone pale and thin. One is seldom -transported instantly from hell to heaven. Yet Olcott’s offer was—well, -it meant everything, including Andrea. - -“Go on,” Duncan said hoarsely. “What d’you want me to do?” - -Olcott’s cool, watchful eyes met his own. - -“Go into space,” he said, “without a Varra Helmet.” - -The plane thundered on, and miles had been left behind before Duncan -spoke again. - -“Suicide.” - -“No. There’s a way.” - -“When I was piloting, no one was allowed to space-travel without a -Helmet. Even with the Varra convoys, people were sometimes killed by the -Plutonians. I remember a few screwballs tried to slip out without the -Varra, but they didn’t live.” - - * * * * * - -Olcott said, “I’ve found a way of leaving Earth without a Helmet, and -without being detected by the Plutonians. It isn’t sure-fire, but all -the chances are in your favor. Shall I go on?” - -“Yeah,” Duncan said tonelessly. - -“I need money. I need it bad, just now. And there’s a ship heading for -Earth now that’s got a pound of Martian radium aboard.” - -“A pound!” - -“A hell of a lot, even considering the big radium deposits on Mars. With -my connections, I can sell the stuff. You’re going to hijack the _Maid -of Mercury_, Duncan, and get that radium.” - -“Hijacking a spaceship? It’s crazy.” - -“It’s never been done, sure. Nobody’s dared go into space without a -Helmet. And the government issues the Helmets. But look at the other -side of it. We’ve got a few patrol boats—the Interplanetary Police. -Which is a loud, raucous laugh. Rickety tubs with no real armament. You -won’t have to worry about them.” - -Duncan took another drink. “It still sounds like suicide.” - -“Hartman will explain—the man we’re going to see now. Take my word for -it that you can go into space without a Helmet and be safe. Fairly -safe.” - -“Half a million credits—” - -“The only danger,” Olcott said carefully, “is that the _Maid_ might send -out an S.O.S. The I.P. ships are rickety, but they’re fast, and they -might stay on your trail. We can’t have that. So we’ve planted somebody -on the _Maid_ who’ll smash the radio apparatus just before you make -contact. You can pick her up with the radium and head back to Earth.” - -“Her?” - -“You know her, I think,” Olcott said quietly, his eyes impassive. -“Andrea Duncan.” - -Duncan moved fast, but there was a gun in Olcott’s hand covering him. - -The latter said, “Take it easy. You killed one man with your fists. I’m -taking no chances.” - -A tiny scar on Duncan’s forehead flamed red. “You rotten—” - -“Don’t be a fool. She’s wearing a Varra Helmet. Of course she’ll take it -off when she joins you, or she’d have a Varra _en rapport_ with her, one -who’d spill the beans completely.” - -“Andrea wouldn’t—” - -“She doesn’t know all of my plans. And she was willing to help me—as -the price of your freedom. Listen!” Olcott spoke persuasively. “The -girl’s already on the ship. She’s got her instructions. Tomorrow, at -three P.M., she’ll smash the radio. If you’re not on hand to pick her -up—and the radium—she’ll get into trouble. Destroying communications -in space is a penal offense. She might go to Transpolar.” - -Duncan snarled deep in his throat. His face was savage. - -Olcott kept the gun steady. “Everything’s planned. Be smart, and in a -couple of days you’ll be back on Earth, with Andrea and half a million -credits. If you want to be a damned fool—” the pistol jutted—“it’s a -long drop. And it’ll be tough on the girl.” - -“Yeah,” Duncan whispered. “I get it.” His big fists clenched. “I’ll play -it your way, Olcott. I have to. But if anything happens to Andrea, God -help you!” - -Olcott only smiled. - - - - - CHAPTER TWO - - Invisible Pirate - - -Rudy Hartman was drunk. An overtured bottle of _khlar_, the fiery -Martian brew, lay beside his cot, and he stumbled over it and cursed -thickly as he blinked at tropical sunlight. The gross, shapeless body, -clad in filthy singlet and dungarees, lumbered over to a crude -laboratory bench, and Hartman, blinking and grunting, fumbled for a -syringe. He shot thiamin chloride into his arm, and simultaneously heard -the roar of a plane’s motor. - -Hastily Hartman left the _godown_ and headed for the island’s beach near -by. The camouflaged amphibian was gliding across the lagoon—a quick -flight, that had been, from the Polar Circle to the South Pacific! -Hartman’s eyes focused blearily on the plane as it slid toward the rough -dock. - -Two men got out—Olcott and Duncan. - -“Everything’s ready,” Hartman said. His tongue was thick, and he -steadied himself with an effort. - -“Good!” Olcott glanced at his wrist-chronometer. “There’s no time to -waste.” - -“When do I take off?” - -“Immediately. You’ll pick up the _Maid_ this side of the Moon, but it’s -a long distance.” - -Hartman was blinking at the convict. “You’re Saul Duncan. Hope you’re a -good pilot. This is—um—ticklish work.” - -“I can handle it,” Duncan said shortly. Olcott was already moving toward -a trail that led inland from the beach. The other two followed for -perhaps half a mile, till they reached the dead-black hull of a small -cruiser-type spaceship, camouflaged from above with vines and _pandanus_ -leaves. The boat showed signs of hard usage. Duncan walked around to the -stern tubes and carefully examined the jointures. - -“Crack-up, eh?” he said. - -Olcott nodded. “How do you suppose we got our hands on the crate? It was -wrecked south of here, near a little islet. There weren’t any survivors. -It cost me plenty to have the ship brought here secretly, where Hartman -could work on it. But it has been put in good shape now.” - -“She—um—runs,” the scientist said doubtfully, blinking. “And she has -strong motors. Unless they’re too strong. I spot-welded the hull, but -there is—um—a certain amount of danger.” - -Olcott made an impatient gesture. “Let’s go in.” - - * * * * * - -The control cabin showed signs of careful work; Duncan decided that -Hartman knew his job. He moved to the controls and examined them with -interest. - -“Made any test-runs?” - -“Without a pilot?” Olcott chuckled. “Hartman says it’ll fly, and that’s -enough for me.” - -“Uh-huh. Well, I see you’ve painted the ship black. That’ll make it -difficult to spot. I’ll have only occlusion to worry about, and a fast -course with this little boat will take care of that.” Duncan pulled at -his lower lip. “I noticed you put rocket-screens on, too.” - -“Naturally.” Rocket-screens, like gun-silencers, were illegal, and for a -similar reason. The flare of the jets are visible across vast distances -in space, but a dead-black ship, tubes screened, would be practically -invisible. - -“Okay,” Duncan said. “What about the Plutonians.” - -It was Hartman who spoke this time. “Just what do you know about the -Plutonians?” - -“No more than anyone else. No ship’s ever landed on Pluto. The creatures -are mental vampires. They can reach out, somehow, across space and suck -the energy out of the brain.” - -Hartman’s ravaged face twisted in a grin. “So. But their power can’t -break through the Heaviside Layer. That’s why Earth hasn’t been harmed. -Only space travelers, unprotected by a Varra convoy, are vulnerable. -Even with Varra Helmets, men are sometimes killed. All right. How do you -suppose the Plutonians find their victims?” - -“Nobody knows that,” Duncan said. “Mental vibrations, maybe.” - -Hartman snorted. “Space is big! The electrical impulses of a brain are -microscopic compared to interplanetary distances. But the ships—there’s -the answer. A spaceship is visible for thousands of miles—reflection, -and the rocket-jets. It’d be easy for the Plutonians to locate our -ships, if they have any sort of telescopes at all. So, we have here a -ship they cannot find. Therefore, we do not need a Varra escort to -protect us from the Plutonians.” - -“It would have been safer if we could have hired a Varra,” Olcott said. -“Still, that was impossible. They’re hand in glove with the government.” - -“I know. They’ve convoyed me, in the old days,” Duncan grunted. “Let me -go over it again. I take this ship out, pick up the _Maid_, Earthside of -Luna, and get the radium—and Andrea.” - -“Right,” Olcott nodded. “Then back here, and I hand over half a million -credits.” - -“Going into space without a Helmet is risky.” - -“You will not be near Pluto,” Hartman put in. “There is danger, yes, but -it is minimized.” - -“But there is danger. I’m thinking of Andrea. When I pick her up, she’s -got to leave her Helmet in the _Maid_.” - -“Naturally,” Olcott snapped, his lips thinning. “If she continues to -wear it, she brings a Varra back to Earth with her—a spy.” - -Duncan looked at Hartman. “What armament are we carrying?” - -“Six four-inch blaster cannons, fully charged.” - -“Okay.” Duncan turned again to the controls, slipping into the cushioned -basket-seat. “Everything oiled and clean, eh? Doors?” He touched a stud; -the valve of the door closed silently. - -“Everything is ready,” Hartman said. - -“Air-conditioning?” Duncan tried it. “Good. Course?” He checked the -space-chart before him. His back to the others, he said quietly, “You’re -asking Andrea to take a big risk, Olcott. You too, Hartman, going into -space without a Helmet.” - -Olcott moved uneasily; Duncan could see him in the mirror above the -instrument panel. “Hell! It was her own choice—” - -“You blackmailed her into it.” - -Olcott’s lips thinned. “Backing out? If you are, say so.” - -“No,” Duncan said, “I’m not backing out. I’m going into space. But you -two are going with me—_right now!_” - -His poised fingers shot down on the instrument board. Olcott’s oath and -Hartman’s startled yell were both drowned in a sudden raging fury of -rockets. In the mirror Duncan could see the gun that flashed into -Olcott’s hand, but at the same instant terrific acceleration clamped -hold of the little ship. - - * * * * * - -Olcott’s gun was never fired. The three men’s senses blacked out -instantly, mercifully, as the stress of abnormal gravities lifted the -cruiser bullet-fast from the islet. Three figures lay motionless on the -plasticoid floor, while the rockets’ bellow mingled with the shrieking -of the atmosphere. The insulated hull scarcely had time to heat before -the ship was in free space, shuddering through all its repaired beams -and joists, the dull, heavy thunder of the screened tubes vibrating like -a tocsin of doom in every inch of the cruiser. - -The hull was dead black, the jets screened. No eye detected the swift -flight of the ship. Toward the Moon it plunged, rockets bellowing with -insensate fury.... - -Duncan was first to awaken. Space flight was nothing new to him, and his -body had been hardened and toughened by five years at Transpolar. -Nevertheless, his muscles throbbed with pain, and he had a blinding -headache as he dragged his eyelids up and tried to remember what had -happened. - -Realization came back. Spaceman’s instinct made Duncan look first at the -controls. The chronometer on the board told him that he had been -unconscious for many hours. Watching the star-map, he figured swiftly. -Fair enough. They were off their course, but the cruiser had been -traveling at breakneck speed. It was still possible to keep the -rendezvous with the _Maid_. Duncan readjusted the controls. - -After that, he turned to Olcott and the scientist. Neither was seriously -injured. Duncan relieved Olcott of his gun; Hartman was unarmed. Then he -took a drink and sat down to wait. - -Presently Olcott stirred slightly. His lashes did not move, but without -warning his hand streaked toward his pocket. - -“I’ve got your gun,” Duncan said gently. “Stop playing possum and get -up.” - -Olcott obeyed. There was a streak of blood on his cheek, and he swayed a -little as he stood, straddle-legged, facing the pilot. - -“What’s the idea?” - -Duncan grinned. “I’m carrying out your orders. I just thought I’d like -company.” - -Olcott fingered his mustache. “You’re the first man who ever played a -trick like that on me.” - -For answer Duncan stood up and waved negligently at the controls. “Take -over, if you like. Head the ship back to Earth.” - -The irony was evident. In free space, almost anyone could pilot a -cruiser. But emergencies and landings were different matters. Years of -training in split-second, conditioned reactions were necessary to make a -pilot—and only Duncan had had that training. Olcott could easily turn -the ship around, but he probably could not control it in atmosphere, and -he certainly could not make a safe landing. Olcott was in a prison, and -Duncan held the only key. - -“What do you want?” - -“Not a thing. I’m going through with the job. I’ll get the radium-for -you, and pick up Andrea. But if the Plutonians harm her, without a -Helmet, she won’t die alone. We’re all in the same boat now.” - -Olcott came to a decision. “All right. You’ve got aces. Later, we can -settle things—not now.” - -Duncan turned to the star-map. “Fair enough.” - -In the mirror he watched Olcott kneel beside the unconscious Hartman and -break an ammonia capsule under the scientist’s nose. Yes, fair enough. -He had Olcott in a trap. Dangerous as the man was—and Duncan made no -mistake about that—he would scarcely be fool enough to cause trouble -till his own safety was assured. - -It wouldn’t be assured till the cruiser was back on Earth. Meanwhile, -they were in free space—without Varra Helmets. Duncan shivered a -little. His eyes sought the enigmatic blackness where Pluto swung in its -orbit, invisible and menacing. The Plutonian mind-vampires. Apparently -Hartman’s trick had worked. The creatures had not yet discovered the -blacked-out cruiser. - -Not yet. But the scope of their powers was unknown. After all, the -Plutonians were the reason why space was forbidden. - -Instinctively Duncan’s teeth showed in a snarl of savage defiance. - - * * * * * - -There was hilarious excitement aboard the _Maid of Mercury_. The big -passenger-cargo ship had just crossed the Line—Luna’s orbit—and that -entailed a ceremony involving those who had never crossed before. An -officer, grotesquely costumed as the Man in the Moon, presided from a -makeshift throne in the main salon, and Andrea Duncan, smiling