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Title: The death's head meteor
Author: Neil R. Jones
Release date: August 17, 2026 [eBook #79386]
Language: English
Original publication: New York, NY: Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1929
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79386
Credits: Greg Weeks and Mary Meehan
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEATH'S HEAD METEOR ***
The Death's Head Meteor
By NEIL R. JONES
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Air Wonder Stories, January 1930.]
[Illustration: Neil R. Jones]
_Slowly the human race is emerging from its earthbound traditions
and is casting its eyes towards the heavens. It was not so many
years ago that weather changes were little understood, and there
was much misinformation connected with them during the past
twenty-five years. We have just begun investigating the atmospheric
ocean, and we are slowly arriving at a point where long range
forecasting becomes possible._
_As soon as our activities are extended beyond our earth it will
become necessary to send space flyers to chart the open spaces for
scientific research. It is already known that the space between the
earth and the sun contains a good deal of foreign matter, such as
meteors, and even immense meteoric dust clouds. These, in cutting
off the radiation of the sun, exert a tremendous influence upon our
weather conditions. Furthermore, such meteors may contain strange
and valuable elements. It is the exploration for such things that
our author has used as a basis for his aviation story of outer
space. And, incidentally, it is a story which will keep you on the
jump right through._
* * * * *
High up, on the top floor of a hundred-story building sat a man at
a desk. Before him was an array of dials, a system of switches and
intricate electrical appliances. Several hundred glass bulbs of various
sizes flashed on and off intermittently in the wall over his desk.
Fitting over the top of his head and around his ears was a shining,
silver cap with a wire leading from the top to the apparatus before
him. He was one of the world's interplanetary radio operators of the
twenty-sixth century, sending and receiving daily messages between Mars
and the Earth.
One of the largest glass bulbs suddenly shot into brilliance, and with
a fierce crackling, an electric spark closed the gap between two metal
cylinders, which paralleled one another about a foot apart. At the same
time, the operator leaned forward, and with practiced hand, quickly
manipulated several of the dials to various points, after which he
threw one of the switches into place. A low droning sound filled the
room, and a large cylinder upon which was rolled a continuous sheet
of thin aluminum began to slowly revolve. As the brilliant blue-white
flare in the glass bulb died away, the droning noise turned to a high
keyed whine which broke off abruptly. The cylinder stopped while the
multitude of tiny glass bulbs again glowed separately at intervals, as
they had been doing just before the message had come in.
The operator shoved a lever at his side, and a small roller cut across
the large cylinder, releasing a sheet of the thin aluminum which fell
on to the desk before him. Cut through its thin metal texture was the
message from Mars in the three universal languages of the Earth. The
radio operator now turned his attention to a smooth plate which rested
in the shape of a semi-circle about two feet long and half as wide.
On the flat side of the thick composition plate, a black screen arose
several feet in a vertical plane at a right angle to the plate, so
that the screen faced the operator. Placing the aluminum sheet upon
the plate, the operator threw another switch, simultaneously pressing
a button marked "Meteorological Bureau." The screen suddenly glowed,
throwing a series of orange-hued rays on a slant down upon the plate
bearing the narrow sheet of aluminum which grew indistinct, finally
fading, until it disappeared from sight. The radio man threw back the
switch once more and the screen grew black again. The plate was now as
empty and bare as before he had laid the message upon its surface.
In the Meteorological Bureau, two thousand miles away, the officials
read the message from the aluminum sheet which had been transmitted
by radio. One of them, an elderly man, walked over to the end of the
room, the wall of which was bordered into a squared shape by panels.
The color of the wall inside the dark panelling was a dull gray. He
advanced to a round, metal, inlaid section of the floor. As soon as
his feet came in contact with the metal, a picture suddenly flashed
upon the surface of the wall, and the sounds of exclamations and loud
laughter broke in upon his ears. The elderly scientist was looking into
a comfortable room fitted up with lounges and easy chairs. Four young
men were the sole occupants, being engaged in a game at one of the
tables in the room.
The game ceased as the four came to sudden attention, facing their
superior who now spoke.
"Jan Trenton."
"Here, sir."
"Get your ship ready for instant duty. I have a message from the
Martian observatory at Fomar which states that several large meteors
are approaching from the region of Jupiter and the asteroid group. It
states that they will pass close to Mars to-night at 23:43, Earth time,
two hundred thousand miles above its South Pole. From past experience,
you know what is required of you. Bring back samples for the Bureau to
analyze as well as any precious stones or metals you may discover."
