The wars of nerves, the cold wars, of theearly Twentieth Century pale into insignificancebeside the fear that besets humanity whenJan Carvel returns from space!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Future combined with Science Fiction Stories November 1950.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
From Quintus Bland's History of Mankind, Chapter XXIV "The Terror."
These are the halcyon years. The awful goad of the Terror is gone andmen can look into the sky without fear. The new colonies thrive amongthe low red hills of Mars, in the icy moraines of Io, Europa, andTitan. Starships are poised on the outer moons; perhaps soon Earth willwear a diadem of stars.
Yet some of the bitterness of the fear-ridden years is with usstill. Forgiveness does not come easily to those who have sufferedthe humiliation of the Terror; there are the blighted lives toremember, and the unfortunates who lived and died under the threat ofannihilation from the sky. Jan Carvel's memory is accursed—for it wasCarvel who brought the Terror.
Of the man himself, little is known. He lived—and died—in thefirst decade of the Conquest of Space, or in the last decade of theNationalist Era, since they coincide. A few short years had passedsince the first successful Moon flights and the establishment of theSpace Stations, and the tensions that had been mounting among thenations of Earth were nearing the breaking point.
Lunaris was 'Moon Base' then, and the launching racks were pointed backtoward Earth and not toward the planets. Intense activity had turnedthe Moon into an atomic arsenal—a focal point of all the destructivearts men had learned during and since the Second World War.
The Old Countries, mainly the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics andthe United States of America, stood with weapons poised; the seeminglyeternal Cold War steadily growing hotter. Moon Base was American, andthe Space Stations were Russian; a parity of weapons had been reachedand jingoists cried for war.
History does not record the exact date of Jan Carvel's departure fromthe Earth-Moon System. It is known that he was an American, a qualifiedMoon pilot, and a fanatic on the subject of planetary exploration. Itis also known that he boarded an experimental long range rocket-bomberwithout authorization and vanished from the arsenal in Tycho. Somehave suggested that he did not steal the craft and that he wasactually ordered on his epoch-making flight, presumably in search ofmilitarily useful information. This is unlikely. Having reached theMoon and turned it into fortress, the United States lost interest inspace travel. Carvel chafed under the restraints placed upon him andthe Bureau of Security; it is therefore more than just probable thathe took it upon himself to press the cause of exploration withoutauthority or sanction.
The result of this irresponsible course of action was predestined.Carvel lost his ship and his life. But he left a legacy that was toshake the world.
On the evening of January 17, 1971, some six years after Carvel'sdisappearance from Moon Base, the Pacific Radar Watch detected anapproaching missile. It was tracked for routine interception, and oneGround to Air Missile was actually launched at it before its erraticcourse identified the unknown rocket as a space-craft in distress.Fortunately, the GTA Missile was caught and neutralized beforeinterception occurred, and the approaching space-craft was allowed tocrash in the middle of California's Central Valley near wha