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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Signal Red - -Author: Henry Guth - -Release Date: November 23, 2020 [EBook #63860] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGNAL RED *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>SIGNAL RED</h1> - -<h2>By HENRY GUTH</h2> - -<p>They tried to stop him. Earth Flight 21 was a<br /> -suicide run, a coffin ship, they told him.<br /> -Uranian death lay athwart the space lanes. But<br /> -Shano already knew this was his last ride.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Fall 1949.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Mercurian night settled black and thick over the Q City Spaceport. -Tentative fingers of light flicked and probed the sky, and winked out.</p> - -<p>"Here she comes," somebody in the line ahead said.</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, his whole skeletal body jerking. Arthritic joints sent -flashes of pain along his limbs. Here she comes, he thought, feeling -neither glad nor sad.</p> - -<p>He coughed and slipped polarized goggles over his eyes.</p> - -<p>The spaceport emerged bathed in infra red. Hangars, cradles, freighter -catapults and long runways stood out in sharp, diamond-clear detail. -High up, beyond the cone of illumination, a detached triple row of -bright specks—portholes of the liner <i>Stardust</i>—sank slowly down.</p> - -<p>There was no eagerness in him. Only a tiredness. A relief. Relief from -a lifetime of beating around the planets. A life of digging, lifting, -lugging and pounding. Like a work-worn Martian camel, he was going home -to die.</p> - -<p>As though on oiled pistons the ship sank into the light, its long -shark-like hull glowing soft and silvery, and settled with a feathery -snuggle into the cradle's ribs.</p> - -<p>The passenger line quivered as a loud-speaker boomed:</p> - -<p>"<i>Stardust, now arrived at Cradle Six! Stardust, Cradle Six! All -passengers for Venus and Earth prepare to board in ten minutes.</i>"</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, and wiped phlegm from his thin lips, his hand following -around the bony contours of his face, feeling the hollows and the beard -stubble and loose skin of his neck. He coughed and thought of the -vanium mines of Pluto, and his gum-clogged lungs. A vague, pressing -desire for home overwhelmed him. It had been so long.</p> - -<p>"<i>Attention! Attention, Stardust passengers! The signal is red. The -signal is red. Refunds now being made. Refunds now. Take-off in five -minutes.</i>"</p> - -<p>The man ahead swore and flicked up an arm. "Red," he groaned. "By the -infinite galaxies, this is the last straw!" He charged away, knocking -Shano aside as he passed.</p> - -<p><i>Red signal.</i> In bewildered anxiety Shano lifted the goggles from his -eyes and stared into the sudden blackness. The red signal. Danger out -there. Passengers advised to ground themselves, or travel at their own -risk.</p> - -<p>He felt the passengers bump and fumble past him, grumbling vexatiously.</p> - -<p>A hot dread assailed him, and he coughed, plucking at his chest. -Plucking at an urgency there.</p> - -<p>Dropping the goggles to his rheumy eyes, he saw that the passenger line -had dissolved. He moved, shuffling, to the gate, thrust his ticket into -the scanner slot, and pushed through the turnstile when it clicked.</p> - -<p>"<i>Flight twenty-one, now arriving from Venus</i>," the loud-speaker said -monotonously. Shano glanced briefly upward and saw the gleaming belly -of twenty-one sinking into the spaceport cone of light.</p> - -<p>He clawed his way up the gangway and thrust out his ticket to the -lieutenant standing alone at the air lock. The lieutenant, a sullen, -chunky man with a queer nick in his jawbone, refused the ticket. -"Haven't you heard, mister? Red signal. Go on back."</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, and peered through the lenses of his goggles. "Please," -he said. "Want to go home. I've a right." The nicked jaw stirred faint -memories within his glazed mind.</p> - -<p>The lieutenant punched his ticket. "It's your funeral, old man."</p> - -<p>The loud-speaker blared. "<i>Stardust, taking off in thirty seconds. The -signal is red. Stardust, taking—</i>"</p> - -<p>With the words dinning in his ears, Shano stepped into the air lock. -The officer followed, spun wheels, and the lock closed. The outside was -shut off.</p> - -<p>Lifting goggles they entered the hull, through a series of two more -locks, closing each behind them.</p> - -<p>"We're afloat," the officer said. "We've taken off." A fleck of light -danced far back in his eye. Shano felt the pressure of acceleration -gradually increasing, increasing, and hurried in.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Captain Menthlo, a silver-mustached Jupiterian, broad, huge, yet -crushable as a beetle, talked while his hands manipulated a panel of -studs in the control room. The pilot, his back encased in leather, sat -in a bucket seat before him, listening into earphones.</p> - -<p>"Surprised to learn of a passenger aboard," the captain said, glancing -briefly sideways. "You're entitled to know of the danger ahead." He -flicked a final stud, spoke to the pilot and at last turned a serious, -squared face to Shano. "Old man," he said. "There's a Uranian fleet out -there. We don't know how many ships in this sector. Flight twenty-one, -which just landed, had a skirmish with one, and got away. We may not be -so lucky. You know how these Uranian devils are."