The scientist turned towards his companions once more, and as his
feet left the metal section of the floor, the picture immediately
disappeared and the television screen was once more replaced by the
somber, gray color.
At the space ship base, in the same huge city which held the
Meteorological Bureau, Jan Trenton prepared for his trip. Getting into
a private elevator, he propelled himself at a dizzy speed up through
the interior of the tall building to the roof. The last five stories
were open-air landing bases for the aircraft and space flyers. The
first level was for the air flyers which plied among the ports of the
Earth; the second was reserved for space ship freight carriers going to
and from Mars; the third housed the freight ships which worked between
Venus and the Earth; while the fourth was left to passenger service
between the Earth and the two planets. The top landing level was used
for miscellaneous purposes, the Meteorological Bureau controlling a
section of it for their use.
Off Into Space
As Jan gained the roof, he found everything hustle and bustle, with
space flyers and terrestrial aircraft coming and going. He went to the
hangar of the Meteorological Bureau and entered. A long line of small
space flyers stood side by side. Like the larger space ships, they used
the same means of power, that supplied by atomic energy. A terrific
speed could be obtained in outer space, and the fantastic speed of the
Earth and the other cosmic wanderers of space might well be likened
to the space flyers as the speed of a turtle is compared to that of a
jackrabbit.
The young astronaut approached his tiny space flyer. It was shaped like
an egg, except that it was more elongated, and the two ends tapered
down to blunt points instead of being rounded. It was mounted upon four
revolving metal spheres set into its keel instead of wheels as landing
gear. It was especially adapted for the use of exploring meteors,
for all sides were studded with grapples and jointed drills as well
as claw-like iron rods. These latter, which were also jointed, were
capable of acting in the capacity of fingers in grasping material and
placing it into the receptacles which lined the sides of the little
space car. All of the exterior apparatus was manipulated by mechanical
control from within.
Jan inspected his oxygen tanks and fuel supply, and tested out the
mechanism of the craft which he found to be working perfectly. He
called an attendant, and together they wheeled the craft out upon the
roof level which was bathed in the warm sunshine of a June morning. The
young astronaut entered the space flyer, closed the door, and was alone
in the air-tight compartment just large enough to accommodate him. On
the instrument board before him were dials, levers, gauges, buttons and
queer apparatus which controlled and operated the various features of
the craft. He turned on his oxygen supply and his air rejuvenator so
that the air could be used more than once, after which he shoved his
starting lever forward. The craft raced suddenly off the roof and into
the cloudless sky above the vast city of the twenty-sixth century.
Up and up he arose, until those upon the roof lost sight of his flyer
as it disappeared, a minute speck against the deep blue of the sky.
Below him, the city could be seen as an indistinct, white blur upon a
background of green. Farther and farther he rose until he was in the
rarefied atmosphere of the upper air currents. It grew intensely cold,
and the young astronaut found it necessary to turn on the heating
system. He now increased his speed from an even 300 miles an hour
gradually to 1,000 miles an hour until he should find himself beyond
the friction of the Earth's atmosphere. At this speed, it was but a
short time before the tiny space flyer found itself in the vacuum of
outer space. The little craft had six windows of a thick glass-like
substance which was colored a deep transparent brown to nullify the
blinding glare of the sun. The windows pointed in six different
directions, and it was from these that Jan noticed the daylight ebbing,
to be replaced by the utter blackness of night, except where the
blazing ball of the sun shone through the brown glass windows. Through
one window, he could see the curved contour of the Earth which he was
so rapidly leaving, while from each of the other five windows the
dazzling brilliance of the clustered stars shone with an iridescent
gleam never seen upon Earth.
Jan did not notice the beauties and wonders of outer space, for he had
seen them many times before, and so he watched his instrument board,
increasing his speed until he hurtled through space in the direction
of Mars at the rate of two thousand miles per second, eating up the
distance at more than seven million miles per hour. While he was in
the vicinity of the Earth, a steady stream of small meteorites beat a
tattoo upon the space ship, but as he left the Earth farther behind,
the meteorites with which he came in contact were few. Many of them
were large, and traveling at the rate of ten to twenty miles per second
could have damaged his flyer. But an instrument recorded the approach
of the large ones, and when one came within a distance of ten thousand
miles, a small bell inside the craft started ringing, while a small
arrow in a glass case pointed out its direction.
