A Voice from the Inner World by A Read online

  Amazing Stories, July, 1927

  Amazing Stories

  2

  SECOND HONORABLE MENTION IN THE $500 PRIZE COVER CONTEST

  Awarded to A. Hyatt Verrill, New York City, for “A Voice from the Inner World.”

  ON the eighteenth of October, the New York

  terrific wind. It is headed—’ It is probable that

  papers reported the appearance of a the vessel, if struck, was instantly destroyed. It remarkable meteor which had been seen in

  has been suggested, however, that it is

  mid-Pacific, and the far more startling possible that the meteor or meteors were announcement that it was feared that the accompanied by electrical phenomena which amazing celestial visitor had struck and may have put the Chiriqui’s wireless destroyed a steamship.

  apparatus out of commission and that the ship

  “At eleven-fifteen last evening,” read

  may be safe.”

  the account in the Herald, “the Panama-

  Later editions of the press announced

  Hawaiian Line steamship Chiriqui reported by

  that no word had been received from the

  radio the appearance of an immense meteor

  Chiriqui, that other ships had reported the

  which suddenly appeared above the horizon to

  meteor, and that two of these had radioed that

  the southeast, and which increased rapidly in

  the aerolite, instead of exploding, had been

  size and brilliance. Within ten minutes from

  seen to continue on its way and gradually

  the time the phenomenon was first sighted, it

  disappear beyond the horizon. These reports

  appeared as a huge greenish sphere of somewhat allayed the fears that the Chiriqui dazzling brilliance high in the sky, and had been struck by the meteor, and prominent heading, apparently, directly for the Chiriqui.

  scientists expressed the opinion that the

  Almost at the same time as reported by the

  supposed explosion had been merely an

  Chiriqui, several other ships, among them the

  optical illusion caused by its passage through

  Miners and Merchants Line Vulcan, and the

  some dense or cloudy layer of air. They also

  Japanese liner Fujiama Maru also reported the

  quoted numerous cases of immense meteors

  meteorite, although they were more than one

  having been seen by observers over immense

  thousand miles apart and equidistant from the

  distances, and declared their belief that the

  position of the Chiriqui.

  aerolite had not reached the earth, but had

  “In the midst of a sentence describing

  merely passed through the outer atmosphere.

  the appearance of the rapidly approaching When asked regarding the possibility of the meteor, the Chiriqui’s wireless message came

  meteor having affected the ship’s wireless

  to an abrupt end, and all attempts to get into

  apparatus, experts stated that such might have

  further communication with her operator been the case, although, hitherto, severe failed. The other vessels reported that a electrical disturbances had never been scintillating flash, like an explosion, was associated with the passage of meteors.

  followed by the meteor’s disappearance, and it

  Moreover, they declared that even if the

  is feared that the immense aerolite may have

  wireless had been injured, it could have been

  struck the Chiriqui, and utterly destroyed her

  repaired in a few hours, and that they could

  with all on board. As no SOS has been not explain the continued silence of the received, and as the ship’s radio broke off

  Chiriqui. Word also came from Panama that

  with the words: ‘It is very close and the sea is

  the naval commandant at Balboa had

  as bright as day. Below the immense mass of

  despatched a destroyer to search for the

  green fire are two smaller spheres of intense

  Chiriqui, or any survivors of the catastrophe if red. It is so near we can hear it roaring like a

  the ship had been destroyed.

  A Voice from the Inner World

  3

  A few hours later, despatches were

  character that it appeared incredible, and yet

  received from various points in Central and

  was so borne out by facts and details that it

  South America, reporting the meteor of the

  had all the earmarks of truth. So astounding

  previous night. All of these agreed that the

  was this communication that, despite the fact

  fiery mass had swept across the heavens in a

  that it will unquestionably be scoffed at by the

  wide arc and had vanished in the east beyond

  public, I feel that it should be given to the

  the summits of the Andes.

  world. As soon as I had received the story I

  It was, therefore, fairly certain that the

  hurried with it to the American Minister in

  Chiriqui had not been struck by the meteor,

  Lima, and related all that I had heard. He

  and in a few days the incident was by agreed with me that the authorities at completely forgotten the public at large.