</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, and wiped his mouth. "Dirty devils," he said. "I was -driv' off the planet once, before this war started. I know things -about them Uranian devils. Heard them in the mines around. Hears -things, a laborer does."</p> - -<p>The captain seemed for the first time to realize the social status of -his lone passenger, and he became a little gruff.</p> - -<p>"Want you to sign this waiver, saying you're traveling at your own -risk. We'll expect you to keep to your cabin as much as possible. -When the trouble comes we can't bother with a passenger. In a few -hours we'll shut down the ship entirely, and every mechanical device -aboard, to try to avoid detection." His mustaches rose like two spears -from each side of his squared nose as his face changed to an alert -watchfulness. "Going home, eh?" he said. "You've knocked around some, -by the looks of you. Pluto, from the sound of that cough."</p> - -<p>Shano scrawled his signature on the waiver. "Yeah," he said. "Pluto. -Where a man's lungs fights gas." He blinked watery eyes. "Captain, -what's a notched jaw mean to you?"</p> - -<p>"Well, old man," the captain grasped Shano's shoulder and turned him -around. "It means somebody cut himself, shaving. You stick tight to -your cabin." He nodded curtly and indicated the door.</p> - -<p>Descending the companionway to the next deck Shano observed the -nick-jawed lieutenant staring out the viewport, apparently idling. The -man turned and gripped Shano's thin arm.</p> - -<p>"A light?" he said, tapping a cigarette. Shano produced a lighter -disk and the chunky man puffed. He was an Earthman and his jaw seemed -cut with a knife, notched like a piece of wood. Across the breast of -his tunic was a purple band, with the name <i>Rourke</i>. "Why are you so -anxious to get aboard, old man?" He searched Shano's face. "There's -trouble ahead, you know."</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, wracking his body, as forgotten memories stirred -sluggishly in his mind. "Yup," he said, and jerked free and stumbled -down the steel deck.</p> - -<p>In his cabin he lay on the bunk, lighted a cigarette and smoked, -coughing and staring at the rivet-studded bulkhead. The slow movement -of his mind resolved into a struggle, one idea groping for the other.</p> - -<p>What were the things he'd heard about nicked jaws? And where had -he heard them? Digging ore on Pluto; talk in the pits? Secretive -suspicions voiced in smoke-laden saloons of Mars? In the labor gangs of -Uranus? Where? Shano smoked and didn't know. But he knew there was a -rumor, and that it was the talk of ignorant men. The captain had evaded -it. Shano smoked and coughed and stared at the steel bulkhead and -waited.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ship's alarm clanged. Shano jerked from his bunk like a broken -watch spring. He crouched, trembling, on arthritic joints, as a -loud-speaker blared throughout the ship.</p> - -<p>"<i>All hands! We now maintain dead silence. Close down and stop all -machinery. Power off and lights out. An enemy fleet is out there, -listening and watching for mechanical and electronic disturbance. -Atmosphere will be maintained from emergency oxygen cylinders. Stop -pumps.</i>"</p> - -<p>Shano crouched and listened as the ship's steady drone ceased and the -vibrations ceased. The pumps stopped, the lights went out.</p> - -<p>Pressing the cold steel bulkhead, Shano heard oxygen hiss through the -pipes. Hiss and hiss and then flow soundlessly, filling the cabin and -his lungs. He choked.</p> - -<p>The cabin was like a mine shaft, dark and cold. Feet pounded on the -deck outside.</p> - -<p>Shano clawed open the door. He peered out anxiously.</p> - -<p>Cold blobs of light, phosphorescent bulbs held in the fists of men, -glimmered by. Phosphorescent bulbs, because the power was off. Shano -blinked. He saw officers and men, their faces tight and pinched, -hurrying in all directions. Hurrying to shut down the ship.</p> - -<p>He acted impulsively. A young ensign strode by, drawn blaster in hand. -Shano followed him; followed the bluish glow of his bulb, through -labyrinthine passages and down a companionway, coughing and leering -against the pain in his joints. The blue light winked out in the -distance and Shano stopped.</p> - -<p>He was suddenly alarmed. The captain had warned him to stay in his -cabin. He looked back and forth, wondering how to return.</p> - -<p>A bell clanged.</p> - -<p>Shano saw a cold bulb glowing down the passageway, and he shuffled -hopefully toward it. The bulb moved away. He saw an indistinct figure -disappear through a door marked, ENGINE ROOM.</p> - -<p>Shano paused uncertainly at the end of the passageway. A thick cluster -of vertical pipes filled the corner. He peered at the pipes and saw a -gray box snuggled behind them. It had two toggle switches and a radium -dial that quivered delicately.</p> - -<p>Shano scratched his scalp as boots pounded on the decks, above -and below. He listened attentively to the ship's familiar noises -diminishing one by one. And finally even the pounding of feet died out; -everything became still. The silence shrieked in his ears.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ship coasted. Shano could sense it coasting. He couldn't feel it -or hear it, but he knew it was sliding ghost-like through space like a -submarine dead under water, slipping quietly past a listening enemy.</p> - -<p>The ship's speaker rasped softly. "<i>Emergency. Battle posts.