a little, -watched the victims each get their dose of crazy-gas. She’d already had -her initiation, and the effects of the mildly intoxicating gas were -wearing off. - -It was difficult to believe that outside the hull lay empty space, dark -and limitless. Andrea turned her mind away from the thought. But another -came—Saul—and she bit her lip and caught her breath in a tiny gasp. -Saul! Had Olcott managed the escape? Was Saul Duncan free from -Transpolar? - -He must be. Olcott wouldn’t fail. That meant that in a few hours Andrea -must destroy the communication system. Olcott had told her the best way. -Yes, she was ready. It would mean freedom for Saul. - -If she failed, Olcott had said, her husband would be sent back to -Transpolar, with an additional heavy sentence—ten more years, perhaps. -Well, she wouldn’t fail. - -A man brushed past her. “Your hair’s mussed up—” - -Instinctively Andrea lifted a hand, only to be checked by the hard -plastic curve of her Helmet. It was an old gag, but she forced herself -to smile. The necessity of wearing Helmets in space had become a joke to -most of the passengers. Probably only the officers realized the true -danger of the Plutonian mind-vampires. - -Everyone in the salon, of course, wore a Helmet—even the Man in the -Moon, under his disguise. Cumbersome as they looked, they rested lightly -on the wearers’ shoulders, and were actually so light that one easily -became accustomed to them. Andrea studied her reflection in a nearby -mirror. Her small, heart-shaped face seemed dwarfed by the Helmet. -Experimentally, like an interested child, she pressed a stud and saw the -transparent, air-tight shield slide into place an inch from her nose. -Within the ship the shields were not necessary, nor were complete -space-suits. But the Helmets were vital. - - * * * * * - -Andrea knew little or nothing of the technical details. The secret of -the Helmets lay in the luminous, intertron knob atop each one. It was -this that provided a two-way hook-up with the Varra. She remembered what -an officer had told her, when she had first donned a Helmet at the -Atlantic Spaceport. - -“Never done it before, eh, miss? Well, don’t be frightened. Let me help -you.” He had adjusted the bulky Helmet. “The power won’t be turned on -till we hit the Heaviside Layer. The Varra can’t safely enter our -atmosphere, you know.” - -“I didn’t know. It seems so strange—” - -The officer chuckled. “Not really. It’s like being in radio -communication with somebody. You see, when the juice is turned on, a -Varra instantly hooks itself up to your Helmet. You can even talk to -him—it—if you like. They’re intelligent; nice people, in fact.” - -“Can they read thoughts?” - -“Everybody asks me that. No, they can’t. The idea is that without a -Helmet, you’d be exposed to the Plutonian mind-vampires. As it is, the -Varra throws up a mental shield that protects you.” - -Andrea hesitated. “It doesn’t always work, though, does it?” - -“Almost always. You were warned of that—” His manner became officially -rigid. “You signed a release blank, in case of accident. But there’s no -danger to speak of. Space flight is exhausting; you’ll feel pretty bad -by the time we hit Mars. Somehow there’s an energy drain that even the -Varra can’t neutralize.” - -“The Plutonians?” - -“We think so. But without the Helmets—” He grinned in a comforting -fashion. “You’ll be okay, miss.” - -Later, at the Heaviside Layer, the power had been turned on in each -Helmet. There was no apparent change, except for the sudden luminosity -of the intertron knobs. But a voice, friendly despite its curious -alienage, had spoken wordlessly inside Andrea’s brain. - -“I’m taking over now. Don’t remove your Helmet or turn off the power -till you’re in atmosphere again.” - -“Atmosphere—” Andrea had spoken aloud without realizing it. The Varra -answered her. - -“Each planet has a Heaviside Layer, an electronic barrage that disrupts -mental-energy vibrations. We find it dangerous to pass that Layer, but -so do the Plutonians.” - -Another passenger had told Andrea somewhat more—that the Varra, even -before space travel, were not unknown to science. Charles Fort had been -one of the first to collect data about them—inexplicable balls of fire -appearing on Earth, with their life-forces warped and harmed by the -Heaviside Layer, moving at random out of their native element. - -Two hours after crossing the Lunar Line Andrea slipped noiselessly into -the radio room. The long space trip had told on her; like all the -others, she was conscious of exhaustion and mental drain. Glancing at -her chronometer, she realized that in a few minutes Saul would make -contact with the _Maid_. - -She clicked off the power in her Helmet. She wanted no Varra spying on -her now. - -The radio operator did not turn. He had not seen her or heard her silent -approach. Andrea’s hand poised over an intricate array of wires and tore -the cables free. - -A lance of cold fire plunged into her brain. It was too quick for pain. -Her terrified thought, _The Plutonians!_ was cut off instantly. Her mind -drowned, as in dark water, chill and horrible. - -The radio operator whirled, startled, at the thud of Andrea’s falling -body. - - - - - CHAPTER THREE - - Destination—Death! - - -“CQX! CQX! Calling _Maid of Mercury_!” - -Saul Duncan looked up from the mike. “No answer. Their radio’s dead.” - -“Your wife did her job,” Olcott grunted, fingering his mustache. He had -regained his usual impassivity, though Hartman, in the background, had -not. The scientist, without his daily quart of _khlar_, was a nervous -wreck, puffing cigarette after cigarette in a vain attempt to calm -himself. - -“There she is.” Duncan nodded at the visiplate, where the bulk of the -_Maid_ lay, occulting stars. “We’ll use visual signals. First, though, -we’ll have to—” - -His fingers moved swiftly. A four-inch blaster cannon sent its bolt of -electronic energy ravening through space, across the _Maid’s_ bow. -Lights on the cruiser’s hull blinked into rainbow colors. - -Paralleling the _Maid_, steadily drawing closer, the smaller ship kept -on its course. - -Duncan said, “They noticed that. They’ll be watching the visiplate—” - -“What are you telling them?” - -“To send over the radium, or we’ll blast ’em to hell.” - -“Good!” - -But Duncan’s lips were tight. He was bluffing, of course. Blasting an -unarmed ship full of passengers—well, if it came to a showdown, he -could not do it, even if Andrea had not been on board. However, the -_Maid’s_ captain couldn’t know that. He wouldn’t dare take the risk. - -Answering lights flashed on the larger ship’s hull. Duncan read them -aloud with the ease of long practice. - -“No radium aboard. Is this a joke?” - -“Send another blast,” Olcott suggested. - -Duncan’s response was to fire a bolt that melted two of the _Maid’s_ -stern tubes into slag. That didn’t harm anyone in the passenger ship, -but it showed that he was presumably in earnest. And he had to get -Andrea aboard now. She had smashed the radio, and probably was already -under arrest. Well— - -“Sending radium. Don’t fire again.” - -“Send one of your passengers also. Jane Horton.” Andrea was booked under -that alias, Olcott had said. - -There was a pause. Then—“Jane Horton victim of Plutonians. Must have -turned off power in Helmet. Found dead in radio room just before you -made contact.” - -Saul Duncan’s fingers didn’t move on the keys. Deep within him, -something turned into ice. He was hearing a voice, seeing a face, both -phantoms, for Andrea was dead. - -Andrea was dead. - -The words were meaningless. - -He became conscious of Olcott at his side, talking angrily. - -“What’s wrong? What did they say?” - -Duncan looked at Olcott. The dead, frozen fury in the pilot’s eyes -halted Olcott in mid-sentence. - -Automatically Duncan’s hand moved over the keyboard. - -“Send the body to me.” - -Then he waited. - -On the visiplate was movement. A port gaped in the _Maid’s_ hull, the -escape-hatch with which all ships were provided. Based on torpedo-tube -principle, powered by magnetic energy, the projector was built to hurl -crew or passengers out of the ship’s sphere of attraction. Sometimes the -rockets would fail, in which case the vessel would crash on any nearby -body. If that danger threatened, a man in a spacesuit, equipped with -auxiliary rockets, could survive for days in the void, provided he was -not dragged down with the ship. The projector took care of that. - -Now, tuned to minimum power, it thrust a bulky object out into space, -pushing it toward the cruiser. Gravitation did the rest. The spacesuit -dropped toward the smaller vessel, thudded against the hull. Duncan -threw a series of hull magnets, one after another, till the suit was at -an escape valve. - -Five minutes later the space coffin lay at Duncan’s feet. - - * * * * * - -Through the bars that protected the transparent face-plate he could see -Andrea, her long lashes motionless on her cheeks. Duncan’s face was -suddenly haggard. Olcott’s voice jarred on his taut nerves. - -“What happened? Did they—” - -“The Plutonians killed her,” Duncan said. “She turned off her Helmet, -and they killed her.” - -Hartman was staring at a lead box attached to the spacesuit. “They sent -the radium!” - -Duncan’s lips twisted in a bitter smile. With a quick movement he went -to the controls and turned the cruiser into a new course. On the -visiplate, the _Maid_ began to draw away. - -Olcott said, “How long will it take us to get back to Earth?” - -“We’re not going back.” Duncan’s voice held no emotion. - -“What?” - -“Andrea’s dead. The Plutonians killed her. You and Hartman helped.” - -Olcott’s big body seemed to tense. “Don’t be a fool. What good will it -do to murder us? What’s done is done. You—” - -“I’m not going to murder you,” Duncan said. “The Plutonians will take -care of that.” - -“You’re crazy!” - -Briefly a flash of murderous fury showed in Duncan’s eyes. He repressed -it. - -“I’m taking this boat to Pluto. I’m going to blast hell out of the -Plutonians. They’ll get us eventually, all of us. That’ll be swell. I -don’t want to live very long now. But before I die, I’m going to smash -as many of the Plutonians as I can, because they killed Andrea. And you -two are going with me, because you got Andrea into this mess.” - -Hartman said shakily, “It’s suicide. No ship can get within a million -miles of Pluto!” - -“This ship can. It’s dead black, with rocket screens. And the Plutonians -haven’t found us yet—which proves something. Hold it!” The gun flashed -into Duncan’s hand as Olcott jerked forward. “I’ll kill you myself if I -have to, but I’d rather let the Plutonians do it.” He motioned the -others to the back of the cabin as a light flashed on the board. After a -moment Duncan nodded. - -“That was the _Maid_. They managed to repair their radio. Andrea didn’t -have time to smash it thoroughly before. They’re talking to a patrol -boat.” - -Olcott’s teeth showed. “Well?” - -“We don’t want to be stopped—now.” Duncan fingered the controls. The -bellow of rockets grew louder. A shuddering vibration rocked the little -cruiser. - -“Not too fast!” Hartman said warningly. “This ship crashed once. It’s -still weak.” - -For answer Duncan only increased the power. The thunder of the tubes -grew deafening. Already they had crossed the Lunar Line, heading outward -in the plane of the ecliptic. - -Duncan rose and went to the spacesuit that held Andrea’s body. He -wrenched the intertron knob free from the Helmet. - -“We want no Varra spy here.” The knob was not glowing, and, without -power, the Varra was not _en rapport_ with the Helmet, but Duncan was -taking no chances. - -Grimly he went back to the controls. Hartman and Olcott watched him, -vainly trying to fight back their fear. - -The heavy, crashing roar of the rockets mounted to a deafening -crescendo. - - - - - CHAPTER FOUR - - The Destroying Avenger - - -Named after the Greek god of the underworld, desolate, lifeless and -forbidding as Hell itself, Pluto revolved in its tremendous orbit, -between thirty-seven hundred million and four thousand million miles -from the Sun. Such distances are staggeringly inconceivable when we -attempt to use human yardsticks. Men cannot stand the strain of such -voyages without special precautions. Suspended animation is usual on the -long hops, and Duncan had made use of the cataleptic drug he found at -hand in the cruiser’s emergency supply locker. - -For a long time the three men had been unconscious as the ship, with -increasing acceleration, hurled itself toward Pluto. Duncan had -carefully measured the Sherman units of the drug, calculating so that he -would awaken hours before the others. But he forgot one thing—the -terrific resistance _khlar_ builds up within the human body. - -So it was Rudy Hartman who first opened his eyes, groaned, and stared -uncomprehendingly about him. He was strapped in a bunk, Duncan and -Olcott near by. Memory came back. - -Sick and weak from the long period of catalepsy, Hartman nevertheless -forced his aching limbs into motion. Staggering, he presently reached -Duncan and took the latter’s gun. That done, he searched for a means of -binding his captive securely. - -The bunk-straps were of flexible metal—not long enough, but they might -serve a purpose. Hartman, scarcely conscious of his actions, fumbled at -a panel and slid it back. Within the cubicle space-suits were stacked, -each with its Varra Helmet, Olcott had ordered them removed when Hartman -was repairing the vessel, but the scientist had not obeyed. He had not -felt entirely certain that the cruiser would not be detected by the -Plutonians, and perhaps he had felt a twinge of compunction at the -thought of sending a helpless man to possible suicide, if his theory -proved wrong. So he had concealed the Helmets behind a panel. Now he -blessed the lucky chance that had made him do so. - -Duncan was still unconscious. Hartman rolled him out of the bunk and -dressed him in a suit, fitting the Varra Helmet in place. With the -flexible straps he bound Duncan’s arms to his side; a makeshift job, but -it would serve. Finally he pried the intertron knob from the