The young astronaut sped on through the ether void for the equivalent
of an Earth day. Through space it was eternal night, with a sun shining
from out of the blackness. Immeasurable distances off in all directions
were millions of suns and worlds. On ahead of him Mars was growing from
a dull red point of fire to a rose-colored sphere, appearing as large
as the moon does from the Earth. The rotating sphere grew larger, in
proportion to the speed of his approach, its two twinkling satellites
becoming visible, one just below, and the other to one side, of the
planet. Behind him, he saw the Earth as a large, green star of the
first magnitude, and on looking sharper, he saw an accompanying point
of light beside it.
Jan would have liked very much to have landed on Mars so that he could
have stretched his limbs, but he dared not, for the chronometer at his
side told him that if he were to intercept the meteor train the other
side of Mars, he would need all of his time. He rapidly neared the red
planet which now appeared as a huge ball, filling all three of the
nearest windows. Jan made a circuit around the planet, passing by the
darkened half which lay sleeping under the repose of a Martian night,
and continued on towards Jupiter. He sighted the South Pole on Mars,
and kept his ship some two hundred thousand miles above it on a direct
line towards the great planet Jupiter. He watched a dial which recorded
the approach of giant meteors within a distance of a hundred thousand
miles, for soon he expected the group of cosmic wanderers to come
sweeping along on their aimless journey. If he missed them, it would
be necessary to land on Mars and get new bearings at the observatory
before he continued the chase, but he disliked doing this for it would
take more time and be a reflection upon his efficiency. And Jan was
working for a promotion to the passenger limited between Venus and Mars.
The Meteor Train
The bell tinkled! He looked at the dial and saw that the needle pointed
straight ahead of him upon the course he was pursuing. The company
of meteors were rushing toward him head on. He turned his flyer on a
slant, and slackened his speed continuously for hours until finally it
was down to twenty miles per second. He was rushing off at an acute
angle so that he would avoid a possible collision. He watched the
needle and saw that the train of meteors would soon be opposite him.
He was careful to place himself on the sunward side of their approach,
for had he been on the opposite side, they would have passed within a
few feet of his flyer and he would have been unaware of it, except that
his dials would have announced their proximity. He now watched the dial
which recorded the smaller number of miles, and saw that the meteors
were a thousand miles distant. Turning his flyer back in the direction
from which he had come, he ran parallel to the course the celestial
bodies would pursue, slackening his speed down to ten miles per second.
The distance, as his dial informed him, was rapidly being decreased
by the oncoming meteor train. It was now within five hundred miles of
him, uncomfortably close, considering the fact that he was not entirely
certain of its speed. The astronaut was traveling ten miles per
second in the same direction as the meteors' course, and the cluster
comprising the meteor train was bearing down upon him, so he figured
that it must be traveling at approximately fifteen miles per second. He
tested it by speeding up his space flyer to the same rate; it gained on
him slightly. The young astronaut decided to allow it to pass him, and
then come up from behind; so continuing at fifteen miles per second, he
awaited its passing, five miles from its course.
He saw it only as a sudden indistinct flicker, for it passed at a speed
greater by three thousand miles per hour than his own. Increasing his
speed, he began to creep up behind the meteor cluster, preparing for
his hazardous work of running alongside one of the meteors at the same
exact speed, and hooking on with his grapples. It required nerve,
precision and dexterity, and many an astronaut had met his death trying
to ride a meteor in the seas of space.
He soon came within sight of the cosmic wanderers and whisked by them.
It was hard work attuning his speed exactly to that of the meteor
group, and as he slackened his speed, the meteors flashed past him once
more, reflecting the sunlight which struck them. It was the delicate
control of the little space craft which finally enabled the astronaut
to ride even with the meteor train only a hundred yards away. From this
distance he surveyed it. The head was composed of three huge meteors
better than two hundred feet thick with rough, jagged sides, resembling
miniature mountains careening through space. In the wake of the first
three, came smaller ones with fragments intermingled with dust.
[Illustration: _The head was composed of three huge meteors better than
two hundred feet thick, with rough sides resembling miniature mountains
careening through space. In the wake of the first three came smaller
ones._]
The young astronaut singled out the nearest of the large meteors and
sent his space ship in on a narrow slant which would gradually converge
with the course of the meteor, bringing the two together. One hand was
ready on the switch operating the grapples, while his other hand rested
on the steering controls. All immediate danger would be over when he
grappled on to the celestial body, but it was perilous work, requiring
experience, skill and steady nerves in order to close successfully upon
the giant meteor.