  Washington should be acquainted with the

  But when, ten days later, the warship

  matter at once, and together we devoted many

  reported that no sign of the missing ship could

  hours to coding the story which was cabled in

  be found, and the officials of the Panama-

  the secret cipher of the State Department. The

  Hawaiian Line admitted that the Chiriqui was

  officials, however, were inclined to regard the

  four days overdue, interest was again aroused.

  matter as a hoax, and, as far as I am aware, no

  Then came the startling news, featured in steps have yet been taken to follow out the screaming headlines, that the meteor or its

  suggestions contained in the communication

  twin had been again reported by various ships

  which I received, and thus save humanity

  in the Pacific, and that the U. S. S. from a terrible fate. Personally, I am McCracken, which had been scouring the seas

  convinced that the amazing tale which came to

  for traces of the missing Chiriqui, had sent in me in such an astounding and unexpected

  a detailed report of the meteor’s appearance,

  manner is absolutely true, incredible as it may

  and that her wireless had gone “dead,” exactly

  seem, but whether fact or fiction, my readers

  as had that of the Chiriqui. And when, after

  may decide for themselves.

  every effort, no communication could be

  My son-in-law was intensely interested

  established with the war vessel, and when two

  in radio, and devoted all of his spare time to

  weeks had elapsed without word from her, it

  devising and constructing receiving sets, and

  was generally conceded that both ships had

  in his home in the delightful residential suburb

  been destroyed by the amazing celestial of Miraflores, were a number of receiving sets visitor. For a time the double catastrophe of both conventional and origi
nal design.

  filled the papers to the exclusion of nearly

  Having been closely in touch with the subject

  everything else, and such everyday features as

  for several years, I was deeply interested in

  scandals and murder trials were crowded to

  Frank’s experiments, and especially in a new

  the back pages of the dailies to make room for

  type of hook-up which had given most

  long articles on meteors and missing ships and

  remarkable results in selectivity and distance.

  interviews with scientists. But as no more

  Practically every broadcasting station in

  meteors appeared, and as no more ships America, and many in Europe, had been vanished, the subject gradually lost interest

  logged by the little set, and on several

  and was no longer news.

  occasions faint signals had been heard which,

  About three months after the first although recognizable as English, evidently report of the green meteor appeared (on emanated from a most remote station. These, January fifteenth, to be exact) I was in Peru,

  oddly enough, had come in at the same hour

  visiting my daughter, when I received a each night, and each time had continued for communication of such an utterly amazing

  exactly the same length of time.

  Amazing Stories

  4

  We were discussing this, and trying to

  and very rapidly increased in size and

  again pick up the unintelligible and brilliancy. At the time I was particularly unidentified signals on that memorable struck by the fact that it left no trail of light or January evening, when, without warning, and

  fire behind it, as is usual with large meteorites,

  as clearly as though sent from the station at

  but so rapidly did it approach that I had little

  Buenos Ayres, came the most astounding time to wonder at this. Within a few moments communication which ever greeted human from the time that it was first seen, the ears, and which, almost verbatim, was as immense sphere of green incandescence had follows:[1]

  grown to the size of the moon, and the entire

  sea for miles about our ship was illuminated

  “LISTEN! For God’s sake, I implore all who

  by a sickly green light. It appeared to be

  may hear my words to listen! And believe

  headed directly towards our ship, and,

  what I say no matter how unbelievable it may

  standing as I was on the bridge-deck near the

  seem, for the fate of thousands of human wheel-house, I heard the chief officer cry out: beings, the fate of the human race may depend

  ‘My God, it will strike us!” By now the mass

  upon you who by chance may hear this of fire had altered in appearance, and a short message from another world. My name is distance below the central green mass could James Berry, my home is Butte, Montana, my

  be seen two smaller spheres of blinding red,

  profession a mining engineer, and I am like huge globes of molten metal. By now, speaking through the short wave transmitter of

  too, the noise made by the meteor was plainly

  the steamship Chiriqui on which I was a audible, sounding like the roar of surf or the passenger when the terrible, the incredible sound of a tornado.

  events occurred which I am about to relate. On

  “Everyone aboard the ship was panic-

  the evening of October sixteenth[2] the stricken; women screamed, men cursed and Chiriqui was steaming across the Pacific in

  shouted, and the crew rushed to man the boats,

  calm weather when our attention was attracted

  as everyone felt that the Chirique was

  by what appeared to be an unusually brilliant

  doomed. What happened next I can scarcely

  meteor of a peculiar greenish color. It first

  describe, so rapidly did the events occur. As

  appeared above the horizon to the southeast,

  the meteor seemed about to hurl itself upon

  the ship, there was a blinding flash of light, a

  1 The message as it came in, was halting, and

  terrific detonation, and I saw men and women

  interrupted, with many unintelligibles words

  falling to the decks as if struck down by shell

  and repitition, as if the sender were laboring

  fire. The next instant the meteor vanished

  under the intense strain or was an amateur. For

  completely, and intense blackness followed

  the sake of clarity and continuity, the

  the blinding glare. At the same moment, I was

  communication has been edited and filled in,

  aware of a peculiar pungent, suffocating odor

  but not altered in any detail.

