The Flight of RX-1 By Raymond Z Read online

  Amazing Stories, July, 1933

  The Flight of RX-1

  By Raymond Z. Gallun

  AUL HAHN chuckled inanely. It had

  wondering he looked down at himself; saw the

  been a good joke that old Rawlsey had

  trim leather coverall suit which he wore. It had

  P told at the banquet about a negro and a military pockets. Lightly his gloved fingers Dutch sea captain. The foods and drinks had

  touched his forehead, which was almost

  also been good. The company had been covered by the tight-fitting helmet. There was interesting and jovial. All in all he had a painful bruise there. When his hand came thoroughly enjoyed himself. Now that the away it was daubed with blood. His right leg affair was over he could rest. God, how he

  too was badly scratched and bruised.

  wanted to rest! He felt himself floating

  Paul Hahn’s features became suddenly

  through darkness that was softer and more

  strained. His white lips were pursed hard. In a

  soothing than black velvet—yes, black velvet.

  sort of panic he scrambled to a window and

  To-morrow he could start out on that crazy

  rubbed away the veiling frost. Through the

  venture that old Rawlsey was financing. But

  thick pane of reinforced glass he could see an

  to hell with it now. Sleep, that was what he

  area of ground covered with an ash-grey dust,

  wanted. His whole body begged for it, and he

  which glared painfully under the intense

  was very comfortable there, wherever he was,

  sunlight. With a half-eager, half-fearful

  except that he felt sort of cramped, and his leg

  expectancy he hunched his head down

  ached. Darn that aching; he wished that it

  between his shoulders so that he could look

  would stop...

  farther out over the strange landscape. For

  Slowly the delirium left him. His eyes

  almost half a mile a desolate plain extended,

  burned. Uncertainly his gauntletted hand its details harshly clear-cut. It was strewn with groped toward a misty blob of white light—a

  great lumps of rock, and jumbled masses of

  tiny circular window on which a thin film of

  hardened lava, the jagged lines of which had

  frost had settled. The sun was shining on the

  never been softened by the eroding action of

  frost, making it glisten. Raising himself from

  wind or rain. The portion of the level area

  his huddled position, he stared about. There

  which he could see, was terminated abruptly

  was an expression of puzzled vexation on his

  where dense shadows cast by the serrated

  smooth, boyish face.

  range of mountains, poured down over the

  The compartment in which he found

  plain. The long, slender needles of darkness

  himself was very small; the circular floor was

  seemed to grope toward him over the dusty

  not more than five feet across, and the domed

  ground, like the black fingers of some

  roof was only a foot over his head. nightmare monster. Close above the Everything, with the exception of the three

  mountains, the slopes of which were hidden in

  small windows, and a complicated the gloom, was the sun, shining with fierce arrangement of levers and dials against the

  white intensity. It was surrounded by the

  wall, was padded with thick felt.

  feathery, wispy veil of its corona. About it

  Gradually a realization of his position

  was the sky, dead black except for the cold

  was coming into his fogged mind. Still stars, whose brightness was undiminished by

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  their close proximity to the flaming solar orb.

  Paul had signed the papers releasing

  At last Paul Hahn understood. For a

  Rawlsey from all responsibility for what

  full minute he gazed at the panorama of would inevitably happen to him. There had hellish grandeur spreading out before him. been a period of intensive training and Except for the low weird hum of the soda-lime

  instruction. Paul recalled the farewell banquet

  air purifying apparatus beneath the floor, there

  at Rawlsey’s mansion. After midnight, the

  was no sound.

  moon-bound vessel had roared its way toward

  “God!” he rasped hoarsely. The word

  zenith.

  was half a sob. A paroxysm of terror and

  The trip had taken fifty-one hours and

  loneliness seized him, and he crumpled down

  fourteen minutes—exactly as predicted. Every

  beneath the window, his face buried in his

  detail of the journey had corresponded with

  arms.

  scientific nicety with the calculations of

  Rawlsey’s engineers. The fifty tons of liquid

  BUT it did not last long. After a moment he

  fuel had been sufficient to propel the rocket to

  raised himself. His teeth were gritted its goal, and to retard its speed in making a savagely, and he forced a smile to his lips.

  landing. Every ounce carried by the craft had

  “Steady boy—steady,” h» muttered been necessarily taken into consideration in reassuringly. “Just think, you’re a pioneer, an

  planning the journey. The strictest economy of

  explorer like Christopher Columbus. The first

  weights had had to be exercised. If the load of

  man—the very first—to reach the moon!”

