WHAT INHABITS ME?
By ROBERT MOORE WILLIAMS
What vast secrets would it hold? What
startling discoveries ... what dire news
would it bring back after twenty lost
years out in deep space? Fearfully men
watched the awesome Andromeda
glide into the Plutonian spaceport.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories March 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Here the universe was so quiet you could hear space creaking andgroaning from its internal stresses. Here even the far-off stars seemedto roar like blow torches.
Craig Randall, shivering from the cold of the observatory dome, snappedshut the holders on the exposed plates, pulled them out and quicklyreplaced them with new ones, opened the shutters on the 20-inch scope.Out here on Pluto a 20-inch telescope did a much better job than a200-inch scope did on Earth. This was one reason why Earth Governmentmaintained this station here on a wandering chunk of space-frozen rock.
Plates in hand, he fled into the semi-warmth of the development lab.Here he developed them, compared them with previous plates, saw therewas no change, and quickly filed them. Then he fled again, this time tothe warmth of human companionship in the big lounge of Pluto Station.
Music from Earth came to him as he entered the room, warm andthrobbing, smells, tobacco smoke, the rattle of a pinball machine, theriffle of a deck of cards being shuffled. In the lounge, devices tocombat boredom were in operation. As he entered the lounge old AdamMarch looked up at him, hope suddenly gleaming in faded blue eyes, toask again the same eternal question.
"Anything new on the plates, Craig?" Everytime an astronomer came outof the observatory, old Adam March asked this question, always withrenewed hope sounding in his voice.
Craig shook his head. "Sorry, Adam. Nothing."
At his words, hope began to go out of the faded blue eyes. "Not a signof the Andromeda?" the old man persisted.
"Not a sign. Why don't you ever ask about the Perseus or theHercules? They went out into deep space too, you know."
"I know," Adam March nodded. "But the Andromeda was the first one togo out, she was the first deep-space ship. It seems logical that shemight be the first one back. That's why I always ask about her."
"She went out twenty years ago," Craig said, then caught himself.Whatever it was that the old man sought in the Andromeda, there wasno point in reminding him that the ship had unquestionably smashed uplong ago. Let hope remain! "Sorry, Adam. Nothing, yet."
"They might not catch her until she was real close in," Adam Marchpersisted. "She wouldn't be using her drive until she got in real closeand you probably wouldn't catch her until the drive was turned on. Letme know, will you, if you catch anything?" The last was said quickly asCraig Randall began to move away.
"Sure thing, Adam, you'll be the first to know," Craig answered.Across the room, Mary Kirkham was trying to catch his eye, a needlesseffort in this case. If she was in sight, she always had his eye. Shealso had the eye of every other male in her vicinity, a quality whichoccasionally gave Craig the impulse to destroy half the unmarriedmen at the station. She was a bio-physicist, and a good one. She wasassigned to the bio-physical research laboratories that were a part ofthe station. Mary pulled him down to the sofa beside her.
"Craig, we're going to get a whole new bio-physics lab here."Excitement danced in her voice and glinted in her eyes.
"That's fine," Craig said. He knew how much this m