Dirk Wylie

“ No concussion wave struck them, yet they saw the surface of Hastur cleft and crumpled before them, saw the monster bury itself in the planetoid. There was a flare of light which made them blink for an instant, and that was all.
“Veer away,” gasped Nick. “We don’t want to be tumbled into that chasm.”
Timbie’s fingers darted over the controls, and they were lurched side-wise as the Columbia went off at a tangent to their former course. The bewilderment of what they had just seen still lay upon them; their minds were numb with the incredibility of it.
Dorothy’s eyes met Nick’s. “Are we dead?” ”

“ Paralyzed with mingled amazement and terror they stood, bracing themselves for an impact which would destroy them utterly, volatilize them and the ship with such titanic swiftness that their consciousness would be obliterated before any sensations of it could reach them. ”

“ It was a suicide job, but those suicides could keep the entire ship from being blasted to free electrons.
“They did. If you’d come from the other side, you’d have seen the great gaping crater and the hole in the ship.”
“I don’t understand. . . .” started Dorothy.
“I do,” spoke up Nick. “When the Orion left, the only rocket fuel which was any good was HZ 7. It had one fault, however. Let any atmosphere get at it and it would vaporize and seep through practically every known substance, except wax. And that vapor was about ten times as touchy as nitro. ”

“ We’ll take what we can from the Orion—and I suspect that you and your book, Steve, will be all—then scram away from here fast.”
He clasped Dorothy’s hand. “I only want a hole for one head in that little sweater.”
Joe Timbie turned to Hartnett and Nick with a despairing gesture. “See? All we do is slide along the ground. I’ve given her the best blasts we have and there’s the result.”
“A good thing they’ve found a new kind of rocket fuel in these last years.” ”

“ For caught now in one of the brilliant arms was a flattish many-legged thing, looking more like a centipede than anything else. It had a barbed tail like a scorpion, and was writhing and trying to spear the other desperately. But the hunter had calculated well and encircled its prey in such a manner that the barb could not reach it. Closer to the brilliant body the struggling thing was borne, then a slit appeared in the side of the victor, and a deep red orifice grew. ”

“ Hastily they made their way down the decline, ran in awkward, elephantine steps toward it. As they approached they could see how beaten and scarred it looked.
They bounded to the port and breathlessly clanged upon it. It was shut tightly. Impatiently they beat upon it until finally it swooshed open and they filed into the airlock. Imperturbably the outer door snapped close behind them, clamlike, and painfully slow the inner port dragged itself open. ”

“ But we have to decelerate slowly or we’re basket cases, if anybody ever finds us at all.”
“Wherever they are,” mused Nick, “it’s going to be one sweet job finding the planetoid in this space. It’ll be practically invisible because of the distance from the sun. We may go by it a couple of times.” He jabbed a call button sharply then spoke into a mike. “Grenville? What’s doing? Oh, you are!” He turned to the others. “Our chemical engineer is turning his inventive genius to a superior blend of the rocket blast. How lovely.”
“Noble pastime,” put in Dorothy. ”

“ We found that the only way we had of getting off this planetoid was by rockets, and rockets weren’t enough. We just slid along the surface, battered up the ship, then stopped.
“Then we began to find out things about this world. Some of them were interesting, and some—” he broke off suddenly. “Nick, you or none of your party have been out without full suits have you?”
Nick shook his head.
“Good. Don’t. This little world is full of radiations, a good deal of which are undetectable, but nasty nonetheless. ”

“ All alone here—not strong enough to do much more than take care of myself, write, and send signals out. Didn’t go outside much after—”
Dorothy faced him, her eyes misty. “Don’t try to soften it Steve—I knew as soon as I came in the ship. Harry’s dead, isn’t he? Like all the others?”
Hartnett nodded. “Yes—like all the others.”
“There’s not much to tell,” said Hartnett slowly, after the meal had been finished. “We started out in the Orion much the same as you did in the Columbia, tested the contracels and decided everything was all right. ”

“ Edgar turned to Nick. “It might—matter of fact, it should.”
Hartnett bit his lips. “It’s a long chance,” he said, “but still a chance. If the ship will hold together under the terrific punishment it would have to take, sliding along the ground on our rocket blasts, then we may be able to do it.”
“Okay,” declared Nick. “Everybody get into space suits, make sure the air-making apparatus is in order, and take your stations. We’ve got to have lookouts covering all sectors to spot any possible punctures of the hull. As soon as everybody’s checked from their posts, Joe, let her rip.” ”

“ To get that speed you have to accelerate like hell. And human bodies aren’t equipped to take the acceleration required.
“Well, what Dad did was to figure out a counter-acceleration device, which he called the ‘contracel’ for short. All I know is that it blankets the effects of really terrific acceleration so far as our feeling it goes.”
“Have you any idea, Nick,” asked Dorothy Gilbert, suddenly serious, “where the Hartnett party is?” ”