  the RX-1 had been twenty-five pounds

  The sound of his own voice startled

  greater, the craft could not have reached the

  him. It seemed so long since he had heard a

  moon.

  human voice. And what he had told himself

  Paul remembered the last moments of

  aided him to fix in his mind the realization of

  the trip. Yawning directly below him had been

  his achievement. It had seemed so utterly the maw of the lunar crater, Plato. He had felt impossible! For an instant he felt like one who

  a sickening sensation of falling. About him

  has defamed the sanctity of Nature’s secrets.

  had flamed the gaseous streams of the

  He could remember all the details now.

  retarding vents. Then the crash had come—as

  For almost five years, since before his

  predicted. It had not been really a very violent

  seventeenth birthday, he had piloted crash, but he had been badly bruised, and atmospheric rocket ships for the Rawlsey knocked senseless. He was on the floor of Transcontinental Air Lines. Then old George

  Plato now, in this tiny, cramped

  Rawlsey’s experts had designed and built the

  compartment—the last segment of the huge

  moon rocket, RX-1, capable of carrying one

  rocket that had left Earth a little over two days man. This craft was the result of a long and

  before.

  gradual period of experimentation which had

  Paul groped instinctively into his

  been initiated by Goddart, Valier and Opel

  breast pocket, and drew forth a crumpled

  more than a century before.

  cigarette. His fingers trembled slightly as he

  Competition for the privilege of lighted up. His hands were cold. It was still piloting the RX-1 had been keen. The pilot

  chilly in that sealed car, even under the fierce

  must be young, courageous and resourceful;

  sunshine. Paul inhaled deeply several times,

  he must have stamina, and a superlatively cool

  and then crushed the fire from the last

  head. With his usual thoroughness, Rawlsey

  cigarette.

  had chosen carefully. He had selected Paul

  He raised a section of the felted floor.

  Hahn.

  Here, in a square compartment was an array of

  The Flight of RX-1

  3

  capsule-shaped oxygen bottles. All but one of

  His sense of wonder and awe seemed

  them were empty. Only a half-hour supply

  somehow deadened since his first realization

  remained. Those specialists of Rawlsey’s were

  of achievement. Only the prepondering silence

  clever; they had predicted that he would have

  of the place entered his consciousness, and it

  oxygen to last thirty minutes after his arrival

  was best to keep that out of one’s mind as

  on the moon. Paul managed to grin ruefully.

  much as possible. There was no sound except

  He had plenty of work to do in that half-hour.

  the gentle hiss of the oxygen valve inside his

  His face grew hard and solemn, and faint

  helmet....

  hollows seemed suddenly to form in his

  The thrill of accomplishment, of

/>   normally plump cheeks.

  touching the soil of Luna, was strangely

  Beside the oxygen flasks was a small

  absent. And he had looked forward to it so

  box containing some chocolate bars, several

  eagerly. A dulling influence seemed to have

  sandwiches, and a bottle of water. No need to

  dropped down on his mind, smothering all

  take food now, but the water would help. ....

  emotions. He wondered why he wasn’t

  fearful; why he wasn’t exultant. Instead of

  HE opened another compartment and drew

  these seemingly logical feelings, his mind was

  forth a peculiar sort of attire made of flexible

  filled only with a strange, dead, numbing

  wire cloth heavily doped with a heat-resisting,

  calm. He had felt it only once before when he

  rubberite composition. He slipped quickly into

  had dragged the charred body of his best

  the vacuum suit and closed the air-tight zipper

  friend, Stan Lawson from the smoking

  sealers. Fastening the oxygen flask into place,

  remains of his flier. He had heard that

  he donned the aluminum headpiece, the condemned men often felt that way. Was he forward portion of which was fitted with two

  not also——? He checked the thought. It was

  enormous eye-windows of darkened glass.

  best to let the blurred, soothing influence that

  A determined jerk undid the clamps

  had come over him, prevail. The ways of

  which held the sealed hatch of the car in place.

  Nature were kind.

  It popped open, pushed by the pressure of the

  There was work to do, and the

  expanding air inside the narrow quarters.

  moments were slipping away. The catchy tune

  Almost carelessly Paul tossed several

  of a love song that had recently become

  objects through the opening; a square metal

  popular was throbbing inside his head.

  case, a large flattened cylinder, another long

  Unconsciously he began to hum it.

  cylinder tapered and formed like a torpedo.