Helmet and -sighed with relief. - -Hesitantly he went to the controls. The star-map told him little, except -that they were approaching Pluto. Should they begin deceleration? -Hartman’s fingers hovered over the studs—Damn! He dared not alter the -course. He wasn’t a pilot, and it took trained hands to control a -spaceship. - -Well, that didn’t matter. There was another way—with the Varra Helmets. - - * * * * * - -He broke an ammonia capsule under Olcott’s nose and applied artificial -respiration. After a time Olcott stirred. - -“Hartman?” His tongue was thick. “Where—what’s happened?” - -“A great deal. Lie still and get back your strength. I’ll tell you—” - -But Olcott struggled to rise. “Duncan!” - -“He’s safe.” Hartman nodded toward the bound figure. Then he sucked in -his breath and sprang up. Duncan’s eyes were open. - -“Stay where you are,” Hartman said, showing the gun. “I won’t hesitate -to kill you, you know.” - -Duncan grinned. “Go ahead. You can’t pilot this ship. I can wait.” - -Olcott got up unsteadily. “You’ll pilot it—back to Earth. Damn you, -Duncan—” - -“I’ll pilot it to Pluto. Nowhere else.” - -Hartman intervened. “Wait. Listen, Duncan. We have several Varra Helmets -aboard. You didn’t know that.” - -“So what?” - -“We do not need you as a pilot. If we make connections with the Varra, -we can chart a course back to Earth by letting them instruct us.” - -Duncan’s eyes changed. - -He said, “You’re crazy.” But his voice lacked conviction. - -“The Varra!” Olcott scowled. “But—” - -Hartman whirled on him. “I know! It will mean giving up the radium. But -there’s no other way. We’re near Pluto. The Plutonians may detect us at -any moment. If they do—” He shrugged. “We can keep the radium and die -here. Or we can use the Helmets, summon the Varra, and have them guide -us back to Earth.” - -“Can they do that?” - -“Easily. If they had tangible bodies, they could pilot spaceships as -well as Duncan, or anyone else. As it is, they can tell us how to handle -the controls.” - -“We’ll lose the radium. It’ll mean prison too.” - -“Not necessarily. Our lives are worth more than the radium—eh? And the -Varra can’t read minds. Suppose we have a convincing story to tell? We -planned this space-flight as a scientific expedition, nothing more. We -didn’t know Duncan was an escaped convict. We didn’t know he planned to -hi-jack the _Maid_—” - -Olcott rubbed his mustache. “Plenty of holes in that. But you’re right. -We can fix up some sort of story. And there’ll be no legal proof—” - -He looked toward the helpless Duncan. “Except him. We don’t want him -talking.” - -Hartman touched the gun, but Olcott shook his head. “No. Listen. Duncan. -You’re licked. We can get back to Earth, with you or without you. But if -we get the Varra to help, we lose the radium. Why not be smart? Play -along with us, and you’ll still get your half a million credits.” - -“Go to hell!” Duncan suggested. - -Hartman said, “We’ve no time to waste. We’re not far from Pluto—” He -didn’t finish, but there was a suggestion of panic fear in his voice. - -“Right. This ship’s got an escape hatch, hasn’t it? Good.” Olcott -hurriedly began to don spacesuit and Varra Helmet. At a gesture, Hartman -followed his example. - -“Don’t use the power yet. Help me.” Olcott picked up Duncan by the -shoulders. Grunting and straining, the two men carried their captive -into the air-tight bow chamber, sealing the valve behind them. The -magnetic projector, looking like an oversized cannon, faced the circular -transparent port through which they could see the starry darkness of -empty space. - -“Know how to work one of these?” - -“They’re simple,” Hartman said. “This switch—” He indicated it. -“Obviously it closes the circuit. Yes, I can operate this.” - - * * * * * - -Duncan remained silent as he was roughly thrust into the projector’s -gaping muzzle, feet-first. Olcott bent over him. - -“You’ve got auxiliary-suit rockets and enough oxygen. And you can untie -yourself, if you work fast, before you hit Pluto. You can make a safe -landing—till the Plutonians find you. Well?” - -Duncan didn’t answer. - -Olcott said, “Don’t be a fool! You’ll die rather unpleasantly on Pluto. -You know that. Will you take us back to Earth?” - -There was a long silence. Abruptly, with a muffled curse, Olcott snapped -Duncan’s faceplate shut, and then his own. Hartman did the same, and, -with a wry face, touched the power-button on his Helmet that would -summon the Varra. - -In a moment the intertron knob began to glow, with a cold, unearthly -brilliance. Olcott hastily turned the power on in his own Helmet. Now -there was no time to waste. Soon the Varra would come.... - -Cold eyes dark with fury, Olcott gestured. Hartman, in response, swung -the projector’s muzzle into position; both men closed their faceplates. -The transparent shield of the bow port slid aside, and the air within -the escape hatch blasted out into space. - -Hartman moved a lever. Electro-magnetic energy blasted out from the -projector, blindingly brilliant. One flashing glimpse the men had of -Duncan’s bound, space-suited body hurtling into the void—and then it -was gone, racing toward Pluto at breakneck speed. - -Hartman closed the port and pumped air back into the tiny chamber. -Abruptly a voice spoke within his brain. - -“Who are you? Why do you summon the Varra? And why are you so near to -Pluto?” - -Olcott had heard the message too. He framed the thought: “You are a -Varra? We need help.” - -“We are Varra. What help do you require?” - -Olcott explained. - - * * * * * - -He had fallen for many minutes. Beneath him the jagged darkness of Pluto -lay, cryptic and forbidding. It was time to use the rockets, but still -Duncan hesitated, though he had freed himself from his bonds. The flares -would certainly attract the attention of the Plutonian mind-vampires, -and then— - -A shadow occulted the stars. For a moment Duncan thought it was a -meteor; then he recognized the cruiser. Jets screened, almost invisible, -it was still driving on its course toward Pluto! - -He did not stop to ponder the reason. Instinct sent his gloved fingers -to the studs built into his suit. The tiny emergency rockets burned -white in the darkness of space. Duncan was hurled toward the cruiser. -Involuntarily he held his breath, looking downward at the vast circle of -Pluto. Would he die now? - -The rockets had flared only briefly; perhaps they had not been noticed. -He did not use them again. Instead, he waited, moving steadily onward -with no atmosphere to slow him down by its friction. The gravitation of -Pluto pulled at both man and ship, but each fell at the same rate—no! -The cruiser was pulling away! That meant its masked tubes were still on. - -Duncan risked another jet. This time his space-boots thumped solidly on -the hull. He levered himself toward the side port, which could be opened -from without, unless it had been locked. True, when the valve slid -aside, the ship’s air would be lost in space, and anyone within the -cruiser would die. Duncan grinned savagely. Bracing himself awkwardly, -he tugged at levers. - -The port opened. Duncan was almost flung away from the ship by the blast -of air that gusted out. He recovered his balance, swung himself across -the threshold— - -At his feet lay two space-suited bodies, Olcott and Hartman. The -faceplates of their Varra Helmets were open, but they had not died of -lack of oxygen. That was evident. The frozen, strained whiteness of -their features told a different story that Duncan read instantly. The -Plutonians had brought death to Hartman and Olcott; they had died in the -same manner as Andrea. - -Duncan closed the port behind him, his face expressionless. Inwardly he -was tense as wire, in momentary expectation of cold fury striking at his -brain. He stood waiting. - -The star-map on the instrument panel flared. That meant atmosphere -ahead. Duncan was at the controls in two strides. His number might be -up, but he had no intention of dying in a crash—not while there was -still a possibility of revenging himself on the Plutonian creatures. - -He checked the ship’s course, decelerating as much as he dared. So -keyed-up were his nerves that he jumped sharply when a voice spoke -inside his brain. - -“Who are you, Earthman? Why are you here?” - -Before Duncan could frame a response, he felt a thrill of sudden urgency -flame through him. Something, cold and deadly as space itself, reached -into his mind. There was an instant of sickening giddiness— - -It was gone. The sky-screen flamed crimson. The cruiser was within -Pluto’s atmosphere blanket. - - * * * * * - -Duncan gasped for breath. He was scarcely conscious of manipulating the -cruiser, leveling off into a long, swooping glide. Death had touched him -very nearly—and had been avoided miraculously by a fantastically small -margin. The implications of what had happened turned Duncan white with -incredulous shock. - -For the thing that had been _en rapport_ with his mind had tried to kill -him. And that thing had been not a Plutonian, but a Varra! Duncan was -certain of that. In his space-piloting days he had been in close touch -with the Varra, and had learned the distinctive _feel_ of the -creatures—there was no other word—within his mind. - -But the Varra were friendly to Earthmen! - -The rough terrain of Pluto lay below. A cold, bluish radiance, almost -invisible, seemed to flicker here and there. Duncan set the ship down -with trained skill, landing on a broad plateau at the base of a high -range of alps. - -He was on Pluto, shunned and feared by Earthmen for a hundred and fifty -years. He was in the very lair of the mind-vampires. - -And nothing happened. - -Slowly Duncan rose and turned the valves on the oxygen tanks. He -divested himself of his spacesuit and made a careful examination of the -two bodies. Both Olcott and Hartman had been killed, apparently, by the -Plutonians. They had the stigmata. - -But Duncan was thinking a rather impossible thought—that there were no -Plutonians. - -With half of his mind he made tests. There was atmosphere, almost pure -chlorine. Nor was it unduly cold. An electroscope gave him the answer. -Pluto was a radioactive planet, warmed from within by the powerful -radiations of the ore. - -Duncan took the dead Olcott’s helmet and adjusted it upon himself. -Turning on the power made the intertron knob glow, but there was no -other result. The Varra, of course, could not safely venture within the -Heaviside Layer of any planet, and Pluto had a Layer, since it had an -atmosphere. Chlorine—radium—Duncan shook his head, trying to fit the -puzzle together. - -There were no Plutonians. Why, then, had the Varra fostered the legend -of the mind-vampires? Creatures composed of pure energy could not exist -on a radioactive planet; the radiations would be fatal to their -complicated electronic structures. - -Duncan thought for a long time. At last he had the answer, so -astoundingly simple that he found it difficult to believe. But it -checked. And that meant— - -He rose and went slowly to where Andrea’s body lay, still in the -spacesuit, her face composed and lovely in death. Duncan’s lips twisted. -He knelt. - -“Andrea—” - -She was trying to tell him something, he thought. What? - -“Tell Earth what I’ve found out? Is that it?” - -He hesitated. “It’s no use. We’re forty thousand million miles from the -Sun. The radio won’t carry that far, even if it’d get through the -Heaviside Layer on Pluto. There’s no way to send a message back.” - -There was no way. Nor could the cruiser retrace its course. There was -not enough fuel left. The jets would be exhausted before Saturn’s orbit -was reached, and the speed would increase as the ship plunged Sunward, -increase to a point where deceleration would be impossible. - -“There’s no way, Andrea. I can’t send the message—” - -Duncan stopped. There was a way, after all, though it meant death. - - * * * * * - -He seated himself before the radio-recorder and adjusted it to -automatic-repeat. His message would be imprinted on metal wire-tape, and -continue to be sent out into the void till the ship itself was -destroyed. - -Duncan pulled the microphone toward him. His voice was coldly -emotionless. - -“CQX. CQX. Recorded on Pluto. All ships copy. Relay to proper -authorities. Pluto is uninhabited. Its atmosphere is pure chlorine. No -life-form known to science can exist in a chlorine atmosphere or on a -radioactive world. The Plutonian mind-vampires do not exist. The legend -was created by the Varra for their own purposes. The actual -mind-vampires are the Varra themselves.” - -Now it would be theorizing, but Duncan was certain that his guess was -correct. - -“The Varra live on life energy. When man conquered space, they foresaw -danger to themselves. They are vulnerable, and if Earth suspected their -motives, they’d be relentlessly destroyed. So—as I see it—they -pretended to be friendly, and blamed the mind-vampirism on imaginary -creatures living on Pluto. The Varra can communicate with us without the -need for Helmets. They can kill too. But they seldom do that. Instead, -pretending to protect space-travelers from the Plutonians, they drain a -certain amount of life-energy from each person wearing a Helmet. We’re -like cattle to them. We think they’re friendly, and so far we haven’t -suspected the truth. As long as we didn’t suspect, the Varra were safe, -and could keep on vampirizing us, without our knowledge. Once in a while -a Varra badly in need of energy would drain too much, which would kill -its host.” - -That was what had happened to Andrea. The Varra had tried to stop her -from wrecking the _Maid’s_ radio, and—Duncan’s teeth showed. - -He went on telling his story, explaining what had happened. He made no -excuses; there was no need for them now. - -Finally he said: “The Varra can be destroyed. And we can protect -ourselves against them. That’ll be up to the scientists. If this ship -gets through, it will mean that the Varra couldn’t stop me. I’ve got -radium aboard. So I’ll put a Heaviside Layer around the cruiser—and -blast off Sunward.” - -Duncan clicked the switch. No need to say more. Earth would