Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Stories, March 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Our sprays met them in mid air.
Vampires of Space
By Sewell Peaslee Wright
Sometimes, I know, I must[402]seem a crotchety old man."Old John Hanson," they callme, and roll their eyes asthough to say, "Of course, you haveto forgive him onaccount of hisage."
But the jokeisn't always onme. Not infrequentlyI gain much amusement observingthese cocky youngsters whostrut in the blue-and-silver uniformsof the Service in which, until moreor less recently, I bore the rank ofCommander.
There is youngClippen, for instance,a nice,clean youngster;third officer, I believe,on the Caliobre, one of thenewest ships of the Special PatrolService. He drops in to see me asoften as he has leave here at Base,to give me the latest news, and tocoax a yarn, if he can, of the olddays. He is courteous, respectful... and yet just a shade condescending.The condescension ofyouth.
"Something new under the sunafter all, sir," he commented theother day. That, incidentally, is asaying of Earth, whence the largerpart of the Service's officer personnelhas always been drawn. Somethingnew under the sun! Thesaying probably dates back to anage long before man masteredspace.
"Yes?" I leaned back more comfortably,happy, as always, to hearmy native Earth tongue, and tospeak it. The Universal languagehas its obvious advantages, but thespeech of one's fathers wingsthought straightest to the mind."What now?"
"Creatures of space!" announcedClippen importantly, in the fashionof one who brings surprising news."'Electites,' they call them. Beingswho live in space—things, anyway;I don't know that you could callthem beings."
"Hm-m." I looked past him,down a mighty corridor ofdimming years. Creatures that livedin space.... I smiled in my beard."Creatures perhaps twice the heightof a man in their greatest dimension?In shape like a crescent, withblunted horns somewhat straightenednear the tips, and drawn close together?"I spoke slowly, drawingfrom my store of memories. "A palered in color, intangible and yet—"
"You've heard, sir!" said Clippendisappointedly to me. "My news isstale."
"Yes, I've heard," I nodded."'Electites,' they call them, eh?[403]That's the work of our great scientificminds, I presume?"
"Er—yes. Undoubtedly." Clippenstarted to wander restlessly aroundthe room. He had a great respectfor the laboratory men, with theirwhite coats and their wise, solemnairs, and he disliked exceedingly tohave me present my views regardingthese much overrated gentlemen.I have always been a man ofaction, and pottering over coilsand glass vials and pages of figureshas always struck me as somethi