  He picked up the large flattened

  On earth it would have been very heavy, but

  cylinder he had tossed from the car, and

  here the force of gravity was only one sixth as

  hurried toward the western edge of the crater.

  great.

  There the sharp-cut shadows were

  Paul Hahn, in his grotesque attire lengthening, as the long lunar afternoon apparently become some native denizen of

  progressed. Easy bounds carried him rapidly

  this weird world, clambered awkwardly over the rough terrain. He did not stop where through the hatch and dropped to the ground

  the shadows began, but continued for several

  beside his paraphernalia. He glanced about

  hundred yards toward the mountain slopes.

  tentatively, almost casually, over the dazzling

  The gloom, unabated by atmospheric diffusion

  floor of Plato, toward the encircling ring of

  of light, was almost like the interior of a dark

  mountains, and up into the black sky, which

  cave.

  was in harsh contrast with the blazing, sunlit

  He set the cylinder on the ground and

  landscape.

  hurriedly unscrewed from it a metal peg. A

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  long leap carried him clear of the zone of

  him. A curious bit of rock crystal glinted in

  danger. Almost immediately there was a the dust. He picked it up.

  soundless flash of white light, as the upper

  From the corner of his eye he saw, or

  surface of the cylinder was blasted off; then a

  thought he saw, the shadow of a rock several

  fountain of incandescent fire spouted upward.

  hundred yards distant, change shape slightly,

  The oxy-magnesium flare would continue to

  as though something had moved there. He

  burn for several minutes.

  paused, and watched intently for several

  Paul Hahn did not pause to watch the

  moments, but detected nothing more.

  inspiring sight. Instead he hastened back in the

  Arriving beside the battered and

  direction of the rocket car. He knew that from

  scorched rocket car, he opened his case of

  the grey-green sphere hanging stationary in

  instruments. First he took his camera, and

  the sky above, thousands of telescopes were

  made a number of exposures—of the vehicle

  probing the lunar surface, seeking for a sign.

  which had brought him to the moon, of the

  The astronomers would detect a faint, crater’s floor in various directions, of the sky, flickering spot of light in the shaded portion of of the sun, and of the earth. The picture of the

  Plato.

  half-illuminated terrestrial globe, with its

  cloud-mottled continents and its grey seas,

  PAUL could feel eyes upon him; eyes that

  would be very interesting. Last of all, by using

  worshiped him as a hero, and eyes that the time shutter of the camera, he contrived to condemned him as a fool. In a moment the

  get a picture of himself. Old Rawlsey had

  newscasters would be feeding the report of his

  particularly instructed him to do that....

  success to the hungry populace. Paul felt a

  Working with thoughtless, automatic

  faint, unrecompensing thrill that was quickly

  efficiency, for his mind was still in a sort of

  swallowed up by the vast silent loneliness

  daze, he placed the roll of film in a small

  about him.

  aluminum cylinder.

  He leaped over a narrow chasm that

  Paul’s aneroid barometer registered an

  zigzagged its erratic way across the crater

  atmospheric pressure of nine millimeters—an

  floor. Its bottom, if bottom it had, was lost in

  insignificant amount when compared with the

  utter darkness.

  normal earthly pressure of seventy-four

  An area of grey, darker than the centimeters. He jotted the reading down in his general hue of the ashy soil, caught his log book with a pencil.

  attention. He stooped to examine it. He found

  With the aid of a small hand-pump he

  that it was a cluster of lichen-like growths, the managed to secure a compressed sample of

  small crinkled whorls of which seemed lunar air. It would probably be mostly carbon perfectly dry and lifeless, like moldy paper.

  dioxide. The plants he had plucked from the

  That the moon possessed an extremely crater’s floor, together with a sample of soil tenuous atmosphere had long been suspected;

  and the fragment of rock crystal he had picked

  and it was evident now that there was also a

  up, he placed in a cylinder similar to the one

  trace of water in the soil—enough to support

  in which he had put the films.

  rudimentary forms of vegetation. Paul plucked

  Crouching against the side of the car,

  several of the lunar plants free. Here was

  he proceeded to make further entries in his log

  something that should interest Rawlsey’s book which contained a record of his trip: specialists.

  “Landed in crater Plato on lunar surface at

  Continuing toward the rocket car, his

  5:16 A. M., Central Standard Time. Hit pretty

  eyes roved searchingly over the ground about

  hard and was senseless for a minute or two.

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  5

  There were no unusual developments, an ocean. But on reaching earth it would be however. Everything proceeded exactly as light enough to float.

  predicted.”

  About Paul, the milky, powdery vapor