“ Dorothy’s nose wrinkled in puzzlement. “I was under the impression,” she said, “that the contracel formula was radioed to Earth mysteriously—only it was badly garbled, just fractions coming through. And you, Nick, were the only one who could make anything out of it.”
“Partly true,” he admitted. “The ‘mysterious’ radio message however was something I cooked up to keep the newspapers satisfied. I wanted to let out the publicity that the Hartnett expedition wasn’t completely done in, but I didn’t want to draw attention to wave n. The fewer people who know it exists, the better. ”

“ The equator of the world seems to be moving, flowing along the ground.”
“Yow!” exclaimed Edgar. “Lorentz-Fitzgerald stuff!”
“Huh?”
“Simple,” he went on. “The speed of rotation of this planetoid at the equator approaches the speed of light, believe it or not. So the equator contracts. Its diameter remains the same, mind you, since it isn’t moving along the line of the diameter, but the circumference grows smaller. And that my friends,” he concluded, “makes the mathematical ‘pi’ a variable so far as Hastur is concerned. ”

“ The important thing, now, is to get off Hastur. These radiations are what got most of us—doesn’t make too much difference with me, because I’m old. But I’m assuming,” he looked at Dorothy and Nick, “that you two will be wanting to pair off pretty soon. And I don’t think Dorothy would care to start knitting little sweaters with holes for three heads in them after she’d had x-rays taken.”
“We’ll get off,” declared Nick. “Our rockets are powerful enough, I think. ”

“ We’re looking out one side of the ship and Earth is directly in back of us.”
He snapped off the vision and the floor returned to normal. “As soon as we get the reports from the two goops,” he mused, “we can start making definite plans for the outing.”
“We heard you,” came a voice from just outside the lounge, and, a second later, Bob Vickers appeared, climbing hand-over-hand against the slight pull of the acceleration that managed to seep through the not-quite-perfect guard of the contracels. ”

“ Hop down to the observation room and look for a small planetoid—I don’t know—could be any port. Use maximum magnification because it may be small—oh, big enough to hold a ship about this size perhaps. Possibly—quite probably dark. Signal us as soon as you see something.”
“If he’s been sampling his wares, he’s likely to see anything,” suggested Marquis.
“That being the case,” replied Nick, “you’d better go down and help him, all of you. It’s a tough job for one man in any condition.”
“Coming?” inquired Marquis of Dorothy. She shook her head. ”

“ I’d say offhand that the cloud-mass is attracted by something in the cone-creature—perhaps that scorpion-thing it just ate, because the clouds can envelope them without danger. But the cone-creature is rather well developed as you saw.”
The light on the control board winked. Timbie picked up the phone. “It’s Marquis,” he said. “They’ve got the patch on the puncture and we’ll be able to go ahead shortly.”
“Okay,” said Nick. “Tell them to wink when all’s ready.” He turned to the others. “It doesn’t look as if we’ll make the equator.”
Hartnett smiled grimly. ”

“ So he emptied an almost full bottle of the rocket blast.” She beamed at Nick. “Edgar has a special name for each grade of alcoholate we distill; this is the stiff one.”
“We’ll have to make some more of that,” declared Marquis. “Heigh ho, it’s back to the primitive. Y’know, scientists are pretty sure that savages spend most of their ingenuity in figuring out ways to make better and still better hooch. Disgusting, isn’t it?”
“Hang on to your stanchions,” yelled Timbie as he pressed a button which would send a warning signal throughout the ship, “we’re accelerating.” ”

“ They were outward bound for Alpha Centauri, just as we’ll be after we get home and check these results. I’ve no idea how far they got, because I don’t know how to check distances by wave n. In fact, I don’t think it can be done; the damned thing doesn’t travel right.
“You, Dorothy, and Bob, Edgar, and I are all members of the family of the original Hartnett expedition. The reason I wanted you three was because I really expect to look for Dad and his friends on our way to Alph. You. Fred, and Grenville and Timbie aren’t exactly family members in our little circle, but you’re next thing to it. ”

“ He faced Nick. “We will be generous, sir, and accept your apology.”
“The ship’s company,” sighed Nick, “is reminded that the original Hartnett expedition was not entirely lost. It is to be assumed that they are still trying to contact someone, us in particular. Thus the careful attention to what appeared to be distress signals. ”

“ If he’s—still alive, I’ll probably say ‘hello, Harry,’ and kiss him with sisterly affection and be glad he’s all right, but it won’t really mean much. What about your father, Nick?”
He frowned. “Dad and I were pretty close. Matter of fact, I never called him ‘dad’ until after he disappeared. It was always Steve. He preferred that ”