Turnabout may not always be fair play in the gulfs between the stars. But sodestructive and malicious are the Agronians of this story that we can readilyforgive Richard Smith for filling their ship with an unexpected reversal of avictory technique almost too ghastly to contemplate. We have no sympathy forthem—and neither has Mr. Smith. Still, we're rather glad he decided to makehuman heroism the cornerstone of a most exciting tale of conflict in space.
The Earth was enveloped in atomic fire and the ship wasa prize of war. But disaster may make victory mandatory.
The ship leaped toward thestars, its engines roaring with adesperate burst of energy and itsbulkheads audibly protesting thetremendous pressures.
In the control room, EmmettCorbin listened to the screech oftormented metal and shuddered.The heat was suffocating, and acridfumes assailed his nostrils andburned his eyes until he almostcried out in pain.
Despite the agony, his gaze didnot waver from the video set acrossthe room. In the screen, Earth wasa rapidly diminishing orb, charredand mottled with glowing atomicfires.
Everything, a far corner of hismind whispered. Everything onEarth is dead!
He was a carpenter and luckily,he had been working inside thebarricades of an Army spaceportwhen the news came that theenemy had broken through the defensering beyond Pluto. He hadcontinued nailing the cedar sidingon the building, knowing that ifhe stopped his work and waited,he would start screaming.
An MP running by the buildingseveral minutes later had shoutedat him, urging him to board oneof the ships on the landing field.In those last hours, they had loadedthe few remaining spaceshipsas quickly as possible, ignoring theimportance of the passengers. Hereflected that many millionairesand influential politicians were nowdead simply because they hadn'tbeen close enough to the spaceportswhen the unexpected newscame. Watching the pilots as theysat tense before the controls, hefelt overcome with helplessness.
The passenger on his right wasa girl—red-haired and undeniablyattractive. He remembered hername. It was Gloria White, andshe was the daughter of ColonelWhite who had led the expeditionto Venus. Her father had diedmonths before but his friends hadused their influence to establishher as a secretary on the spaceportwhere it was assumed she wouldbe comparatively safe.
He had seen her frequently butalmost always at a distance. Shehad been friendly enough, but shehad never exchanged more than afew casual words with him. Hehad often paused in his work toadmire her. But now, aboard oneof the last ships to leave Earth, heevaluated her only as another passenger.
The man on his left was dressedexpensively. His general appearanceradiated prestige although hisfleshy face was filled with disbeliefas if he were witnessing a fantasticnightmare.
Rinnnng! Rinnnng! Corbin'sthoughts were interrupted by aclamoring alarm bell declaringby its volume and insistence thatthe danger was still acute. Thatbell will ring until the ship is destroyed,he thought wildly. Itcould very well mean that the shipwill be destroyed!
The pilots leaped away from thecontrols as if they had abruptlybecome white hot. "Rocket," oneof them screamed. "Enemy rocketon our tail!"
Corbin turned suddenly and ranacross the room in sudden, blindpanic. "We can't shake it! Nobodycan shake one!" Mumbling incoherently,he grabbed a spacesuitand began to d