</i>"</p> - -<p>The captain's voice. Calm, brief. It sent a tremor through Shano's -body. He heard a quick scuffle of feet again, running feet, directly -overhead, and the captain's voice, more urgently, "Power on. They've -heard us."</p> - -<p>The words carried no accusation, but Shano realized what they meant. -A slip-up. Something left running. Vibrations picked up quickly by -detectors of the Uranian space fleet.</p> - -<p>Shano coughed and heard the ship come to life around him. He pulled -himself out of the spasm, cursing Pluto. Cursing his diseased, -gum-clogged lungs. Cursing the Uranian fleet that was trying to prevent -his going home—even to die.</p> - -<p>This was a strange battle. Strange indeed. It was mostly silence.</p> - -<p>Occasionally, as though from another world, came a brief, curt order. -"Port guns alert." Then hush and tension.</p> - -<p>The deck lurched and the ship swung this way and that. Maybe dodging, -maybe maneuvering—Shano didn't know. He felt the deck lurch, that was -all.</p> - -<p>"Fire number seven."</p> - -<p>He heard the weird scream of a ray gun, and felt the constricting -terror that seemed to belt the ship like an iron band.</p> - -<p>This was a battle in space, and out there were Uranian cruisers trying -to blast the <i>Stardust</i> out of the sky. Trying and trying, while the -captain dodged and fired back—pitted his skill and knowledge against -an enemy Shano couldn't see.</p> - -<p>He wanted desperately to help the captain break through, and get to -Earth. But he could only cling to the plastic pipes and cough.</p> - -<p>The ship jounced and slid beneath his feet, and was filled with sound. -It rocked and rolled. Shano caromed off the bulkhead.</p> - -<p>"Hold fire."</p> - -<p>He crawled to his knees on the slippery deck, grabbed the pipes and -pulled himself erect, hand over hand. His eyes came level with the gray -metal box behind the pipes. He squinted, fascinated, at the quivering -dial needle. "Hey!" he said.</p> - -<p>"Stand by."</p> - -<p>Shano puzzled it out, his mind groping. He wasn't used to thinking. -Only working with his hands.</p> - -<p>This box. This needle that had quivered when the ship was closed -down....</p> - -<p>"It's over. Chased them off. Ready guns before laying to. Third watch -on duty."</p> - -<p>Shano sighed at the sudden release of tension throughout the space -liner <i>Stardust</i>.</p> - -<p>Smoke spewed from his nostrils. His forehead wrinkled with -concentration. Those rumors: "Man sells out to Uranus, gets a nick cut -in his jaw. Ever see a man with a nick in his jaw? Watch him, he's up -to something." The talk of ignorant men. Shano remembered.</p> - -<p>He poked behind the pipes and angrily slapped the toggle switches on -the box. The captain would only scoff. He'd never believe there was a -traitor aboard who had planted an electronic signal box, giving away -the ship's position. He'd never believe the babblings of an old man.</p> - -<p>He straightened up, glaring angrily. He knew. And the knowledge made -him cold and furious. He watched the engine room emergency exit as it -opened cautiously.</p> - -<p>A chunky man backed out, holstering a flat blaster. He turned and saw -Shano, standing smoking. He walked over and nudged Shano, his face -dark. Shano blew smoke into the dark face.</p> - -<p>"Old man," said Rourke. "What're you doing down here?"</p> - -<p>Shano blinked.</p> - -<p>Rourke fingered the nick in his jaw, eyes glinting. "You're supposed to -be in your cabin," he said. "Didn't I warn you we'd run into trouble?"</p> - -<p>Shano smoked and contemplated the chunky man. Estimated his strength -and youth and felt the anger and frustration mount in him. "Devil," he -said.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>"Devil," he said and dug his cigarette into the other's face.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He lunged then, clawing. He dug the cigarette into Rourke's flushed -face, and clung to his body. Rourke howled. He fell backward to the -deck, slapping at his blistered face. He thrashed around and Shano -clung to him, battered, pressing the cigarette relentlessly, coughing, -cursing the pain in his joints.</p> - -<p>Shano grasped Rourke's neck with his hands. He twisted the neck with -his gnarled hands. Strong hands that had worked.</p> - -<p>He got up when Rourke stopped thrashing. The face was purple and he -was dead. Shano shivered. He crouched in the passageway shivering and -coughing.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A tremendous grinding sounded amid-ships. Loud rending noises of -protesting metal. The ship bucked like a hooked fish. Then it was -still. An empty clank echoed through the hull. The captain's voice -came, almost yelling. "Emergency! Emergency! Back to your posts. Engine -room—report! Engine room—"</p> - -<p>Shano picked himself off the deck, his mind muddled. He coughed and -put a cigarette to his lips, flicking a lighter disk jerkily from his -pocket. He blew smoke from his nostrils and heard the renewed pounding -of feet. What was going on now?</p> - -<p>"Engine room! Your screen is dead! Switch onto loud-speaker system. -Engine room!"</p> - -<p>Giddily, Shano heard clicks and rasps and then a thick voice, atom -motors whirring in the background.</p> - -<p>"Selector's gone, sir. Direct hit. Heat ray through the deck plates. -We've sealed the tear. Might repair selector in five hours."</p> - -<p>Shano coughed and sent a burst of smoke from his mouth.