understand, -would believe. - -But now— - -He opened the port, after donning a suit and Helmet, and let the ship -fill with the chlorine atmosphere. It would be better than oxygen, for -his purposes. Iodine vapor would be even more effective, but he could -not create that. If only he were a scientist, a technician, he could -probably discover some other way of creating an artificial Heaviside -Layer. - -But it didn’t matter. This way was surest and quickest, and there would -be no machinery to fail him. - -Sealed within the ship once more, Duncan found the shipment of Martian -radium, hi-jacked from the _Maid_, and removed it from its thick leaden -container. He left it exposed, and went to the controls. - -The cruiser lifted from the surface of the plateau. It slanted up -through the chlorine atmosphere, rockets bellowing. - -There was no need for split-second timing or unusual accuracy—within -certain limits. He was heading Sunward. Nothing more was necessary. -Except power— - - * * * * * - -The tubes thundered with ravening fury. The cruiser blasted up, -acceleration jamming Duncan back into his seat. Then they were out of -the air-envelope, in free space, controls locked. There was nothing more -to do now but to drive on. The rockets would blast their fury into the -void till the fuel was exhausted. Even then, the ship would speed on, -into the tracks of commerce and the orbits of the inhabited planets. - -On the visiplate specks of light glimmered, resolving themselves into a -nebulous cloud—the Varra. - -It was the final proof. Duncan was the first man who had ever landed on -Pluto. The Varra intended to destroy him, giving him no opportunity of -telling what he knew to Earth. - -Duncan checked the radio. It was repeating his message, sending it -steadily into space. At this distance from the Sun there was no chance -that it would be picked up. But later— - -He clicked the power on in his Helmet. There was no response. The Varra, -as he had thought, could not penetrate his artificial barrier, his -pseudo-Heaviside Layer. - -It was nothing, actually, but a blanket of ionization. But the Varra -could not break through it. Duncan glanced at the exposed radium on the -floor. A pound of it, sending out its powerful emanations, gamma, beta -and electrons, ionizing the chlorine even more effectively than it would -have affected oxygen—invisible armor, protecting Duncan from the Varra. - -They were massing ahead, determined to stop him. Thoughts began to -penetrate his mind, furtive, random, but indications that the group -power of the Varra was stronger than he had expected. - -Duncan seated himself at a panel, the one controlling the blaster -cannons. His face, haggard and strained, twisted in a bitter smile. - -“Okay, Andrea,” he whispered. “I’m taking the message back for you. But -I’m doing this—for myself! Because they killed you, damn them—” - -The chill tentacles probed deeper into Duncan’s brain. He swung a cannon -into position, pressed a stud, and watched a streak of electronic energy -go blasting across space, silent thunder in the void, smashing -relentlessly at the Varra. It struck in a maelstrom of flame. - -“Vulnerable!” Duncan said, “Yeah, they’re vulnerable as all hell!” - -The Varra closed in. Through their massed ranks the cannon blazed and -pounded, till space seemed afire. The rocking recoil of the blasts, -mingled with the booming of the rockets, thudded in Duncan’s ears even -through the Helmet. - -And he fought them. There were no witnesses to that battle, none to see -the black cruiser plunging on through the cloud of attackers, belching -Jove’s lightning, shaking with the vibrations of its murder-madness. For -the spaceship was mad, Duncan thought, a relentless, destroying avenger, -a dark angel bringing the terror of Armageddon to the Varra. And the -energy-beings never paused; their life and their future was in the -scales. If Duncan broke through, they were doomed. He must be stopped. - - * * * * * - -They could not stop him! Almost blind with the agony burning within his -brain, Saul Duncan nevertheless hunched over the controls, while the -cannons thundered their demoniac message into space. By dozens and -hundreds the Varra died, their energy-matrices wrenched and broken by -the electronic bolts. Duncan and the ship were one—and both were mad. - -He got through. He had to. Nothing could have stopped Saul Duncan, not -even the Varra. In the end, the black cruiser raced Sunward, cannons -silent, for the Varra were scattered. - -Duncan got up wearily. He stood above Andrea’s body, watching the still -features, the long lashes that would never rise. - -“It’s done,” he said. “Finished. Earth will get the message—” - -Earth would get the message. The Varra could not stop the cruiser now, -and the radio would continue to send out its signal till the fires of -the Sun swallowed the black ship. - -Duncan knelt. His legs were weak. The radium, of course. His suit could -not protect him from the fatal radiations of a pound of the pure ore. -But the stuff had served its purpose. It had kept the Varra at a -distance till Duncan could fulfill his vengeance. - -And now it would kill him—unless he replaced it in the leaden casket. -But even that might not work now. - -Duncan shrugged. It was better to die of radium burns than by the power -of the Varra. - -He would be dead long before then. - -But the Varra would be hunted down, ruthlessly slain, their power broken -forever. Earth-science would destroy them, as they themselves had slain -so many, as they had killed Andrea. - -The bellow of the rockets died. The ship held true to its course, -plunging on faster and faster toward the sunlit worlds where men knew -joy and laughter and happiness. It would go on, to the funeral pyre of -the Sun. - -But it would leave a message in its wake. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THUNDER IN THE VOID *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Thunder in the void</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Henry Kuttner</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 6, 2022 [eBook #68253]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, Alex White & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net.</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THUNDER IN THE VOID ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>THUNDER IN THE VOID</h1> - -<p>A NOVEL</p> - -<h2>By Henry Kuttner</h2> - -<p><i>“I keep my promises, my friend. I’m taking this boat<br /> -to Pluto, and I’ll kill a lot of them before they<br /> -finally get me. But—even though you have won, you have<br /> -lost as well. Because you’re going with me too!”</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Astonishing Stories, October 1942.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">FOREWORD</p> - - -<p>Late in the Twentieth Century Man, for the first time, burst through the -invisible barrier that had always kept him chained to his planet. A new -and almost uncharted ocean lay before him, its vastness illimitable, its -mysteries as yet unexplored. Magellan, Columbus, Leif Ericsson—these -primitives expected great wonders as the searoads opened before the -prows of their ships. But the first spacemen thought—mistakenly, as it -proved—that the airless void between the worlds could hold little -unknown to them.</p> - -<p>They did not foresee that actual experience of a thing is far different -from abstract knowledge of it. They did not foresee the death that -leaped upon them from the outer dark, the strange, enigmatic horror that -killed men without leaving trace or clue. The ships came back, crews -decimated. Out there lay a menace that slew with blind, ravening fury.</p> - -<p>For a time space held its secret. And then the Varra spoke to us, warned -us, told us why space was forbidden.</p> - -<p>The Varra—glowing balls of light that hung in the void, vortices of -electro-magnetic energy, alive and intelligent. For generations, they -said, they had tried to communicate with us. But they could not exist -except in airless space, or under specialized conditions. They were not -protoplasmic in nature; they were beings of pure energy. But they were -intelligent and friendly.</p> - -<p>From them we learned the nature of the menace. A race of beings dwelt on -Pluto, so different from both humanity and the Varra that they were -almost inconceivable. This race had never mastered space travel; it had -no need to leave its dark world. Only the immense power of the -Plutonians’ minds reached out through the void, vampiric, draining the -life-energy from living organisms over incredible distances. Like -medieval robber-barons they laired on their planet, and the tentacles of -their minds reached impalpably out for prey. Vampires of energy.</p> - -<p>Vampires of life.</p> - -<p>But the Varra they could not touch or harm. The peculiar physical -structure of the Varra rendered them safe from the Plutonian creatures.</p> - -<p>A World Fleet was sent out to subdue Pluto, against the advice of the -Varra. It did not return.</p> - -<p>In the end we made a pact with the Varra. They conveyed us through -space, protecting us, as far as they were able, from the Plutonian -vampires, though they did not always succeed. Each man who ventured into -the void was guarded and guided by a Varra, and therefore many lived who -would otherwise have died. No ship went beyond the orbit of Neptune; -even that was dangerous. No ship ever landed on Pluto.</p> - -<p>Only those guarded by the Varra were permitted to leave Earth. For the -rest—space was forbidden.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER ONE</p> - -<p class="ph2">Hijacker from Hell</p> - - -<p>The Arctic blizzard swept needles of stinging ice against Saul Duncan’s -face. Doggedly he plowed on, head lowered, heavy shoulders hunched -against the fury of the winds. Once he heard the drone of a heliplane -overhead, and flung himself flat till the sound had been swallowed by -the gale. Then for a few moments his body refused to obey the grim -demands of his mind. Deceptive warmth was stealing over him, inviting -him to rest. But that, he knew, meant death then and there.</p> - -<p>If he kept going, there was a chance of safety and freedom—not much of -a chance, though, for few men ever escaped alive from the Transpolar -Penitentiary. Situated within the Arctic Circle, the grim, guarded -fortress of stone and metal and tough plastics was safer than Alcatraz -had been a century and a half ago. Yet Duncan had escaped....</p> - -<p>His bitter lips twisted in a harsh smile. Escape! Into a polar -blizzard—but that was the only possible time when a prisoner could -evade the guard planes that patrolled the frigid waste. And Duncan could -not have made his escape without aid from outside.</p> - -<p>With stiff fingers he fumbled out a compass-like instrument that had -been smuggled to him in the penitentiary. The needle held motionless, -pointing directly into the teeth of the gale. If he kept on in that -direction, sooner or later he would reach Olcott’s plane. But how long -it would take he did not know.</p> - -<p>Still, even dying in the blizzard was better than another five years in -Transpolar—five years that had ravaged and embittered Saul Duncan, -hardening his no-longer-youthful face, putting ice into his glance and -hatred in his heart. But physically he had thrived. If a prisoner -survived the first year at Transpolar, he grew tougher, harder—and more -dangerous.</p> - -<p>Duncan trudged on, shaking with cold. Ten years for murder—second -degree murder. Well, he hadn’t been framed. He’d wanted to kill -Moriarty. And he had succeeded, in a moment of blind, crimson rage that -had flooded his brain and sent his fist smashing into Moriarty’s face -with the impact of a pile-driver. The man had put his filthy hands on -Andrea....</p> - -<p>Damn him! Even now Duncan’s muscles grew tight at the memory. He -recalled how he and Andrea had fought their way up, slum-bred, facing a -future of poverty and crime, and how they had seized a chance of -escaping from that dark future. It meant arduous work, years of -training, for learning to pilot a spaceship is no easy task. But he had -done it, and Andrea had been willing to wait, scraping along on just a -little more than nothing, in preparation for the day when Duncan could -draw the pay of a first-rate pilot.</p> - -<p>But Moriarty had been Duncan’s superior officer. And there had been no -witnesses except Andrea and Duncan. The verdict was murder, with -extenuating circumstances. A recommendation for mercy.</p> - -<p>Mercy—ten years in Transpolar, of which Duncan had already served five! -Five years of knowing that Andrea, ticketed as a jailbird’s wife, could -scarcely earn enough to keep alive. Five years, and there were patches -of iron gray along Saul Duncan’s temples.</p> - -<p>He had grown bitter. He hated the society that had sent him to a living -hell, and when Olcott offered escape....</p> - -<p>At a price, of course. But Duncan was ready to pay that price. His gray -eyes were savage as he marched on, staggering sometimes, snow crusting -on his lashes so that he could scarcely see.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So well was the plane camouflaged that he almost lurched into the white -hull before he realized that he had reached the end of the march. Sudden -weakness overtook Duncan, and he found it difficult to move the few -steps to the cabin’s door. He pounded on the alloy with fists that had -no feeling.</p> - -<p>There was a click, and the panel slid open, letting a gust of warm air -play about Duncan’s cheeks.</p> - -<p>Brent Olcott stood there, tall, dark-haired and arrogantly handsome. He -was a big man, like Duncan, but so well proportioned that his movements -were tigerishly graceful. His teeth flashed under a well-kept mustache -as he extended a hand.</p> - -<p>It was impossible to speak above the gale’s shriek. Not till the panel -had been shut, cutting off the uproar, did Olcott say tersely, “Glad you -made it, Duncan. I didn’t count on a storm like this.”