  which, perhaps owing to my long experience

  with deadly gases in mining work, I at once

  2 The metropolitan papers reported the meteor

  recognized as some noxious gas. Almost

  on the eighteenth and stated it was observed

  involuntarily, and dully realizing that by some

  by those on the Chiriqui on the evening of the

  miracle the ship had escaped destruction, I

  seventeenth, but it must be remembered that

  dashed below and reached my cabin almost

  the Chiriqui was in the western Pacific and

  overcome by the fumes which now penetrated

  hence had gained a day in time.

  every portion of the ship. Among my

  possessions was a new type of gas-mask

  A Voice from the Inner World

  5

  which had been especially designed for mine

  half the sky, was the stupendous meteor like a

  work, and my idea was to don this, for I felt

  gigantic globe of green fire, and seemingly

  sure that the meteor had exploded close to the

  less than one hundred feet above me. Still

  ship and had released vast quantities of nearer, and hanging but a few yards above the poisonous gases which might hang about for a

  bow and stern of the ship, were the two

  long time.

  smaller spheres of glowing red. Cowering

  “Although almost overcome by the against the rail, expecting to be shriveled into choking fumes, I managed to find and put on

  a charred cinder at any instant, I gazed

  the apparatus, for one of its greatest transfixed and paralyzed at the titanic masses advantages was the rapidity and ease with

  of flaming light above the ship.

  which it could be adjusted, it having been

  “Then reason came back to me. My

  designed for emergency use. But before it was

  only chance to escape was to leap into the sea,

  fairly in place over my face, the electric light

  and I half clambered upon the rail prepared to

  in my room went out and I was in complete

  take the plunge. A scream, like that of a

  darkness. Also, the ship seemed strangely still,

  madman, came from my lips. Below me was

  and as I groped my way to the stateroom door

  no sign of the waves, but a limitless void,

  it suddenly dawned upon me that the engines

  while, immeasurably distant beneath the ship,

  had stopped, that there was no longer the

  I could dimly see the crinkled surface of the

  whirr of dynamos from the depths of the hull.

  sea. The Chiriqui was floating in space!

  Not a light glimmered in the passageway, and

  “It was impossible, absolutely

  twice, as I felt my way towards the social hall,
<
br />   preposterous, and I felt convinced that I had

  I stumbled over the sprawled bodies of men,

  gone mad, or that the small quantity of gas I

  while in the saloon itself I several times had breathed had affected my brain and had stepped upon the soft and yielding flesh of

  induced the nightmarish vision.

  Perhaps,

  passengers who lay where they had been I thought, the meteors above the ship were struck down by the poisonous gas. In all also visionary, and I again stared upward.

  probability, I thought, I was the sole survivor

  Then, I knew that I was insane. The spheres of

  aboard the ship, unless some of the firemen

  green, and red light were rushing upward as I

  and engineers survived, and I wondered how I

  could see by the brilliant stars studding the

  would manage to escape, if the vessel should

  sky, and the ship upon which I stood was

  be sighted by some other ship, or if it should

  following in their wake! Weak, limp as a rag, I

  be my gruesome task to search the Chiriqui

  slumped to the deck and lay staring at the

  from stem to stern, drag the bodies of the dead

  great globes above me. But the insanely

  to the deck and cast them into the sea, and

  impossible events which had crowded upon

  remain—perhaps for weeks—alone upon the

  my overwrought senses were as nothing to the

  ship until rescued by some passing vessel. But

  amazing discovery I now made.

  as I reached the door and stepped upon the

  “As my eyes became accustomed to

  deck all such thoughts were driven from my

  the glare of the immense green sphere, I saw

  brain as I blinked my eyes and stared about in

  that instead of being merely a ball of fire it

  dumfounded amazement. I had stepped from

  had definite form. About its middle extended a

  Stygian darkness into dazzling light. Blinded

  broad band from which slender rods of light

  for the moment, I closed my eyes, and when I