</p> - -<p>"Captain!" A rasping, grating sound ensued from a grill above Shano's -head, then a disconnected voice. "Get the men out of there. It's -useless. Hurry it up!" A series of clicks and the heavy voice of the -chief engineer. "Captain! Somebody's smashed the selector chamber. -Engine room's full of toxia gas!"</p> - -<p>Shano jumped. He prodded the body on the deck with his toe.</p> - -<p>The <i>Stardust's</i> mechanical voice bellowed: "Engine room!" It -reproduced the captain's heavy breathing and his tired voice. "We're -about midway to Venus," it said. "There were two ships and we drove -them off. But there may be others. They'll be coming back. They know -we've been hit. We have to get away fast!"</p> - -<p>Shano could see the captain in his mind, worried, squared face slick -with moisture. Shouting into a control room mike. Trying to find out -what the matter was with his space ship.</p> - -<p>The engineer's answer came from the grill. "Impossible, sir. Engine -room full of toxia gas. Not a suit aboard prepared to withstand it. And -we have to keep it in there. Selector filaments won't function without -the gas. Our only chance was to put a man in the engine room to repair -the broken selector valve rods or keep them running by hand."</p> - -<p>"Blast it!" roared the captain. "No way of getting in there? Can't you -by-pass the selector?"</p> - -<p>"No. It's the heart of the new cosmic drive, sir. The fuels must pass -through selector valves before entering the tube chambers. Filaments -will operate so long as toxia gas is there to burn, and will keep -trying to open the valves and compensate for fluctuating engine -temperature. But the rod pins have melted down, sir—they're common -tungsten steel—and when the rods pull a valve open, they slip off and -drop down, useless. It's a mess. If we could only get a man in there -he might lift up the dropped end of a rod and slip it into place each -time it fell, and keep the valves working and feeding fuel."</p> - -<p>The speaker spluttered and Shano smoked thoughtfully, listening to the -talk back and forth, between the captain and the engineer. He didn't -understand it, but knew that everything was ended. They were broken -down in space and would never make Earth. Those Uranian devils would -come streaking back. Catch them floating, helpless, and blast them to -bits. And he would never get home to die.</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, and cursed his lungs. Time was when these gum-clogged -lungs had saved his life. In the Plutonian mines. Gas explosions in the -tunnels. Toxia gas, seeping in, burning the men's insides. But with -gum-clogged lungs he'd been able to work himself clear. Just getting -sick where other men had died, their insides burned out.</p> - -<p>Shano smoked and thought.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They wouldn't even know, he told himself, squirming through the -emergency exit into the engine room, and sealing it after him. And they -wouldn't understand if they did. Pink mist swirled about him. Toxia -gas. Shano coughed.</p> - -<p>He squinted around at the massive, incomprehensible machinery. The guts -of the space ship.</p> - -<p>Then he saw the shattered, gold-gleaming cylinder, gas hissing from -a fine nozzle, and filaments glowing bluish inside it, still working -away. He saw five heavy Carrsteel rods hanging useless, on melted-down -pins, and the slots their pronged ends hooked into. He looked at his -hands, and shook his head.</p> - -<p>"One try," he said to himself. "One try, Shano. One important thing in -your life. Here's your opportunity. The toxia gas will get you. It'll -kill you at this concentration. But you'll last for maybe twelve hours. -Another man wouldn't last a minute. Another man's lungs aren't clogged -with Juno gum."</p> - -<p>He grasped a rod and lifted it, sweating under the weight, and slipped -the forked end into its slot. Going home to die, he thought. Well, -maybe not going home. Couldn't remember what Earth looked like anyway.</p> - -<p>What was that again? Oh yeah—just lift them up, and when they drop -off, lift them up again.</p> - -<p>Shano coughed, and lifted the heavy rods into position. One jerked back -suddenly and smoothly, and something went, "Pop, pop," behind him and -machinery whirred. He lifted the rod and slipped it back on. Another -jerked, pulled open a large valve, and dropped off. Shano bent, and -lifted, coughing and coughing. He forgot what he was doing, mind blank -the way it went when he worked. Just rhythmically fell into the job, -the way a laborer does. He waited for a rod to slip and fall, then -lifted it up and slipped it in place, skin sweating, joints shooting -pain along his limbs. He heard the machinery working. He heard the -high, howling whine of cosmic jets. He, Shano, was making the machinery -go. He was running the cosmic drive.</p> - -<p>A bell clanged somewhere. "Engine room! Engine room! We're under way! -What happened?"</p> - -<p>Silence, while Shano coughed and made the machinery go, thinking about -the Earth he hadn't seen for many years.</p> - -<p>"Captain!" the speaker bawled. "There's a man in there! Working the -valve rods! Somebody is in the engine room and the gas isn't...."</p> - -<p>Shano grinned, feeling good. Feeling happy. Lifting the heavy steel -rods, driving the ship. Keeping the jets screaming and hurtling the -liner <i>Stardust</i> toward Venus. He wondered if they'd found Rourke yet. -If he could keep going for twelve hours they would get to Venus. After -that....