</p> - -<p>“I made it. That’s the important part.” It was difficult to articulate -with almost frozen lips. Olcott looked at him sharply.</p> - -<p>“Frost-bite? Can’t have that. Strip down and rub yourself with that.” He -nodded toward an auto-refrigerated bucket of chopped ice on a shelf. “If -we’re ordered down, I’ve a secret compartment you can slide into. -Crowded quarters, but you won’t be found there. Now—” He turned to the -controls as Duncan, shivering, peeled off his wet garments.</p> - -<p>It was a difficult take-off, despite the triple-powered motor. Only a -gyro-equipped plane could have made it. The ship lurched and rocked -dangerously in the blast.</p> - -<p>Duncan fought his way beside Olcott. “Got rockets?”</p> - -<p>“Auxiliaries, yes. But—”</p> - -<p>“They won’t be seen in this storm.”</p> - -<p>Olcott spread his hands in a meaning gesture. Few atmosphere pilots -could handle the tricky manipulations of rocket-tubes. They were for -emergency only, but this, Duncan thought, was an emergency. He thrust -Olcott away and slid into the cushioned cradle-chair. His fingers, still -stiff, poised over the keys.</p> - -<p>Then his old-time skill came back, the intricate series of what were -really conditioned reflexes that made a pilot capable of handling a bank -of tube keys. Split-second thinking wasn’t quite enough. Reactions had -to be almost without thought. The ship spun down, and Duncan’s hands -flashed into swift movement on the studs.</p> - -<p>The sudden acceleration hit him in the pit of the stomach. Olcott had -braced himself, but was almost torn loose from his grip. For a moment -the plane bucked and jolted madly, rocket fighting rocket, both fighting -the gale. Then, without warning, they were above the storm, in air -almost too thin for the prop, leveling off at an easy keel.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Duncan set the course due south and turned to Olcott for instructions. -The latter was at another keyboard, carefully studying a visiplate -before him. It showed the sky, dark blue and empty. After a moment -Olcott made a few adjustments and came back to take over the controls.</p> - -<p>“Nice work. You’re a better pilot than I’d hoped. But you’ll need to -be—” Olcott didn’t finish.</p> - -<p>Duncan was rubbing his skin with ice. “I know rockets. Say, isn’t this -dangerous? We may be spotted from below.”</p> - -<p>“We won’t. This plane’s a chameleon. The man we’re going to see invented -the trick for me. We’ve a double hull, and the outer skin’s transparent -plastic. The space between the skins can be filled with certain colored -gases—I’ve a wide range of colors. On the snowfield I used white, to -blend with surroundings. Here it’s a blue gas. From below we’re -invisible against the sky.” Olcott rose to make an adjustment. “I’d -better lighten the color a bit. We’re going south fast, and the sky’s -not so dark now.”</p> - -<p>Duncan nodded appreciatively. He had heard stories about Brent Olcott, -few of them savory, but all hinting at the man’s intelligence and power. -He was one of those who, in the Twenty-first Century, made money without -being too scrupulous about his methods. Technically Olcott owned a firm -named “Enterprises, Ltd.” Unlimited would have been more suitable. His -finger was in plenty of pies, but he had always managed to pull out -plums without getting his hands soiled. Legally his record was clean.</p> - -<p>But he was dangerous. When Duncan had accepted Olcott’s offer of help, -he had known what that meant—a job, and a dirty one. Nevertheless, it -would pay plenty—and it would mean freedom from Transpolar, and being -with Andrea again.</p> - -<p>Duncan dressed in the clothes Olcott had provided, an unobtrusive dark -fabricoid blouse and trousers, gathered at the ankles in the -conventional fashion. In the heated cabin no more clothing was -necessary.</p> - -<p>“There’s a bottle over there,” Olcott suggested.</p> - -<p>Duncan gulped whiskey, feeling the hot tingling of the liquid spread out -from his stomach. He felt better, though there was a curious air of -unreality about the whole thing. A port, showed him the storm cloud, -below and behind now. Somewhere in that troubled darkness lay the grim -fortress of Transpolar Penitentiary, the hell that had swallowed five -years of Duncan’s life, and drained him of hope and ideals.</p> - -<p>There was hope again. But ideals—</p> - -<p>He up-ended the bottle.</p> - -<p>Olcott looked up from the controls. The air was clear, and the -tremendous power of the engines hurled them southward at fantastic -speed.</p> - -<p>“Sit over here, Duncan,” he invited. “I want to talk to you.”</p> - -<p>“Okay. Let’s have it. You’ve got a job lined up for me, I know that. The -question is—why me?”</p> - -<p>Olcott picked his words carefully. “There aren’t many qualified space -pilots in the system. And those are well paid; I couldn’t get at any of -’em. I tried, I’ll admit—but not after I heard about you. Would you -like to make half a million credits?”</p> - -<p>“Keep talking.”</p> - -<p>“With that many credits, you’d never need to work again. I know a good -surgeon who’d remold your face and graft new fingers on your hands, so -you wouldn’t have to worry about prints. You probably couldn’t be -convicted even if they arrested you—not without complete -identification.”</p> - -<p>Duncan didn’t answer, but his lips had gone pale and thin. One is seldom -transported instantly from hell to heaven. Yet Olcott’s offer was—well, -it meant everything, including Andrea.</p> - -<p>“Go on,” Duncan said hoarsely. “What d’you want me to do?”</p> - -<p>Olcott’s cool, watchful eyes met his own.</p> - -<p>“Go into space,” he said, “without a Varra Helmet.”</p> - -<p>The plane thundered on, and miles had been left behind before Duncan -spoke again.</p> - -<p>“Suicide.”</p> - -<p>“No. There’s a way.”</p> - -<p>“When I was piloting, no one was allowed to space-travel without a -Helmet. Even with the Varra convoys, people were sometimes killed by the -Plutonians. I remember a few screwballs tried to slip out without the -Varra, but they didn’t live.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Olcott said, “I’ve found a way of leaving Earth without a Helmet, and -without being detected by the Plutonians. It isn’t sure-fire, but all -the chances are in your favor. Shall I go on?”</p> - -<p>“Yeah,” Duncan said tonelessly.</p> - -<p>“I need money. I need it bad, just now. And there’s a ship heading for -Earth now that’s got a pound of Martian radium aboard.”</p> - -<p>“A pound!”</p> - -<p>“A hell of a lot, even considering the big radium deposits on Mars. With -my connections, I can sell the stuff. You’re going to hijack the <i>Maid -of Mercury</i>, Duncan, and get that radium.”</p> - -<p>“Hijacking a spaceship? It’s crazy.”</p> - -<p>“It’s never been done, sure. Nobody’s dared go into space without a -Helmet. And the government issues the Helmets. But look at the other -side of it. We’ve got a few patrol boats—the Interplanetary Police. -Which is a loud, raucous laugh. Rickety tubs with no real armament. You -won’t have to worry about them.”</p> - -<p>Duncan took another drink. “It still sounds like suicide.”</p> - -<p>“Hartman will explain—the man we’re going to see now. Take my word for -it that you can go into space without a Helmet and be safe. Fairly -safe.”</p> - -<p>“Half a million credits—”</p> - -<p>“The only danger,” Olcott said carefully, “is that the <i>Maid</i> might send -out an S.O.S. The I.P. ships are rickety, but they’re fast, and they -might stay on your trail. We can’t have that. So we’ve planted somebody -on the <i>Maid</i> who’ll smash the radio apparatus just before you make -contact. You can pick her up with the radium and head back to Earth.”</p> - -<p>“Her?”</p> - -<p>“You know her, I think,” Olcott said quietly, his eyes impassive. -“Andrea Duncan.”</p> - -<p>Duncan moved fast, but there was a gun in Olcott’s hand covering him.</p> - -<p>The latter said, “Take it easy. You killed one man with your fists. I’m -taking no chances.”</p> - -<p>A tiny scar on Duncan’s forehead flamed red. “You rotten—”</p> - -<p>“Don’t be a fool. She’s wearing a Varra Helmet. Of course she’ll take it -off when she joins you, or she’d have a Varra <i>en rapport</i> with her, one -who’d spill the beans completely.”</p> - -<p>“Andrea wouldn’t—”</p> - -<p>“She doesn’t know all of my plans. And she was willing to help me—as -the price of your freedom. Listen!” Olcott spoke persuasively. “The -girl’s already on the ship. She’s got her instructions. Tomorrow, at -three P.M., she’ll smash the radio. If you’re not on hand to pick her -up—and the radium—she’ll get into trouble. Destroying communications -in space is a penal offense. She might go to Transpolar.”</p> - -<p>Duncan snarled deep in his throat. His face was savage.</p> - -<p>Olcott kept the gun steady. “Everything’s planned. Be smart, and in a -couple of days you’ll be back on Earth, with Andrea and half a million -credits. If you want to be a damned fool—” the pistol jutted—“it’s a -long drop. And it’ll be tough on the girl.”</p> - -<p>“Yeah,” Duncan whispered. “I get it.” His big fists clenched. “I’ll play -it your way, Olcott. I have to. But if anything happens to Andrea, God -help you!”</p> - -<p>Olcott only smiled.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER TWO</p> - -<p class="ph2">Invisible Pirate</p> - - -<p>Rudy Hartman was drunk. An overtured bottle of <i>khlar</i>, the fiery -Martian brew, lay beside his cot, and he stumbled over it and cursed -thickly as he blinked at tropical sunlight. The gross, shapeless body, -clad in filthy singlet and dungarees, lumbered over to a crude -laboratory bench, and Hartman, blinking and grunting, fumbled for a -syringe. He shot thiamin chloride into his arm, and simultaneously heard -the roar of a plane’s motor.</p> - -<p>Hastily Hartman left the <i>godown</i> and headed for the island’s beach near -by. The camouflaged amphibian was gliding across the lagoon—a quick -flight, that had been, from the Polar Circle to the South Pacific! -Hartman’s eyes focused blearily on the plane as it slid toward the rough -dock.</p> - -<p>Two men got out—Olcott and Duncan.</p> - -<p>“Everything’s ready,” Hartman said. His tongue was thick, and he -steadied himself with an effort.</p> - -<p>“Good!” Olcott glanced at his wrist-chronometer. “There’s no time to -waste.”</p> - -<p>“When do I take off?”</p> - -<p>“Immediately. You’ll pick up the <i>Maid</i> this side of the Moon, but it’s -a long distance.”</p> - -<p>Hartman was blinking at the convict. “You’re Saul Duncan. Hope you’re a -good pilot. This is—um—ticklish work.”</p> - -<p>“I can handle it,” Duncan said shortly. Olcott was already moving toward -a trail that led inland from the beach. The other two followed for -perhaps half a mile, till they reached the dead-black hull of a small -cruiser-type spaceship, camouflaged from above with vines and <i>pandanus</i> -leaves. The boat showed signs of hard usage. Duncan walked around to the -stern tubes and carefully examined the jointures.</p> - -<p>“Crack-up, eh?” he said.</p> - -<p>Olcott nodded. “How do you suppose we got our hands on the crate? It was -wrecked south of here, near a little islet. There weren’t any survivors. -It cost me plenty to have the ship brought here secretly, where Hartman -could work on it. But it has been put in good shape now.”</p> - -<p>“She—um—runs,” the scientist said doubtfully, blinking. “And she has -strong motors. Unless they’re too strong. I spot-welded the hull, but -there is—um—a certain amount of danger.”</p> - -<p>Olcott made an impatient gesture. “Let’s go in.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The control cabin showed signs of careful work; Duncan decided that -Hartman knew his job. He moved to the controls and examined them with -interest.</p> - -<p>“Made any test-runs?”</p> - -<p>“Without a pilot?” Olcott chuckled. “Hartman says it’ll fly, and that’s -enough for me.”</p> - -<p>“Uh-huh. Well, I see you’ve painted the ship black. That’ll make it -difficult to spot. I’ll have only occlusion to worry about, and a fast -course with this little boat will take care of that.” Duncan pulled at -his lower lip. “I noticed you put rocket-screens on, too.”</p> - -<p>“Naturally.” Rocket-screens, like gun-silencers, were illegal, and for a -similar reason. The flare of the jets are visible across vast distances -in space, but a dead-black ship, tubes screened, would be practically -invisible.</p> - -<p>“Okay,” Duncan said. “What about the Plutonians.”</p> - -<p>It was Hartman who spoke this time. “Just what do you know about the -Plutonians?”</p> - -<p>“No more than anyone else. No ship’s ever landed on Pluto. The creatures -are mental vampires. They can reach out, somehow, across space and suck -the energy out of the brain.”</p> - -<p>Hartman’s ravaged face twisted in a grin. “So. But their power can’t -break through the Heaviside Layer. That’s why Earth hasn’t been harmed. -Only space travelers, unprotected by a Varra convoy, are vulnerable. -Even with Varra Helmets, men are sometimes killed. All right. How do you -suppose the Plutonians find their victims?”</p> - -<p>“Nobody knows that,” Duncan said. “Mental vibrations, maybe.”</p> - -<p>Hartman snorted. “Space is big! The electrical impulses of a brain are -microscopic compared to interplanetary distances. But the ships—there’s -the answer. A spaceship is visible for thousands of miles—reflection, -and the rocket-jets. It’d be easy for the Plutonians to locate our -ships, if they have any sort of telescopes at all. So, we have here a -ship they cannot find. Therefore, we do not need a Varra escort to -protect us from the Plutonians.”</p> - -<p>“It would have been safer if we could have hired a Varra,” Olcott said. -“Still, that was impossible. They’re hand in glove with the government.”</p> - -<p>“I know. They’ve convoyed me, in the old days,” Duncan grunted. “Let me -go over it again. I take this ship out, pick up the <i>Maid</i>, Earthside of -Luna, and get the radium—and Andrea.”</p> - -<p>“Right,” Olcott nodded. “Then back here, and I hand over half a million -credits.”</p> - -<p>“Going into space without a Helmet is risky.”