Flight Into The Unknown
By Tom W. Harris
It was Bailey's first trip into space and
things began to happen that made him wonder if
luck alone would bring him back to Earth alive!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
August 1957
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
... A hand moved ...
Young Bailey fell. It was a terrible sensation, falling. Bailey was notsure how long he had been falling. There was no one near him. They hadbeen scattered like seeds from a burst pod when the meteor hulled theship. Bailey was falling through the dark alone; he had been fallingendlessly.
... Those with him now were all palefaced with fear ...
The voice of Krotzer was still in the headphones: "... closing in onme, I can't describe them, you've got to get here...." Krotzer hadmeant so much for so long; now his voice was less than nothing. Baileywas falling like a stone; the sensation drove everything else out ofhim. Bailey could not stand it any longer, and began to scream.
It shattered his visor and icy space rushed in. There was light andhis captain was looking at him. Captain DiCredico was shaking him.
Bailey's face was dripping. He grabbed the skipper. "I'm falling! Holdme!"
... Thousands of eyes bulged, hands twitched ...
DiCredico squeezed a plastic bottle, squirting water into his face.Drops spattered and drifted off slowly through the air. Bailey blinkedand stared. He was aboard the Ranger. Safe. Then panic came gibberingback at him as his body told him unmistakably he was falling.
"You're not!" snapped DiCredico. "No gravity, remember? Spin ship!" heordered over his shoulder.
Gently, Bailey's body felt the reassuring tug as centrifugal forceduplicated a light gravity and the alarm bells in his nerves andglands stopped ringing. The hull of the ship became "down," and menwalked instead of floating—walked on the walls and ceiling, too, likewheel-spokes radiating from the axis of spin.
"Over it?" asked DiCredico.
"I guess so. I'm sorry."
"Happens to all of us. Human body is made with a built-in, full-scaleemergency response to falling—and lack of gravity is what triggersit. When you're awake you can consciously control it. I'm going to haveto quit spinning ship now—can't take bearings, and this slant-standingcan be worse than no gravity."
The substitute gravity faded and Bailey's body tried to panic again,but he reined it in firmly. He went forward to watch television. It wasthe same canned show he'd seen ten times already. And the canned radioshow was one he hadn't liked in the first place. The Service did itsbest to make a ship a synthetic, miniature Earth—but it couldn't. Tenmonths already—maybe a year more. Plenty of people blew their stacks.A wonder they all didn't. Would he?
Like black, bad blood, a pulse of fear in Bailey's mind.
... and in those others that were his ...
It was time for his stint on radar. Benning handed him the headsetgratefully. "Krotzer's still sending," he said. "Awful to listen to.Whatever they are, they're doing something to his bubble. He thinksthey may be in soon. I hope to Christ we get there."
"What do you think they are, anyway?"
"Beats me," Benning answered. "Looks like you'll see some grade-Amonsters your first time out, you lucky boy." An unconvincing smilecrossed his face, which like all their faces was dead white from monthsof being away from anything like sunlight. "A lot of lousy things canhappen in space. I hope we get less than our share of them."