The sun beat its blinding light upon the rugged, uneven side of the
huge meteor, throwing into sharp relief every detail. The sunlit
portions lay scattered over its face, relieved by numerous shadows due
to the fact that the irregular surface did not allow the sunlight to
strike all of the meteor's side which faced the sun. These shadows,
because the great rock lacked a surrounding atmosphere, lay etched in
bold relief, so that the sunlit side of the meteor presented a series
of shadows and illuminated crags to the young astronaut.
Probably the remains of an old comet, thought Jan, gazing thoughtfully
at the meteor he was nearing slowly but surely. It was odd how queer it
was shaped, bulging at the top, and narrowing at the bottom. Somehow,
it was an unpleasant reminder of something he had seen but could not
place at the moment. He was within a hundred feet of the great piece of
rock, and gradually the distance narrowed as they raced along through
space together at the rate of sixteen miles a second.
Suddenly, an uncomfortable discovery forced itself upon the mind of
the young astronaut. As he neared the meteor, he recognized what it
resembled, and why it had stirred his memory so strangely. From a short
distance away, it bore the perfect likeness of a death's head! There
was the white, bulging forehead, the sloping jaws, and two huge, round
shadows, with a third midway below it, for the sunken eyeholes and the
nose. Most horrible of all was the mouth, bearing the fixed grin of
death! The death's head glared at him malevolently, as if issuing an
ominous warning!
Jan Trenton was not superstitious. Superstition had died out completely
from the Earth hundreds of years ago. But the abruptness of the
discovery, and its gruesome appearance startled the young astronaut
and, for the first time in his career as a lone space flyer, he felt
himself weighed down with an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Out in
this vast depth of endless space he was millions of miles from friends
and all manifestations of life with this grinning effigy, one of the
freakish coincidences of the Universe, as a solitary companion. From
whence had this meteor come? Probably from the region of the asteroids
adjacent to Jupiter, possibly from outside the solar system, from some
other system of worlds, having traveled to this destiny perhaps for the
last billion years or more.
He had half a mind to swerve off from his prospective landing on the
huge meteor, and couple on to one of the other two, but he laughed
at himself and his unreasonable timidity. He dispelled by ridiculing
himself the morbid imaginings, which had been stimulated through sight
of the death's head. He prepared to go through with his original plans,
despite the fact that the task was strangely distasteful.
The young astronaut was now very close, so close that the meteor
towered above the little space ship. Jan stood ready at the grapple
controls, waiting for the supreme moment of contact. It came with a
terrific jar which threw him out of his seat against the side of the
flyer, bruising him severely, just as he shoved over the grappling
controls. He must have made a slight mistake in his calculations of
angles, thought Jan, for he had not been prepared for the shock of the
contact which greeted him. The grapples had taken hold, anyway, and he
was safe for the present, at least. He feared, however, that part of
his outside apparatus had been damaged in the contact, but if there was
enough of it left with which to work on the meteor, he did not care,
for he could have it repaired when he got back to Earth, or he might
even stop at one of the Martian stations, for that matter.
Caught!
He tested the grapple controls, the rock drills and the iron fingers,
finding that over half the number on the flyer next the meteor were
either broken or jammed out of shape. With the remaining exterior
apparatus, he took samples of the meteor's substance, drilling out
small chunks and depositing them into the receptacles along the side.
The next procedure was to ascertain whether or not the meteor contained
valuable metals, unknown substances or precious stones.
Before him, at the top of his instrument board were three dials ranged
in a row. The central dial was a huge affair, while its two companions,
one on each side, were a great deal smaller. Each of the two small
dials was equipped with a small manipulator which moved the needle
around the face. The dial on the left represented the means by which
the young astronaut discovered whether or not a meteor held diamonds,
sapphires or other valuable stones. At various intervals around the
face of the dial, the names of all precious stones known to science
were marked off. By slowly moving the arrow around the dial, and
pointing to the name of each individual jewel, it was possible to find
out the presence of one or more of the stones. Above the dial was a
small light which flashed on whenever the arrow pointed at a type of
stone which was present in the meteor's mass.