</p> - -<p>“You will not be near Pluto,” Hartman put in. “There is danger, yes, but -it is minimized.”</p> - -<p>“But there is danger. I’m thinking of Andrea. When I pick her up, she’s -got to leave her Helmet in the <i>Maid</i>.”</p> - -<p>“Naturally,” Olcott snapped, his lips thinning. “If she continues to -wear it, she brings a Varra back to Earth with her—a spy.”</p> - -<p>Duncan looked at Hartman. “What armament are we carrying?”</p> - -<p>“Six four-inch blaster cannons, fully charged.”</p> - -<p>“Okay.” Duncan turned again to the controls, slipping into the cushioned -basket-seat. “Everything oiled and clean, eh? Doors?” He touched a stud; -the valve of the door closed silently.</p> - -<p>“Everything is ready,” Hartman said.</p> - -<p>“Air-conditioning?” Duncan tried it. “Good. Course?” He checked the -space-chart before him. His back to the others, he said quietly, “You’re -asking Andrea to take a big risk, Olcott. You too, Hartman, going into -space without a Helmet.”</p> - -<p>Olcott moved uneasily; Duncan could see him in the mirror above the -instrument panel. “Hell! It was her own choice—”</p> - -<p>“You blackmailed her into it.”</p> - -<p>Olcott’s lips thinned. “Backing out? If you are, say so.”</p> - -<p>“No,” Duncan said, “I’m not backing out. I’m going into space. But you -two are going with me—<i>right now!</i>”</p> - -<p>His poised fingers shot down on the instrument board. Olcott’s oath and -Hartman’s startled yell were both drowned in a sudden raging fury of -rockets. In the mirror Duncan could see the gun that flashed into -Olcott’s hand, but at the same instant terrific acceleration clamped -hold of the little ship.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Olcott’s gun was never fired. The three men’s senses blacked out -instantly, mercifully, as the stress of abnormal gravities lifted the -cruiser bullet-fast from the islet. Three figures lay motionless on the -plasticoid floor, while the rockets’ bellow mingled with the shrieking -of the atmosphere. The insulated hull scarcely had time to heat before -the ship was in free space, shuddering through all its repaired beams -and joists, the dull, heavy thunder of the screened tubes vibrating like -a tocsin of doom in every inch of the cruiser.</p> - -<p>The hull was dead black, the jets screened. No eye detected the swift -flight of the ship. Toward the Moon it plunged, rockets bellowing with -insensate fury....</p> - -<p>Duncan was first to awaken. Space flight was nothing new to him, and his -body had been hardened and toughened by five years at Transpolar. -Nevertheless, his muscles throbbed with pain, and he had a blinding -headache as he dragged his eyelids up and tried to remember what had -happened.</p> - -<p>Realization came back. Spaceman’s instinct made Duncan look first at the -controls. The chronometer on the board told him that he had been -unconscious for many hours. Watching the star-map, he figured swiftly. -Fair enough. They were off their course, but the cruiser had been -traveling at breakneck speed. It was still possible to keep the -rendezvous with the <i>Maid</i>. Duncan readjusted the controls.</p> - -<p>After that, he turned to Olcott and the scientist. Neither was seriously -injured. Duncan relieved Olcott of his gun; Hartman was unarmed. Then he -took a drink and sat down to wait.</p> - -<p>Presently Olcott stirred slightly. His lashes did not move, but without -warning his hand streaked toward his pocket.</p> - -<p>“I’ve got your gun,” Duncan said gently. “Stop playing possum and get -up.”</p> - -<p>Olcott obeyed. There was a streak of blood on his cheek, and he swayed a -little as he stood, straddle-legged, facing the pilot.</p> - -<p>“What’s the idea?”</p> - -<p>Duncan grinned. “I’m carrying out your orders. I just thought I’d like -company.”</p> - -<p>Olcott fingered his mustache. “You’re the first man who ever played a -trick like that on me.”</p> - -<p>For answer Duncan stood up and waved negligently at the controls. “Take -over, if you like. Head the ship back to Earth.”</p> - -<p>The irony was evident. In free space, almost anyone could pilot a -cruiser. But emergencies and landings were different matters. Years of -training in split-second, conditioned reactions were necessary to make a -pilot—and only Duncan had had that training. Olcott could easily turn -the ship around, but he probably could not control it in atmosphere, and -he certainly could not make a safe landing. Olcott was in a prison, and -Duncan held the only key.</p> - -<p>“What do you want?”</p> - -<p>“Not a thing. I’m going through with the job. I’ll get the radium-for -you, and pick up Andrea. But if the Plutonians harm her, without a -Helmet, she won’t die alone. We’re all in the same boat now.”</p> - -<p>Olcott came to a decision. “All right. You’ve got aces. Later, we can -settle things—not now.”</p> - -<p>Duncan turned to the star-map. “Fair enough.”</p> - -<p>In the mirror he watched Olcott kneel beside the unconscious Hartman and -break an ammonia capsule under the scientist’s nose. Yes, fair enough. -He had Olcott in a trap. Dangerous as the man was—and Duncan made no -mistake about that—he would scarcely be fool enough to cause trouble -till his own safety was assured.</p> - -<p>It wouldn’t be assured till the cruiser was back on Earth. Meanwhile, -they were in free space—without Varra Helmets. Duncan shivered a -little. His eyes sought the enigmatic blackness where Pluto swung in its -orbit, invisible and menacing. The Plutonian mind-vampires. Apparently -Hartman’s trick had worked. The creatures had not yet discovered the -blacked-out cruiser.</p> - -<p>Not yet. But the scope of their powers was unknown. After all, the -Plutonians were the reason why space was forbidden.</p> - -<p>Instinctively Duncan’s teeth showed in a snarl of savage defiance.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was hilarious excitement aboard the <i>Maid of Mercury</i>. The big -passenger-cargo ship had just crossed the Line—Luna’s orbit—and that -entailed a ceremony involving those who had never crossed before. An -officer, grotesquely costumed as the Man in the Moon, presided from a -makeshift throne in the main salon, and Andrea Duncan, smiling a little, -watched the victims each get their dose of crazy-gas. She’d already had -her initiation, and the effects of the mildly intoxicating gas were -wearing off.</p> - -<p>It was difficult to believe that outside the hull lay empty space, dark -and limitless. Andrea turned her mind away from the thought. But another -came—Saul—and she bit her lip and caught her breath in a tiny gasp. -Saul! Had Olcott managed the escape? Was Saul Duncan free from -Transpolar?</p> - -<p>He must be. Olcott wouldn’t fail. That meant that in a few hours Andrea -must destroy the communication system. Olcott had told her the best way. -Yes, she was ready. It would mean freedom for Saul.</p> - -<p>If she failed, Olcott had said, her husband would be sent back to -Transpolar, with an additional heavy sentence—ten more years, perhaps. -Well, she wouldn’t fail.</p> - -<p>A man brushed past her. “Your hair’s mussed up—”</p> - -<p>Instinctively Andrea lifted a hand, only to be checked by the hard -plastic curve of her Helmet. It was an old gag, but she forced herself -to smile. The necessity of wearing Helmets in space had become a joke to -most of the passengers. Probably only the officers realized the true -danger of the Plutonian mind-vampires.</p> - -<p>Everyone in the salon, of course, wore a Helmet—even the Man in the -Moon, under his disguise. Cumbersome as they looked, they rested lightly -on the wearers’ shoulders, and were actually so light that one easily -became accustomed to them. Andrea studied her reflection in a nearby -mirror. Her small, heart-shaped face seemed dwarfed by the Helmet. -Experimentally, like an interested child, she pressed a stud and saw the -transparent, air-tight shield slide into place an inch from her nose. -Within the ship the shields were not necessary, nor were complete -space-suits. But the Helmets were vital.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Andrea knew little or nothing of the technical details. The secret of -the Helmets lay in the luminous, intertron knob atop each one. It was -this that provided a two-way hook-up with the Varra. She remembered what -an officer had told her, when she had first donned a Helmet at the -Atlantic Spaceport.</p> - -<p>“Never done it before, eh, miss? Well, don’t be frightened. Let me help -you.” He had adjusted the bulky Helmet. “The power won’t be turned on -till we hit the Heaviside Layer. The Varra can’t safely enter our -atmosphere, you know.”</p> - -<p>“I didn’t know. It seems so strange—”</p> - -<p>The officer chuckled. “Not really. It’s like being in radio -communication with somebody. You see, when the juice is turned on, a -Varra instantly hooks itself up to your Helmet. You can even talk to -him—it—if you like. They’re intelligent; nice people, in fact.”</p> - -<p>“Can they read thoughts?”</p> - -<p>“Everybody asks me that. No, they can’t. The idea is that without a -Helmet, you’d be exposed to the Plutonian mind-vampires. As it is, the -Varra throws up a mental shield that protects you.”</p> - -<p>Andrea hesitated. “It doesn’t always work, though, does it?”</p> - -<p>“Almost always. You were warned of that—” His manner became officially -rigid. “You signed a release blank, in case of accident. But there’s no -danger to speak of. Space flight is exhausting; you’ll feel pretty bad -by the time we hit Mars. Somehow there’s an energy drain that even the -Varra can’t neutralize.”</p> - -<p>“The Plutonians?”</p> - -<p>“We think so. But without the Helmets—” He grinned in a comforting -fashion. “You’ll be okay, miss.”</p> - -<p>Later, at the Heaviside Layer, the power had been turned on in each -Helmet. There was no apparent change, except for the sudden luminosity -of the intertron knobs. But a voice, friendly despite its curious -alienage, had spoken wordlessly inside Andrea’s brain.</p> - -<p>“I’m taking over now. Don’t remove your Helmet or turn off the power -till you’re in atmosphere again.”</p> - -<p>“Atmosphere—” Andrea had spoken aloud without realizing it. The Varra -answered her.</p> - -<p>“Each planet has a Heaviside Layer, an electronic barrage that disrupts -mental-energy vibrations. We find it dangerous to pass that Layer, but -so do the Plutonians.”</p> - -<p>Another passenger had told Andrea somewhat more—that the Varra, even -before space travel, were not unknown to science. Charles Fort had been -one of the first to collect data about them—inexplicable balls of fire -appearing on Earth, with their life-forces warped and harmed by the -Heaviside Layer, moving at random out of their native element.</p> - -<p>Two hours after crossing the Lunar Line Andrea slipped noiselessly into -the radio room. The long space trip had told on her; like all the -others, she was conscious of exhaustion and mental drain. Glancing at -her chronometer, she realized that in a few minutes Saul would make -contact with the <i>Maid</i>.</p> - -<p>She clicked off the power in her Helmet. She wanted no Varra spying on -her now.</p> - -<p>The radio operator did not turn. He had not seen her or heard her silent -approach. Andrea’s hand poised over an intricate array of wires and tore -the cables free.</p> - -<p>A lance of cold fire plunged into her brain. It was too quick for pain. -Her terrified thought, <i>The Plutonians!</i> was cut off instantly. Her mind -drowned, as in dark water, chill and horrible.</p> - -<p>The radio operator whirled, startled, at the thud of Andrea’s falling -body.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER THREE</p> - -<p class="ph2">Destination—Death!</p> - - -<p>“CQX! CQX! Calling <i>Maid of Mercury</i>!”</p> - -<p>Saul Duncan looked up from the mike. “No answer. Their radio’s dead.”</p> - -<p>“Your wife did her job,” Olcott grunted, fingering his mustache. He had -regained his usual impassivity, though Hartman, in the background, had -not. The scientist, without his daily quart of <i>khlar</i>, was a nervous -wreck, puffing cigarette after cigarette in a vain attempt to calm -himself.</p> - -<p>“There she is.” Duncan nodded at the visiplate, where the bulk of the -<i>Maid</i> lay, occulting stars. “We’ll use visual signals. First, though, -we’ll have to—”</p> - -<p>His fingers moved swiftly. A four-inch blaster cannon sent its bolt of -electronic energy ravening through space, across the <i>Maid’s</i> bow. -Lights on the cruiser’s hull blinked into rainbow colors.</p> - -<p>Paralleling the <i>Maid</i>, steadily drawing closer, the smaller ship kept -on its course.</p> - -<p>Duncan said, “They noticed that. They’ll be watching the visiplate—”</p> - -<p>“What are you telling them?”</p> - -<p>“To send over the radium, or we’ll blast ’em to hell.”</p> - -<p>“Good!”</p> - -<p>But Duncan’s lips were tight. He was bluffing, of course. Blasting an -unarmed ship full of passengers—well, if it came to a showdown, he -could not do it, even if Andrea had not been on board. However, the -<i>Maid’s</i> captain couldn’t know that. He wouldn’t dare take the risk.</p> - -<p>Answering lights flashed on the larger ship’s hull. Duncan read them -aloud with the ease of long practice.</p> - -<p>“No radium aboard. Is this a joke?”</p> - -<p>“Send another blast,” Olcott suggested.</p> - -<p>Duncan’s response was to fire a bolt that melted two of the <i>Maid’s</i> -stern tubes into slag. That didn’t harm anyone in the passenger ship, -but it showed that he was presumably in earnest. And he had to get -Andrea aboard now. She had smashed the radio, and probably was already -under arrest. Well—</p> - -<p>“Sending radium. Don’t fire again.”</p> - -<p>“Send one of your passengers also. Jane Horton.” Andrea was booked under -that alias, Olcott had said.</p> - -<p>There was a pause. Then—“Jane Horton victim of Plutonians. Must have -turned off power in Helmet. Found dead in radio room just before you -made contact.”</p> - -<p>Saul Duncan’s fingers didn’t move on the keys. Deep within him, -something turned into ice. He was hearing a voice, seeing a face, both -phantoms, for Andrea was dead.