</p> - -<p>"Home," he coughed. "Hell! Who wants to go home?"</p> - -<p>He plucked at his agitated chest, thinking of a whole damn Uranian -fleet swooping down on a spot in space, expecting to find a crippled -ship there with a spy inside it. And finding nothing. Because of Shano. -A useless old man.</p> - -<p>Coughing came out all mixed up with laughing.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Signal Red, by Henry Guth - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGNAL RED *** - -***** This file should be named 63860-h.htm or 63860-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/8/6/63860/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Signal Red - -Author: Henry Guth - -Release Date: November 23, 2020 [EBook #63860] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGNAL RED *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - SIGNAL RED - - By HENRY GUTH - - They tried to stop him. Earth Flight 21 was a - suicide run, a coffin ship, they told him. - Uranian death lay athwart the space lanes. But - Shano already knew this was his last ride. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Fall 1949. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Mercurian night settled black and thick over the Q City Spaceport. -Tentative fingers of light flicked and probed the sky, and winked out. - -"Here she comes," somebody in the line ahead said. - -Shano coughed, his whole skeletal body jerking. Arthritic joints sent -flashes of pain along his limbs. Here she comes, he thought, feeling -neither glad nor sad. - -He coughed and slipped polarized goggles over his eyes. - -The spaceport emerged bathed in infra red. Hangars, cradles, freighter -catapults and long runways stood out in sharp, diamond-clear detail. -High up, beyond the cone of illumination, a detached triple row of -bright specks--portholes of the liner _Stardust_--sank slowly down. - -There was no eagerness in him. Only a tiredness. A relief. Relief from -a lifetime of beating around the planets. A life of digging, lifting, -lugging and pounding. Like a work-worn Martian camel, he was going home -to die. - -As though on oiled pistons the ship sank into the light, its long -shark-like hull glowing soft and silvery, and settled with a feathery -snuggle into the cradle's ribs. - -The passenger line quivered as a loud-speaker boomed: - -"_Stardust, now arrived at Cradle Six! Stardust, Cradle Six! All -passengers for Venus and Earth prepare to board in ten minutes._" - -Shano coughed, and wiped phlegm from his thin lips, his hand following -around the bony contours of his face, feeling the hollows and the beard -stubble and loose skin of his neck. He coughed and thought of the -vanium mines of Pluto, and his gum-clogged lungs. A vague, pressing -desire for home overwhelmed him. It had been so long. - -"_Attention! Attention, Stardust passengers! The signal is red. The -signal is red. Refunds now being made. Refunds now. Take-off in five -minutes._" - -The man ahead swore and flicked up an arm. "Red," he groaned. "By the -infinite galaxies, this is the last straw!" He charged away, knocking -Shano aside as he passed. - -_Red signal._ In bewildered anxiety Shano lifted the goggles from his -eyes and stared into the sudden blackness. The red signal. Danger out -there. Passengers advised to ground themselves, or travel at their own -risk. - -He felt the passengers bump and fumble past him, grumbling vexatiously. - -A hot dread assailed him, and he coughed, plucking at his chest. -Plucking at an urgency there. - -Dropping the goggles to his rheumy eyes, he saw that the passenger line -had dissolved. He moved, shuffling, to the gate, thrust his ticket into -the scanner slot, and pushed through the turnstile when it clicked. - -"_Flight twenty-one, now arriving from Venus_," the loud-speaker said -monotonously. Shano glanced briefly upward and saw the gleaming belly -of twenty-one sinking into the spaceport cone of light. - -He clawed his way up the gangway and thrust out his ticket to the -lieutenant standing alone at the air lock. The lieutenant, a sullen, -chunky man with a queer nick in his jawbone, refused the ticket. -"Haven't you heard, mister? Red signal. Go on back." - -Shano coughed, and peered through the lenses of his goggles. "Please," -he said. "Want to go home. I've a right." The nicked jaw stirred faint -memories within his glazed mind. - -The lieutenant punched his ticket. "It's your funeral, old man." - -The loud-speaker blared. "_Stardust, taking off in thirty seconds. The -signal is red. Stardust, taking--_" - -With the words dinning in his ears, Shano stepped into the air lock. -The officer followed, spun wheels, and the lock closed. The outside was -shut off. - -Lifting goggles they entered the hull, through a series of two more -locks, closing each behind them. - -"We're afloat," the officer said. "We've taken off." A fleck of light -danced far back in his eye. Shano felt the pressure of acceleration -gradually increasing, increasing, and hurried in. - - * * * * * - -Captain Menthlo, a silver-mustached Jupiterian, broad, huge, yet -crushable as a beetle, talked while his hands manipulated a panel of -studs in the control room. The pilot, his back encased in leather, sat -in a bucket seat before him, listening into earphones. - -"Surprised to learn of a passenger aboard," the captain said, glancing -briefly sideways. "You're entitled to know of the danger ahead." He -flicked a final stud, spoke to the pilot and at last turned a serious, -squared face to Shano. "Old man," he said. "There's