The small dial on the extreme right operated on the same principle
except that it was for finding various metals. Around the rim of the
large dial in the middle, was listed all of the elements composing the
Universe. Opposite the name of each element was a small indicator which
swung away from it, pointing towards the center of the dial; outside,
rested a series of small buttons, each button communicating with one
of the elements listed within the dial. A button depressed would cause
the tiny indicator to swing out of neutral and point to the element,
providing that element was present in the meteor's composition. In this
manner, a great many combinations not listed on the two smaller dials
could be formed to ascertain their possible existence within the meteor.
Jan tested the meteor for the various stones. It was entirely devoid
of gems. Had he discovered a supply within the wanderer of space, the
astronaut would have drilled them out, providing they were near the
surface, for the little space flyer was equipped with the facility for
pointing out the definite location of the stones as well as recording
their proximity. In case of their being too deep for the surface
drills, he would chart the course of the meteor, and if the deposit of
jewels or metals proved valuable enough, a wrecking crew would be sent
out a few days later to overtake the meteor and extract its treasures.
He now turned his attention to the right hand dial, his hand upon the
manipulator which sent the arrow around the face in short, periodic
jerks. As he expected, the light above the dial flashed on when the
arrow pointed to "iron." He found that the bulky mass also contained
nickel, and a small amount of platinum whose scarcity did not warrant
the trouble of its extraction. The central dial proved the fact that
the meteor's main constituents consisted of iron and aside from the
nickel and platinum deposits was entirely devoid of all other minerals.
Having finished with the death's head meteor, Jan decided to cast loose
and explore the other two celestial wanderers which comprised the
meteor train. The astronaut loosened the grapples, and threw in his
controls which would send him away from the meteor. To his surprise,
the space flyer refused to move. He turned on more power, and still
his flyer did not budge, though he knew that his atomic energy machine
was functioning perfectly, for his instrument board told him that.
Evidently the force of his contact with the meteor had been so great
that the little space car had become wedged in the side of the meteor,
or else the twisted parts of the broken grapples and the other exterior
apparatus which had been damaged in the collision, had become jammed
into the meteor when the two came together. It was certain that he was
stuck fast, and that he must search for some means which would effect
his release from the predicament in which he found himself. He wished
now that he had heeded the grave premonitions the sight of the gruesome
meteor had awakened in his mind, and avoided contact with it. But
then, it was likely to happen to any space flyer engaged in the same
hazardous pursuit as his.
He worked vainly at the controls of the damaged grapples and the
jointed, exterior appliances, but the attempt was useless for they
remained as immovable as if cast in a mold of steel. He was a prisoner,
a prey to the death's head meteor which carried him farther away with
it every moment, traveling at sixteen miles a second. They would soon
pass by Mars, continue upon a route midway between the Earth and
that planet, and eventually on out of the solar system towards the
distant stars. What would be his fate? Would he starve, or his oxygen
supply give out? Jan did not for a moment contemplate such thoughts.
The Meteorological Bureau, seeing that he did not return within a
reasonable time, would radio Mars, and the observatories of both
worlds would train their giant telescopes upon the meteor train and
discover his plight. No doubt, they were watching him now, the largest
telescopes revealing his space ship as a small bright speck upon one
of the three larger spots. It would be only a question of time, then,
before help would be sent him, and his release obtained.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a crashing jolt which once
more threw him out of his seat at the instrument board just as it had
done when his car had landed upon the meteor. What had happened? The
meteor must have struck something, and it could be nothing more than
one of its two companions, for there was nothing else in this vast void
for it to strike. It might have been another flock of meteors, and had
it been so, his instrument board would have announced their approach
long before this.
Jan's logical reasoning, and his cool headedness in the face of the
alarming situation, led him to the following solution. When his space
car had landed upon the meteor, the force of the contact had been great
enough to push the celestial wanderer off its course slightly, and all
of the time it had slowly but surely converged its plane of direction
with that of its nearer companion, so that they had come together at an
acute angle, producing the shock he had just felt.
If this was so, thought the young astronaut, then the course of the
meteor upon which his space ship was imprisoned must have veered again,
following the second contact, slightly changing its course once more.
He examined his instrument board and peered out of the brown glass
window into the black, cosmic void. The sight which greeted his eyes
appalled him with its terrifying significance fraught with sinister
menace! Below him was the planet Mars, and the meteor on its changed
course was rushing at it full speed! The red planet appeared as a half
circle of light, new contours appearing upon its face from out of the
darkened half.
