Around About rigel by J Page 2
reflecting dimly back to the sleek ovoid lines glassite prow. Alf Mason hung there, eyes
of the moored Space Guard vessel. Two shot through with fear and desperation. In his grotesque figures, clad in transparent bell-like hand he held destruction—the dissembler—
helmets with shoulder tanks, came cautiously
not only for those within, but for himself as
out of a low airlock, each with dissembler at
well. If he shattered the glassite, the inner air hip. The Mason brothers distrusted the air of
would escape, leaving them in a vacuum. So
Vaporia. They took no chances. Like divers on
he hesitated.
an ocean floor, they ventured through the
Over his helmet the pinkish rays of
wreckage. Hermer writhed inwardly with Rigel had ballooned to white hot intensity.
disgust. Avarice had brought the Mason Vaporia’s atmosphere was left behind.
brothers down, a hope that treasures might be
Lieutenant Hermer looked sternly ahead, set
gutted from the derelict, and need of water.
the controls at full acceleration. Alf Mason
All at once something was happening. grinned, knowing his body would be Brackish shadows were moving into the light,
accelerated along with the space ship.
Thrilling Wonder Stories
6
Darting across vacuum now. Alf’s lips
bodies to the rear had shot the patrol vessel
were moving. At a sideport, Mope cringed, his
into that “no man’s land” of space, and the
fat sweating face a terror mask. Demanding.
Mason brothers had been plucked away by an
Pleading. Screaming that they be let in. And
invisible repelling force.
Rigel’s blinding flames expanded, became
He turned to explain what had
more intense. Suddenly it seemed as if a happened to Jewel, but found her staring back gigantic hand clutched at the men on the outer at a black dead world outlined vaguely against hull. They were scraped away and back into
Rigel’s rays. “I’m glad to get away,” she said, space. Alf’s incredulous face gyrated away as
“but somehow it makes me feel a little blue to his space togged body was ripped back.
leave the Vaporians.”
Out around Rigel. Out where the
Off to one side of the stern, two bright
intense light pressure exceeded the gravity of flashes appeared against space, so close
a giant sun. Even old Sol had light pressure, as together as to look like eclipsing binaries, or was evinced by tails forming on near comets,
double suns. They twinkled momentarily, and
but this was two hundred and fifty-six times as were gone, like instantaneous novas. Only
great. Yet the gravitational thrust of astral
Hermer knew what they signified.
Monte Herridge, Around About rigel by J
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