a Uranian fleet out -there. We don't know how many ships in this sector. Flight twenty-one, -which just landed, had a skirmish with one, and got away. We may not be -so lucky. You know how these Uranian devils are." - -Shano coughed, and wiped his mouth. "Dirty devils," he said. "I was -driv' off the planet once, before this war started. I know things -about them Uranian devils. Heard them in the mines around. Hears -things, a laborer does." - -The captain seemed for the first time to realize the social status of -his lone passenger, and he became a little gruff. - -"Want you to sign this waiver, saying you're traveling at your own -risk. We'll expect you to keep to your cabin as much as possible. -When the trouble comes we can't bother with a passenger. In a few -hours we'll shut down the ship entirely, and every mechanical device -aboard, to try to avoid detection." His mustaches rose like two spears -from each side of his squared nose as his face changed to an alert -watchfulness. "Going home, eh?" he said. "You've knocked around some, -by the looks of you. Pluto, from the sound of that cough." - -Shano scrawled his signature on the waiver. "Yeah," he said. "Pluto. -Where a man's lungs fights gas." He blinked watery eyes. "Captain, -what's a notched jaw mean to you?" - -"Well, old man," the captain grasped Shano's shoulder and turned him -around. "It means somebody cut himself, shaving. You stick tight to -your cabin." He nodded curtly and indicated the door. - -Descending the companionway to the next deck Shano observed the -nick-jawed lieutenant staring out the viewport, apparently idling. The -man turned and gripped Shano's thin arm. - -"A light?" he said, tapping a cigarette. Shano produced a lighter -disk and the chunky man puffed. He was an Earthman and his jaw seemed -cut with a knife, notched like a piece of wood. Across the breast of -his tunic was a purple band, with the name _Rourke_. "Why are you so -anxious to get aboard, old man?" He searched Shano's face. "There's -trouble ahead, you know." - -Shano coughed, wracking his body, as forgotten memories stirred -sluggishly in his mind. "Yup," he said, and jerked free and stumbled -down the steel deck. - -In his cabin he lay on the bunk, lighted a cigarette and smoked, -coughing and staring at the rivet-studded bulkhead. The slow movement -of his mind resolved into a struggle, one idea groping for the other. - -What were the things he'd heard about nicked jaws? And where had -he heard them? Digging ore on Pluto; talk in the pits? Secretive -suspicions voiced in smoke-laden saloons of Mars? In the labor gangs of -Uranus? Where? Shano smoked and didn't know. But he knew there was a -rumor, and that it was the talk of ignorant men. The captain had evaded -it. Shano smoked and coughed and stared at the steel bulkhead and -waited. - - * * * * * - -The ship's alarm clanged. Shano jerked from his bunk like a broken -watch spring. He crouched, trembling, on arthritic joints, as a -loud-speaker blared throughout the ship. - -"_All hands! We now maintain dead silence. Close down and stop all -machinery. Power off and lights out. An enemy fleet is out there, -listening and watching for mechanical and electronic disturbance. -Atmosphere will be maintained from emergency oxygen cylinders. Stop -pumps._" - -Shano crouched and listened as the ship's steady drone ceased and the -vibrations ceased. The pumps stopped, the lights went out. - -Pressing the cold steel bulkhead, Shano heard oxygen hiss through the -pipes. Hiss and hiss and then flow soundlessly, filling the cabin and -his lungs. He choked. - -The cabin was like a mine shaft, dark and cold. Feet pounded on the -deck outside. - -Shano clawed open the door. He peered out anxiously. - -Cold blobs of light, phosphorescent bulbs held in the fists of men, -glimmered by. Phosphorescent bulbs, because the power was off. Shano -blinked. He saw officers and men, their faces tight and pinched, -hurrying in all directions. Hurrying to shut down the ship. - -He acted impulsively. A young ensign strode by, drawn blaster in hand. -Shano followed him; followed the bluish glow of his bulb, through -labyrinthine passages and down a companionway, coughing and leering -against the pain in his joints. The blue light winked out in the -distance and Shano stopped. - -He was suddenly alarmed. The captain had warned him to stay in his -cabin. He looked back and forth, wondering how to return. - -A bell clanged. - -Shano saw a cold bulb glowing down the passageway, and he shuffled -hopefully toward it. The bulb moved away. He saw an indistinct figure -disappear through a door marked, ENGINE ROOM. - -Shano paused uncertainly at the end of the passageway. A thick cluster -of vertical pipes filled the corner. He peered at the pipes and saw a -gray box snuggled behind them. It had two toggle switches and a radium -dial that quivered delicately. - -Shano scratched his scalp as boots pounded on the decks, above -and below. He listened attentively to the ship's familiar noises -diminishing one by one. And finally even the pounding of feet died out; -everything became still. The silence shrieked in his ears. - - * * * * * - -The ship coasted. Shano could sense it coasting. He couldn't feel it -or hear it, but he knew it was sliding ghost-like through space like a -submarine dead under water, slipping quietly past a listening enemy. - -The ship's speaker rasped softly. "_Emergency. Battle posts._" - -The captain's voice. Calm, brief. It sent a tremor through Shano's -body. He heard a quick