The face of the young astronaut was drawn into tense lines, as he
turned about towards his instrument board to find that the distance
between himself and the planet Mars was a little better than a hundred
thousand miles. He rapidly figured that unless he could release the
space flyer from the giant meteor, he had but two hours in which to
live! The death's head meteor, which was originally charted to pass
by the planet Mars was now, through two slight collisions with the
space flyer and the other meteor, plunging head on towards Mars! Jan
visualized his end. The wanderer of space with its prisoner, traveling
sixteen miles a second, would hurl itself into the Martian atmosphere
which, though thinner than that of the Earth, would offer a great
enough friction to create out of the meteor a blazing ball of fire,
screaming through the air like a juggernaut to bury itself beneath the
surface of Mars with a terrible detonation!
A Desperate Hope
While the meteor was miles above Mars in the upper reaches of the
rarefied atmosphere, the young astronaut would die of the intense heat
from the friction of the air. Under the terrific heat, the space flyer
would explode and burn up to a cinder within the space of a fleet
second, to leave the death's head meteor mass continuing on its wild
flight to destruction!
Jan Trenton quickly snapped himself out of the channel of gloomy,
terrorizing thoughts which assailed his mind, holding it paralyzed for
a brief moment. He had nearly two hours by Earth time before the meteor
reached Mars, and he would die like a man, fighting for his life to the
very last minute. He gazed out of the window on the side towards the
meteor to note his position, and find out in what manner he was caught.
A chill crept over him at the irony of fate! The little space car was
jammed up against that dark rift of shadow which was likened to the
mouth of the death's head! From a short distance, it would appear as
if the grinning skull held the space flyer in its teeth, carrying it
rapidly to oblivion!
If he could only have torn the imprisoned grapples free. But this was
impossible in view of the fact that they were on the outside where
he could not gain access to them. He released his atomic energy in
all directions, trying to work his way loose, but the flyer was as
immovable as a part of the meteor itself. He placed a terrific power
behind him, capable of sending him racing through space at top speed
had he been free. It was well that the staunch little craft had no
weak spot or it would have torn itself to pieces. But the space car
was strongly made and the effect of its great, atomic energy release
was not to free the space ship or divert the course of the meteor, but
to cause a surprising result. The meteor began to rotate on its axis,
slowly turning in the direction opposite to that of the power release.
The planet Mars flashed past the window at short intervals, its
semi-circle of light glowing a dull red. As Jan peered from the window
during several complete rotations of the big meteor, he saw that
the rest of the meteor train had vanished, no doubt pursuing their
original, aimless course past Mars.
The young astronaut had one last plan, and he lost no time in
proceeding to put it into operation. He would attempt to drill his way
out with the exterior drills on the little craft towards the side which
was held by the meteor. It was a question whether or not the drills
could free him before the meteor crashed into Mars. He reached quickly
for the controls which operated the drills to find that there were only
three drills on that side of the flyer towards the meteor which had not
been damaged. The others had either been broken off or else lay twisted
amid the wreckage of the exterior apparatus which imbedded itself in
the meteor. Jan set them going, directing their sharp ends into the
rock around the point at which the little space craft clung to the
meteor. Tiny showers of dust rattled against the sides of the flyer as
the drills bit into the huge meteor rotating slowly, as it ate up the
distance to the great world upon which it was destined to crash.
The young astronaut watched the three drills work, operating them from
inside the flyer, while at frequent intervals he would steal glances
at his chronometer, and then at the Martian planet which was gradually
filling his field of vision. A feeling of sickly despair tugged at this
heart, and hope grew dim as he saw that he had less than three quarters
of an hour left. He had drilled a series of holes in the meteor all the
way around the imprisoned grapples, at a distance of several inches
apart. With the steel fingers on the jointed rods outside his car, he
had torn away what rock had been loosened, and still the flyer clung
to the face of the whirling meteor rushing towards Mars at a frightful
speed, diminishing the distance at nearly a thousand miles a minute.
Still he worked doggedly at his controls, and a cold sweat broke
out upon him as he watched the minute hand crawl slowly around the
chronometer. Glancing at his three drills, he saw that one of them
needed changing, and proceeded to place it in a new position. His
spirits were at low ebb, but as long as life existed in his body, the
young astronaut would continue the attempt to free his imprisoned
flyer, and extricate himself. Jan felt that in his perilous calling he
had cheated death too long, and that this time the grim reaper held
the winning cards. The hands on the chronometer had now stolen to a
position which indicated that less than fifteen minutes were left him.