</p> - -<p>Andrea was dead.</p> - -<p>The words were meaningless.</p> - -<p>He became conscious of Olcott at his side, talking angrily.</p> - -<p>“What’s wrong? What did they say?”</p> - -<p>Duncan looked at Olcott. The dead, frozen fury in the pilot’s eyes -halted Olcott in mid-sentence.</p> - -<p>Automatically Duncan’s hand moved over the keyboard.</p> - -<p>“Send the body to me.”</p> - -<p>Then he waited.</p> - -<p>On the visiplate was movement. A port gaped in the <i>Maid’s</i> hull, the -escape-hatch with which all ships were provided. Based on torpedo-tube -principle, powered by magnetic energy, the projector was built to hurl -crew or passengers out of the ship’s sphere of attraction. Sometimes the -rockets would fail, in which case the vessel would crash on any nearby -body. If that danger threatened, a man in a spacesuit, equipped with -auxiliary rockets, could survive for days in the void, provided he was -not dragged down with the ship. The projector took care of that.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Now, tuned to minimum power, it thrust a bulky object out into space, -pushing it toward the cruiser. Gravitation did the rest. The spacesuit -dropped toward the smaller vessel, thudded against the hull. Duncan -threw a series of hull magnets, one after another, till the suit was at -an escape valve.</p> - -<p>Five minutes later the space coffin lay at Duncan’s feet.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Through the bars that protected the transparent face-plate he could see -Andrea, her long lashes motionless on her cheeks. Duncan’s face was -suddenly haggard. Olcott’s voice jarred on his taut nerves.</p> - -<p>“What happened? Did they—”</p> - -<p>“The Plutonians killed her,” Duncan said. “She turned off her Helmet, -and they killed her.”</p> - -<p>Hartman was staring at a lead box attached to the spacesuit. “They sent -the radium!”</p> - -<p>Duncan’s lips twisted in a bitter smile. With a quick movement he went -to the controls and turned the cruiser into a new course. On the -visiplate, the <i>Maid</i> began to draw away.</p> - -<p>Olcott said, “How long will it take us to get back to Earth?”</p> - -<p>“We’re not going back.” Duncan’s voice held no emotion.</p> - -<p>“What?”</p> - -<p>“Andrea’s dead. The Plutonians killed her. You and Hartman helped.”</p> - -<p>Olcott’s big body seemed to tense. “Don’t be a fool. What good will it -do to murder us? What’s done is done. You—”</p> - -<p>“I’m not going to murder you,” Duncan said. “The Plutonians will take -care of that.”</p> - -<p>“You’re crazy!”</p> - -<p>Briefly a flash of murderous fury showed in Duncan’s eyes. He repressed -it.</p> - -<p>“I’m taking this boat to Pluto. I’m going to blast hell out of the -Plutonians. They’ll get us eventually, all of us. That’ll be swell. I -don’t want to live very long now. But before I die, I’m going to smash -as many of the Plutonians as I can, because they killed Andrea. And you -two are going with me, because you got Andrea into this mess.”</p> - -<p>Hartman said shakily, “It’s suicide. No ship can get within a million -miles of Pluto!”</p> - -<p>“This ship can. It’s dead black, with rocket screens. And the Plutonians -haven’t found us yet—which proves something. Hold it!” The gun flashed -into Duncan’s hand as Olcott jerked forward. “I’ll kill you myself if I -have to, but I’d rather let the Plutonians do it.” He motioned the -others to the back of the cabin as a light flashed on the board. After a -moment Duncan nodded.</p> - -<p>“That was the <i>Maid</i>. They managed to repair their radio. Andrea didn’t -have time to smash it thoroughly before. They’re talking to a patrol -boat.”</p> - -<p>Olcott’s teeth showed. “Well?”</p> - -<p>“We don’t want to be stopped—now.” Duncan fingered the controls. The -bellow of rockets grew louder. A shuddering vibration rocked the little -cruiser.</p> - -<p>“Not too fast!” Hartman said warningly. “This ship crashed once. It’s -still weak.”</p> - -<p>For answer Duncan only increased the power. The thunder of the tubes -grew deafening. Already they had crossed the Lunar Line, heading outward -in the plane of the ecliptic.</p> - -<p>Duncan rose and went to the spacesuit that held Andrea’s body. He -wrenched the intertron knob free from the Helmet.</p> - -<p>“We want no Varra spy here.” The knob was not glowing, and, without -power, the Varra was not <i>en rapport</i> with the Helmet, but Duncan was -taking no chances.</p> - -<p>Grimly he went back to the controls. Hartman and Olcott watched him, -vainly trying to fight back their fear.</p> - -<p>The heavy, crashing roar of the rockets mounted to a deafening -crescendo.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER FOUR</p> - -<p class="ph2">The Destroying Avenger</p> - - -<p>Named after the Greek god of the underworld, desolate, lifeless and -forbidding as Hell itself, Pluto revolved in its tremendous orbit, -between thirty-seven hundred million and four thousand million miles -from the Sun. Such distances are staggeringly inconceivable when we -attempt to use human yardsticks. Men cannot stand the strain of such -voyages without special precautions. Suspended animation is usual on the -long hops, and Duncan had made use of the cataleptic drug he found at -hand in the cruiser’s emergency supply locker.</p> - -<p>For a long time the three men had been unconscious as the ship, with -increasing acceleration, hurled itself toward Pluto. Duncan had -carefully measured the Sherman units of the drug, calculating so that he -would awaken hours before the others. But he forgot one thing—the -terrific resistance <i>khlar</i> builds up within the human body.</p> - -<p>So it was Rudy Hartman who first opened his eyes, groaned, and stared -uncomprehendingly about him. He was strapped in a bunk, Duncan and -Olcott near by. Memory came back.</p> - -<p>Sick and weak from the long period of catalepsy, Hartman nevertheless -forced his aching limbs into motion. Staggering, he presently reached -Duncan and took the latter’s gun. That done, he searched for a means of -binding his captive securely.</p> - -<p>The bunk-straps were of flexible metal—not long enough, but they might -serve a purpose. Hartman, scarcely conscious of his actions, fumbled at -a panel and slid it back. Within the cubicle space-suits were stacked, -each with its Varra Helmet, Olcott had ordered them removed when Hartman -was repairing the vessel, but the scientist had not obeyed. He had not -felt entirely certain that the cruiser would not be detected by the -Plutonians, and perhaps he had felt a twinge of compunction at the -thought of sending a helpless man to possible suicide, if his theory -proved wrong. So he had concealed the Helmets behind a panel. Now he -blessed the lucky chance that had made him do so.</p> - -<p>Duncan was still unconscious. Hartman rolled him out of the bunk and -dressed him in a suit, fitting the Varra Helmet in place. With the -flexible straps he bound Duncan’s arms to his side; a makeshift job, but -it would serve. Finally he pried the intertron knob from the Helmet and -sighed with relief.</p> - -<p>Hesitantly he went to the controls. The star-map told him little, except -that they were approaching Pluto. Should they begin deceleration? -Hartman’s fingers hovered over the studs—Damn! He dared not alter the -course. He wasn’t a pilot, and it took trained hands to control a -spaceship.</p> - -<p>Well, that didn’t matter. There was another way—with the Varra Helmets.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He broke an ammonia capsule under Olcott’s nose and applied artificial -respiration. After a time Olcott stirred.</p> - -<p>“Hartman?” His tongue was thick. “Where—what’s happened?”</p> - -<p>“A great deal. Lie still and get back your strength. I’ll tell you—”</p> - -<p>But Olcott struggled to rise. “Duncan!”</p> - -<p>“He’s safe.” Hartman nodded toward the bound figure. Then he sucked in -his breath and sprang up. Duncan’s eyes were open.</p> - -<p>“Stay where you are,” Hartman said, showing the gun. “I won’t hesitate -to kill you, you know.”</p> - -<p>Duncan grinned. “Go ahead. You can’t pilot this ship. I can wait.”</p> - -<p>Olcott got up unsteadily. “You’ll pilot it—back to Earth. Damn you, -Duncan—”</p> - -<p>“I’ll pilot it to Pluto. Nowhere else.”</p> - -<p>Hartman intervened. “Wait. Listen, Duncan. We have several Varra Helmets -aboard. You didn’t know that.”</p> - -<p>“So what?”</p> - -<p>“We do not need you as a pilot. If we make connections with the Varra, -we can chart a course back to Earth by letting them instruct us.”</p> - -<p>Duncan’s eyes changed.</p> - -<p>He said, “You’re crazy.” But his voice lacked conviction.</p> - -<p>“The Varra!” Olcott scowled. “But—”</p> - -<p>Hartman whirled on him. “I know! It will mean giving up the radium. But -there’s no other way. We’re near Pluto. The Plutonians may detect us at -any moment. If they do—” He shrugged. “We can keep the radium and die -here. Or we can use the Helmets, summon the Varra, and have them guide -us back to Earth.”</p> - -<p>“Can they do that?”</p> - -<p>“Easily. If they had tangible bodies, they could pilot spaceships as -well as Duncan, or anyone else. As it is, they can tell us how to handle -the controls.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll lose the radium. It’ll mean prison too.”</p> - -<p>“Not necessarily. Our lives are worth more than the radium—eh? And the -Varra can’t read minds. Suppose we have a convincing story to tell? We -planned this space-flight as a scientific expedition, nothing more. We -didn’t know Duncan was an escaped convict. We didn’t know he planned to -hi-jack the <i>Maid</i>—”</p> - -<p>Olcott rubbed his mustache. “Plenty of holes in that. But you’re right. -We can fix up some sort of story. And there’ll be no legal proof—”</p> - -<p>He looked toward the helpless Duncan. “Except him. We don’t want him -talking.”</p> - -<p>Hartman touched the gun, but Olcott shook his head. “No. Listen. Duncan. -You’re licked. We can get back to Earth, with you or without you. But if -we get the Varra to help, we lose the radium. Why not be smart? Play -along with us, and you’ll still get your half a million credits.”</p> - -<p>“Go to hell!” Duncan suggested.</p> - -<p>Hartman said, “We’ve no time to waste. We’re not far from Pluto—” He -didn’t finish, but there was a suggestion of panic fear in his voice.</p> - -<p>“Right. This ship’s got an escape hatch, hasn’t it? Good.” Olcott -hurriedly began to don spacesuit and Varra Helmet. At a gesture, Hartman -followed his example.</p> - -<p>“Don’t use the power yet. Help me.” Olcott picked up Duncan by the -shoulders. Grunting and straining, the two men carried their captive -into the air-tight bow chamber, sealing the valve behind them. The -magnetic projector, looking like an oversized cannon, faced the circular -transparent port through which they could see the starry darkness of -empty space.</p> - -<p>“Know how to work one of these?”</p> - -<p>“They’re simple,” Hartman said. “This switch—” He indicated it. -“Obviously it closes the circuit. Yes, I can operate this.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Duncan remained silent as he was roughly thrust into the projector’s -gaping muzzle, feet-first. Olcott bent over him.</p> - -<p>“You’ve got auxiliary-suit rockets and enough oxygen. And you can untie -yourself, if you work fast, before you hit Pluto. You can make a safe -landing—till the Plutonians find you. Well?”</p> - -<p>Duncan didn’t answer.</p> - -<p>Olcott said, “Don’t be a fool! You’ll die rather unpleasantly on Pluto. -You know that. Will you take us back to Earth?”</p> - -<p>There was a long silence. Abruptly, with a muffled curse, Olcott snapped -Duncan’s faceplate shut, and then his own. Hartman did the same, and, -with a wry face, touched the power-button on his Helmet that would -summon the Varra.</p> - -<p>In a moment the intertron knob began to glow, with a cold, unearthly -brilliance. Olcott hastily turned the power on in his own Helmet. Now -there was no time to waste. Soon the Varra would come....</p> - -<p>Cold eyes dark with fury, Olcott gestured. Hartman, in response, swung -the projector’s muzzle into position; both men closed their faceplates. -The transparent shield of the bow port slid aside, and the air within -the escape hatch blasted out into space.</p> - -<p>Hartman moved a lever. Electro-magnetic energy blasted out from the -projector, blindingly brilliant. One flashing glimpse the men had of -Duncan’s bound, space-suited body hurtling into the void—and then it -was gone, racing toward Pluto at breakneck speed.</p> - -<p>Hartman closed the port and pumped air back into the tiny chamber. -Abruptly a voice spoke within his brain.</p> - -<p>“Who are you? Why do you summon the Varra? And why are you so near to -Pluto?”</p> - -<p>Olcott had heard the message too. He framed the thought: “You are a -Varra? We need help.”</p> - -<p>“We are Varra. What help do you require?”</p> - -<p>Olcott explained.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He had fallen for many minutes. Beneath him the jagged darkness of Pluto -lay, cryptic and forbidding. It was time to use the rockets, but still -Duncan hesitated, though he had freed himself from his bonds. The flares -would certainly attract the attention of the Plutonian mind-vampires, -and then—</p> - -<p>A shadow occulted the stars. For a moment Duncan thought it was a -meteor; then he recognized the cruiser. Jets screened, almost invisible, -it was still driving on its course toward Pluto!</p> - -<p>He did not stop to ponder the reason. Instinct sent his gloved fingers -to the studs built into his suit. The tiny emergency rockets burned -white in the darkness of space. Duncan was hurled toward the cruiser. -Involuntarily he held his breath, looking downward at the vast circle of -Pluto. Would he die now?</p> - -<p>The rockets had flared only briefly; perhaps they had not been noticed. -He did not use them again. Instead, he waited, moving steadily onward -with no atmosphere to slow him down by its friction. The gravitation of -Pluto pulled at both man and ship, but each fell at the same rate—no! -The cruiser was pulling away! That meant its masked tubes were still on.