scuffle of feet again, running feet, directly -overhead, and the captain's voice, more urgently, "Power on. They've -heard us." - -The words carried no accusation, but Shano realized what they meant. -A slip-up. Something left running. Vibrations picked up quickly by -detectors of the Uranian space fleet. - -Shano coughed and heard the ship come to life around him. He pulled -himself out of the spasm, cursing Pluto. Cursing his diseased, -gum-clogged lungs. Cursing the Uranian fleet that was trying to prevent -his going home--even to die. - -This was a strange battle. Strange indeed. It was mostly silence. - -Occasionally, as though from another world, came a brief, curt order. -"Port guns alert." Then hush and tension. - -The deck lurched and the ship swung this way and that. Maybe dodging, -maybe maneuvering--Shano didn't know. He felt the deck lurch, that was -all. - -"Fire number seven." - -He heard the weird scream of a ray gun, and felt the constricting -terror that seemed to belt the ship like an iron band. - -This was a battle in space, and out there were Uranian cruisers trying -to blast the _Stardust_ out of the sky. Trying and trying, while the -captain dodged and fired back--pitted his skill and knowledge against -an enemy Shano couldn't see. - -He wanted desperately to help the captain break through, and get to -Earth. But he could only cling to the plastic pipes and cough. - -The ship jounced and slid beneath his feet, and was filled with sound. -It rocked and rolled. Shano caromed off the bulkhead. - -"Hold fire." - -He crawled to his knees on the slippery deck, grabbed the pipes and -pulled himself erect, hand over hand. His eyes came level with the gray -metal box behind the pipes. He squinted, fascinated, at the quivering -dial needle. "Hey!" he said. - -"Stand by." - -Shano puzzled it out, his mind groping. He wasn't used to thinking. -Only working with his hands. - -This box. This needle that had quivered when the ship was closed -down.... - -"It's over. Chased them off. Ready guns before laying to. Third watch -on duty." - -Shano sighed at the sudden release of tension throughout the space -liner _Stardust_. - -Smoke spewed from his nostrils. His forehead wrinkled with -concentration. Those rumors: "Man sells out to Uranus, gets a nick cut -in his jaw. Ever see a man with a nick in his jaw? Watch him, he's up -to something." The talk of ignorant men. Shano remembered. - -He poked behind the pipes and angrily slapped the toggle switches on -the box. The captain would only scoff. He'd never believe there was a -traitor aboard who had planted an electronic signal box, giving away -the ship's position. He'd never believe the babblings of an old man. - -He straightened up, glaring angrily. He knew. And the knowledge made -him cold and furious. He watched the engine room emergency exit as it -opened cautiously. - -A chunky man backed out, holstering a flat blaster. He turned and saw -Shano, standing smoking. He walked over and nudged Shano, his face -dark. Shano blew smoke into the dark face. - -"Old man," said Rourke. "What're you doing down here?" - -Shano blinked. - -Rourke fingered the nick in his jaw, eyes glinting. "You're supposed to -be in your cabin," he said. "Didn't I warn you we'd run into trouble?" - -Shano smoked and contemplated the chunky man. Estimated his strength -and youth and felt the anger and frustration mount in him. "Devil," he -said. - -[Illustration: _"Devil," he said and dug his cigarette into the other's -face._] - -He lunged then, clawing. He dug the cigarette into Rourke's flushed -face, and clung to his body. Rourke howled. He fell backward to the -deck, slapping at his blistered face. He thrashed around and Shano -clung to him, battered, pressing the cigarette relentlessly, coughing, -cursing the pain in his joints. - -Shano grasped Rourke's neck with his hands. He twisted the neck with -his gnarled hands. Strong hands that had worked. - -He got up when Rourke stopped thrashing. The face was purple and he -was dead. Shano shivered. He crouched in the passageway shivering and -coughing. - - * * * * * - -A tremendous grinding sounded amid-ships. Loud rending noises of -protesting metal. The ship bucked like a hooked fish. Then it was -still. An empty clank echoed through the hull. The captain's voice -came, almost yelling. "Emergency! Emergency! Back to your posts. Engine -room--report! Engine room--" - -Shano picked himself off the deck, his mind muddled. He coughed and -put a cigarette to his lips, flicking a lighter disk jerkily from his -pocket. He blew smoke from his nostrils and heard the renewed pounding -of feet. What was going on now? - -"Engine room! Your screen is dead! Switch onto loud-speaker system. -Engine room!" - -Giddily, Shano heard clicks and rasps and then a thick voice, atom -motors whirring in the background. - -"Selector's gone, sir. Direct hit. Heat ray through the deck plates. -We've sealed the tear. Might repair selector in five hours." - -Shano coughed and sent a burst of smoke from his mouth. - -"Captain!" A rasping, grating sound ensued from a grill above Shano's -head, then a disconnected voice. "Get the men out of there. It's -useless. Hurry it up!" A series of clicks and the heavy voice of the -chief engineer. "Captain! Somebody's smashed the selector chamber. -Engine room's full of toxia gas!" - -Shano jumped. He prodded the body on the deck with his toe. - -The _Stardust's_ mechanical voice bellowed: "Engine room!" It -reproduced the captain's heavy breathing and his tired