The vibration of the drills could still be felt within the space flyer,
and a steady swish of meteoric debris against the side of the craft
made itself heard.
Jan gazed dully out of the window away from the meteor whose rotation
gave him a round-trip view of the entire sky. He was now so close to
Mars that he could clearly discern some of the mountain ranges and
flat, red deserts as the planet swung past his eyes. He gazed longingly
at the brilliant green star, his home, which turned upon its orbit
far off in space. He had left it for the last time. The scintillating
stars gleamed brilliantly in the blackness and from the incandescent
mass of the sun leaped great columns of flame. Once more the meteor had
completed its day of little more than a minute, and the certainty of
doom grew more ominous.
As the last minute crept around on the chronometer, Jan Trenton
prepared for his end. Setting the three drills working at their maximum
speed, he turned on the entire power of the craft as it sailed down
into the Martian atmosphere with the meteor on its terrific flight.
A glare of light flitted quickly through the windows, and a weird
whistling arose to a wailing scream. Just before he lost consciousness,
the young astronaut was aware of a great wave of heat which swept over
him like a blast from a furnace.
The meteor struck upon the darkened side of Mars at an hour closely
preceding dawn. Martians who saw it, afterward described it as a great
ball of fire which rushed out of the sky like a comet, setting the
heavens aglow with its glare. While still high in the air, it exploded
with a loud concussion which was heard for hundreds of miles, the
masses of scattered fragments catapulting themselves into the quivering
ground, throwing up a cascade of dirt and rocks, flattening trees, and
leaving great craters. It appeared to burst into two large central
nucleii with smaller pieces surrounding them. Those near its landing
place reported a tremendous wave of suffocating heat which swept the
vicinity when the meteor landed.
Deliverance
As Jan came to himself, his first sensation was a dizzy feeling in his
head, and the oppressive warmth within the space flyer. He gathered
his scattered wits together. Hadn't the crash come yet? It couldn't be
possible that the meteor had missed the great planet for which it had
been headed so squarely. He looked about him in a confused manner, not
quite brought to his entire senses. His brain was still hazy, and he
felt greatly exhausted as his wandering eyes fell upon the dial board.
It was registering top speed!
With great effort, he painfully drew himself towards the brown glass
window and looked out--into the intense darkness of space in which were
set myriads of scintillating stars. He looked on the other side for
the death's head meteor, but it was gone. All that remained of it was
a chunk about three feet thick and as long, around which the wreckage
of the twisted grapples lay entwined. Above the meteoric fragment, the
three drills still churned, one of them broken in half. Jan looked
behind him, and out of the window he could discern a small red blot,
Mars, far to the rear, and growing smaller.
For a moment he could not understand the miracle which had occurred.
Then gradually it dawned upon him that he had been grasped from the
jaws of death just in time. The presence of the meteor's chunk and the
oppressive heat within the space car gave testimony of his deliverance
before entering the atmosphere of Mars.
The space car containing the unconscious young astronaut had whirled
off through the outer layer of Martian atmosphere and into the coldness
of space once more. This accounted for the suffocating heat inside the
flyer where the intense friction from the thin, rarefied air had heated
the space ship. He must have penetrated it at a terrible speed on his
outward flight. He had been unconscious for a bare five minutes, and
already he was nearly fifty thousand miles from Mars. He started the
air rejuvenator to clear the hot, stuffy interior of the craft, after
which he turned the flyer and headed back for Mars.
In the radio receiving station on the Earth, the big glass bulb set in
the wall above the operator's head suddenly flashed, and an electric
spark snapped and crackled as it closed the gap between two metal
cylinders. The operator mechanically adjusted the dials and switches,
and the cylinder containing the aluminum sheet began turning, filling
the room with its droning noise. As the bulb grew dark once more, and
the roller came to a stop, the aluminum sheet cleaved from off the
roller and fell to the desk before the operator.
Before placing it upon the transmitter plate and pressing the button
marked "Meteorological Bureau," the silver-capped operator reviewed the
message curiously. It was the report of one of the astronauts employed
by the government Bureau of Meteorology, Jan Trenton by name. It seemed
that he was stopping over at Mars while his ship underwent certain
repairs, and that he would report for further duty the next day.
Such is the life of an astronaut.
THE END.
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