</p> - -<p>Duncan risked another jet. This time his space-boots thumped solidly on -the hull. He levered himself toward the side port, which could be opened -from without, unless it had been locked. True, when the valve slid -aside, the ship’s air would be lost in space, and anyone within the -cruiser would die. Duncan grinned savagely. Bracing himself awkwardly, -he tugged at levers.</p> - -<p>The port opened. Duncan was almost flung away from the ship by the blast -of air that gusted out. He recovered his balance, swung himself across -the threshold—</p> - -<p>At his feet lay two space-suited bodies, Olcott and Hartman. The -faceplates of their Varra Helmets were open, but they had not died of -lack of oxygen. That was evident. The frozen, strained whiteness of -their features told a different story that Duncan read instantly. The -Plutonians had brought death to Hartman and Olcott; they had died in the -same manner as Andrea.</p> - -<p>Duncan closed the port behind him, his face expressionless. Inwardly he -was tense as wire, in momentary expectation of cold fury striking at his -brain. He stood waiting.</p> - -<p>The star-map on the instrument panel flared. That meant atmosphere -ahead. Duncan was at the controls in two strides. His number might be -up, but he had no intention of dying in a crash—not while there was -still a possibility of revenging himself on the Plutonian creatures.</p> - -<p>He checked the ship’s course, decelerating as much as he dared. So -keyed-up were his nerves that he jumped sharply when a voice spoke -inside his brain.</p> - -<p>“Who are you, Earthman? Why are you here?”</p> - -<p>Before Duncan could frame a response, he felt a thrill of sudden urgency -flame through him. Something, cold and deadly as space itself, reached -into his mind. There was an instant of sickening giddiness—</p> - -<p>It was gone. The sky-screen flamed crimson. The cruiser was within -Pluto’s atmosphere blanket.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Duncan gasped for breath. He was scarcely conscious of manipulating the -cruiser, leveling off into a long, swooping glide. Death had touched him -very nearly—and had been avoided miraculously by a fantastically small -margin. The implications of what had happened turned Duncan white with -incredulous shock.</p> - -<p>For the thing that had been <i>en rapport</i> with his mind had tried to kill -him. And that thing had been not a Plutonian, but a Varra! Duncan was -certain of that. In his space-piloting days he had been in close touch -with the Varra, and had learned the distinctive <i>feel</i> of the -creatures—there was no other word—within his mind.</p> - -<p>But the Varra were friendly to Earthmen!</p> - -<p>The rough terrain of Pluto lay below. A cold, bluish radiance, almost -invisible, seemed to flicker here and there. Duncan set the ship down -with trained skill, landing on a broad plateau at the base of a high -range of alps.</p> - -<p>He was on Pluto, shunned and feared by Earthmen for a hundred and fifty -years. He was in the very lair of the mind-vampires.</p> - -<p>And nothing happened.</p> - -<p>Slowly Duncan rose and turned the valves on the oxygen tanks. He -divested himself of his spacesuit and made a careful examination of the -two bodies. Both Olcott and Hartman had been killed, apparently, by the -Plutonians. They had the stigmata.</p> - -<p>But Duncan was thinking a rather impossible thought—that there were no -Plutonians.</p> - -<p>With half of his mind he made tests. There was atmosphere, almost pure -chlorine. Nor was it unduly cold. An electroscope gave him the answer. -Pluto was a radioactive planet, warmed from within by the powerful -radiations of the ore.</p> - -<p>Duncan took the dead Olcott’s helmet and adjusted it upon himself. -Turning on the power made the intertron knob glow, but there was no -other result. The Varra, of course, could not safely venture within the -Heaviside Layer of any planet, and Pluto had a Layer, since it had an -atmosphere. Chlorine—radium—Duncan shook his head, trying to fit the -puzzle together.</p> - -<p>There were no Plutonians. Why, then, had the Varra fostered the legend -of the mind-vampires? Creatures composed of pure energy could not exist -on a radioactive planet; the radiations would be fatal to their -complicated electronic structures.</p> - -<p>Duncan thought for a long time. At last he had the answer, so -astoundingly simple that he found it difficult to believe. But it -checked. And that meant—</p> - -<p>He rose and went slowly to where Andrea’s body lay, still in the -spacesuit, her face composed and lovely in death. Duncan’s lips twisted. -He knelt.</p> - -<p>“Andrea—”</p> - -<p>She was trying to tell him something, he thought. What?</p> - -<p>“Tell Earth what I’ve found out? Is that it?”</p> - -<p>He hesitated. “It’s no use. We’re forty thousand million miles from the -Sun. The radio won’t carry that far, even if it’d get through the -Heaviside Layer on Pluto. There’s no way to send a message back.”</p> - -<p>There was no way. Nor could the cruiser retrace its course. There was -not enough fuel left. The jets would be exhausted before Saturn’s orbit -was reached, and the speed would increase as the ship plunged Sunward, -increase to a point where deceleration would be impossible.</p> - -<p>“There’s no way, Andrea. I can’t send the message—”</p> - -<p>Duncan stopped. There was a way, after all, though it meant death.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He seated himself before the radio-recorder and adjusted it to -automatic-repeat. His message would be imprinted on metal wire-tape, and -continue to be sent out into the void till the ship itself was -destroyed.</p> - -<p>Duncan pulled the microphone toward him. His voice was coldly -emotionless.</p> - -<p>“CQX. CQX. Recorded on Pluto. All ships copy. Relay to proper -authorities. Pluto is uninhabited. Its atmosphere is pure chlorine. No -life-form known to science can exist in a chlorine atmosphere or on a -radioactive world. The Plutonian mind-vampires do not exist. The legend -was created by the Varra for their own purposes. The actual -mind-vampires are the Varra themselves.”</p> - -<p>Now it would be theorizing, but Duncan was certain that his guess was -correct.</p> - -<p>“The Varra live on life energy. When man conquered space, they foresaw -danger to themselves. They are vulnerable, and if Earth suspected their -motives, they’d be relentlessly destroyed. So—as I see it—they -pretended to be friendly, and blamed the mind-vampirism on imaginary -creatures living on Pluto. The Varra can communicate with us without the -need for Helmets. They can kill too. But they seldom do that. Instead, -pretending to protect space-travelers from the Plutonians, they drain a -certain amount of life-energy from each person wearing a Helmet. We’re -like cattle to them. We think they’re friendly, and so far we haven’t -suspected the truth. As long as we didn’t suspect, the Varra were safe, -and could keep on vampirizing us, without our knowledge. Once in a while -a Varra badly in need of energy would drain too much, which would kill -its host.”</p> - -<p>That was what had happened to Andrea. The Varra had tried to stop her -from wrecking the <i>Maid’s</i> radio, and—Duncan’s teeth showed.</p> - -<p>He went on telling his story, explaining what had happened. He made no -excuses; there was no need for them now.</p> - -<p>Finally he said: “The Varra can be destroyed. And we can protect -ourselves against them. That’ll be up to the scientists. If this ship -gets through, it will mean that the Varra couldn’t stop me. I’ve got -radium aboard. So I’ll put a Heaviside Layer around the cruiser—and -blast off Sunward.”</p> - -<p>Duncan clicked the switch. No need to say more. Earth would understand, -would believe.</p> - -<p>But now—</p> - -<p>He opened the port, after donning a suit and Helmet, and let the ship -fill with the chlorine atmosphere. It would be better than oxygen, for -his purposes. Iodine vapor would be even more effective, but he could -not create that. If only he were a scientist, a technician, he could -probably discover some other way of creating an artificial Heaviside -Layer.</p> - -<p>But it didn’t matter. This way was surest and quickest, and there would -be no machinery to fail him.</p> - -<p>Sealed within the ship once more, Duncan found the shipment of Martian -radium, hi-jacked from the <i>Maid</i>, and removed it from its thick leaden -container. He left it exposed, and went to the controls.</p> - -<p>The cruiser lifted from the surface of the plateau. It slanted up -through the chlorine atmosphere, rockets bellowing.</p> - -<p>There was no need for split-second timing or unusual accuracy—within -certain limits. He was heading Sunward. Nothing more was necessary. -Except power—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The tubes thundered with ravening fury. The cruiser blasted up, -acceleration jamming Duncan back into his seat. Then they were out of -the air-envelope, in free space, controls locked. There was nothing more -to do now but to drive on. The rockets would blast their fury into the -void till the fuel was exhausted. Even then, the ship would speed on, -into the tracks of commerce and the orbits of the inhabited planets.</p> - -<p>On the visiplate specks of light glimmered, resolving themselves into a -nebulous cloud—the Varra.</p> - -<p>It was the final proof. Duncan was the first man who had ever landed on -Pluto. The Varra intended to destroy him, giving him no opportunity of -telling what he knew to Earth.</p> - -<p>Duncan checked the radio. It was repeating his message, sending it -steadily into space. At this distance from the Sun there was no chance -that it would be picked up. But later—</p> - -<p>He clicked the power on in his Helmet. There was no response. The Varra, -as he had thought, could not penetrate his artificial barrier, his -pseudo-Heaviside Layer.</p> - -<p>It was nothing, actually, but a blanket of ionization. But the Varra -could not break through it. Duncan glanced at the exposed radium on the -floor. A pound of it, sending out its powerful emanations, gamma, beta -and electrons, ionizing the chlorine even more effectively than it would -have affected oxygen—invisible armor, protecting Duncan from the Varra.</p> - -<p>They were massing ahead, determined to stop him. Thoughts began to -penetrate his mind, furtive, random, but indications that the group -power of the Varra was stronger than he had expected.</p> - -<p>Duncan seated himself at a panel, the one controlling the blaster -cannons. His face, haggard and strained, twisted in a bitter smile.</p> - -<p>“Okay, Andrea,” he whispered. “I’m taking the message back for you. But -I’m doing this—for myself! Because they killed you, damn them—”</p> - -<p>The chill tentacles probed deeper into Duncan’s brain. He swung a cannon -into position, pressed a stud, and watched a streak of electronic energy -go blasting across space, silent thunder in the void, smashing -relentlessly at the Varra. It struck in a maelstrom of flame.</p> - -<p>“Vulnerable!” Duncan said, “Yeah, they’re vulnerable as all hell!”</p> - -<p>The Varra closed in. Through their massed ranks the cannon blazed and -pounded, till space seemed afire. The rocking recoil of the blasts, -mingled with the booming of the rockets, thudded in Duncan’s ears even -through the Helmet.</p> - -<p>And he fought them. There were no witnesses to that battle, none to see -the black cruiser plunging on through the cloud of attackers, belching -Jove’s lightning, shaking with the vibrations of its murder-madness. For -the spaceship was mad, Duncan thought, a relentless, destroying avenger, -a dark angel bringing the terror of Armageddon to the Varra. And the -energy-beings never paused; their life and their future was in the -scales. If Duncan broke through, they were doomed. He must be stopped.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They could not stop him! Almost blind with the agony burning within his -brain, Saul Duncan nevertheless hunched over the controls, while the -cannons thundered their demoniac message into space. By dozens and -hundreds the Varra died, their energy-matrices wrenched and broken by -the electronic bolts. Duncan and the ship were one—and both were mad.</p> - -<p>He got through. He had to. Nothing could have stopped Saul Duncan, not -even the Varra. In the end, the black cruiser raced Sunward, cannons -silent, for the Varra were scattered.</p> - -<p>Duncan got up wearily. He stood above Andrea’s body, watching the still -features, the long lashes that would never rise.</p> - -<p>“It’s done,” he said. “Finished. Earth will get the message—”</p> - -<p>Earth would get the message. The Varra could not stop the cruiser now, -and the radio would continue to send out its signal till the fires of -the Sun swallowed the black ship.</p> - -<p>Duncan knelt. His legs were weak. The radium, of course. His suit could -not protect him from the fatal radiations of a pound of the pure ore. -But the stuff had served its purpose. It had kept the Varra at a -distance till Duncan could fulfill his vengeance.</p> - -<p>And now it would kill him—unless he replaced it in the leaden casket. -But even that might not work now.</p> - -<p>Duncan shrugged. It was better to die of radium burns than by the power -of the Varra.</p> - -<p>He would be dead long before then.</p> - -<p>But the Varra would be hunted down, ruthlessly slain, their power broken -forever. Earth-science would destroy them, as they themselves had slain -so many, as they had killed Andrea.</p> - -<p>The bellow of the rockets died. The ship held true to its course, -plunging on faster and faster toward the sunlit worlds where men knew -joy and laughter and happiness. It would go on, to the funeral pyre of -the Sun.</p> - -<p>But it would leave a message in its wake.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THUNDER IN THE VOID ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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