voice. "We're -about midway to Venus," it said. "There were two ships and we drove -them off. But there may be others. They'll be coming back. They know -we've been hit. We have to get away fast!" - -Shano could see the captain in his mind, worried, squared face slick -with moisture. Shouting into a control room mike. Trying to find out -what the matter was with his space ship. - -The engineer's answer came from the grill. "Impossible, sir. Engine -room full of toxia gas. Not a suit aboard prepared to withstand it. And -we have to keep it in there. Selector filaments won't function without -the gas. Our only chance was to put a man in the engine room to repair -the broken selector valve rods or keep them running by hand." - -"Blast it!" roared the captain. "No way of getting in there? Can't you -by-pass the selector?" - -"No. It's the heart of the new cosmic drive, sir. The fuels must pass -through selector valves before entering the tube chambers. Filaments -will operate so long as toxia gas is there to burn, and will keep -trying to open the valves and compensate for fluctuating engine -temperature. But the rod pins have melted down, sir--they're common -tungsten steel--and when the rods pull a valve open, they slip off and -drop down, useless. It's a mess. If we could only get a man in there -he might lift up the dropped end of a rod and slip it into place each -time it fell, and keep the valves working and feeding fuel." - -The speaker spluttered and Shano smoked thoughtfully, listening to the -talk back and forth, between the captain and the engineer. He didn't -understand it, but knew that everything was ended. They were broken -down in space and would never make Earth. Those Uranian devils would -come streaking back. Catch them floating, helpless, and blast them to -bits. And he would never get home to die. - -Shano coughed, and cursed his lungs. Time was when these gum-clogged -lungs had saved his life. In the Plutonian mines. Gas explosions in the -tunnels. Toxia gas, seeping in, burning the men's insides. But with -gum-clogged lungs he'd been able to work himself clear. Just getting -sick where other men had died, their insides burned out. - -Shano smoked and thought. - - * * * * * - -They wouldn't even know, he told himself, squirming through the -emergency exit into the engine room, and sealing it after him. And they -wouldn't understand if they did. Pink mist swirled about him. Toxia -gas. Shano coughed. - -He squinted around at the massive, incomprehensible machinery. The guts -of the space ship. - -Then he saw the shattered, gold-gleaming cylinder, gas hissing from -a fine nozzle, and filaments glowing bluish inside it, still working -away. He saw five heavy Carrsteel rods hanging useless, on melted-down -pins, and the slots their pronged ends hooked into. He looked at his -hands, and shook his head. - -"One try," he said to himself. "One try, Shano. One important thing in -your life. Here's your opportunity. The toxia gas will get you. It'll -kill you at this concentration. But you'll last for maybe twelve hours. -Another man wouldn't last a minute. Another man's lungs aren't clogged -with Juno gum." - -He grasped a rod and lifted it, sweating under the weight, and slipped -the forked end into its slot. Going home to die, he thought. Well, -maybe not going home. Couldn't remember what Earth looked like anyway. - -What was that again? Oh yeah--just lift them up, and when they drop -off, lift them up again. - -Shano coughed, and lifted the heavy rods into position. One jerked back -suddenly and smoothly, and something went, "Pop, pop," behind him and -machinery whirred. He lifted the rod and slipped it back on. Another -jerked, pulled open a large valve, and dropped off. Shano bent, and -lifted, coughing and coughing. He forgot what he was doing, mind blank -the way it went when he worked. Just rhythmically fell into the job, -the way a laborer does. He waited for a rod to slip and fall, then -lifted it up and slipped it in place, skin sweating, joints shooting -pain along his limbs. He heard the machinery working. He heard the -high, howling whine of cosmic jets. He, Shano, was making the machinery -go. He was running the cosmic drive. - -A bell clanged somewhere. "Engine room! Engine room! We're under way! -What happened?" - -Silence, while Shano coughed and made the machinery go, thinking about -the Earth he hadn't seen for many years. - -"Captain!" the speaker bawled. "There's a man in there! Working the -valve rods! Somebody is in the engine room and the gas isn't...." - -Shano grinned, feeling good. Feeling happy. Lifting the heavy steel -rods, driving the ship. Keeping the jets screaming and hurtling the -liner _Stardust_ toward Venus. He wondered if they'd found Rourke yet. -If he could keep going for twelve hours they would get to Venus. After -that.... - -"Home," he coughed. "Hell! Who wants to go home?" - -He plucked at his agitated chest, thinking of a whole damn Uranian -fleet swooping down on a spot in space, expecting to find a crippled -ship there with a spy inside it. And finding nothing. Because of Shano. -A useless old man. - -Coughing came out all mixed up with laughing. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Signal Red, by Henry Guth - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGNAL RED *** - -***** This file should be named 63860.txt or 63860.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/8/6/63860/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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