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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. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51b358d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65377 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65377) diff --git a/old/65377-0.txt b/old/65377-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8c27721..0000000 --- a/old/65377-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,761 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Flight Into the Unknown, by Tom W. Harris - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. 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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Flight Into the Unknown - -Author: Tom W. Harris - -Release Date: May 18, 2021 [eBook #65377] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLIGHT INTO THE UNKNOWN *** - - - - - 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 not -sure how long he had been falling. There was no one near him. They had -been scattered like seeds from a burst pod when the meteor hulled the -ship. Bailey was falling through the dark alone; he had been falling -endlessly. - -... _Those with him now were all palefaced with fear_ ... - -The voice of Krotzer was still in the headphones: "... closing in on -me, I can't describe them, you've got to get here...." Krotzer had -meant so much for so long; now his voice was less than nothing. Bailey -was falling like a stone; the sensation drove everything else out of -him. Bailey could not stand it any longer, and began to scream. - -It shattered his visor and icy space rushed in. There was light and -his captain was looking at him. Captain DiCredico was shaking him. - -Bailey's face was dripping. He grabbed the skipper. "I'm falling! Hold -me!" - -... _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 blinked -and stared. He was aboard the Ranger. Safe. Then panic came gibbering -back at him as his body told him unmistakably he was falling. - -"You're not!" snapped DiCredico. "No gravity, remember? Spin ship!" he -ordered over his shoulder. - -Gently, Bailey's body felt the reassuring tug as centrifugal force -duplicated a light gravity and the alarm bells in his nerves and -glands stopped ringing. The hull of the ship became "down," and men -walked instead of floating--walked on the walls and ceiling, too, like -wheel-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-scale -emergency response to falling--and lack of gravity is what triggers -it. When you're awake you can consciously control it. I'm going to have -to quit spinning ship now--can't take bearings, and this slant-standing -can 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 was -the same canned show he'd seen ten times already. And the canned radio -show was one he hadn't liked in the first place. The Service did its -best to make a ship a synthetic, miniature Earth--but it couldn't. Ten -months 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 headset -gratefully. "Krotzer's still sending," he said. "Awful to listen to. -Whatever they are, they're doing something to his bubble. He thinks -they 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-A -monsters your first time out, you lucky boy." An unconvincing smile -crossed his face, which like all their faces was dead white from months -of being away from anything like sunlight. "A lot of lousy things can -happen in space. I hope we get less than our share of them." - - * * * * * - -Bailey snugged the headset over his ears. The voice of Krotzer was -weaker. Bailey pictured him crouched in his bubble, his radar broken -and only fit for sending, wondering if any lonely ship at all was -hearing him, and if it was, if it would arrive in time. Krotzer had a -wife, and a child he had never seen. - -Now he was talking about the things outside the bubble. "I never saw -anything like them. In fact, I can't see them. Can't exactly. You can -see them with your feelings, somehow--hooded sort--and beginning to -come through...." - -He broke off, started again. "This is Captain Krotzer of the _Galileo_. -We have crashed on Katherine Two, satellite of Saturn, continental -area. Something has killed five of us. Chan Lee and I are living in the -bubble. Cannot receive you on disabled radar. Besieged." - -He stopped. The headphones were silent except for the uncanny -snickering static of deep space. They sometimes called it "laughter." -It was not good for the nerves. It was as though space itself were -cackling at them, thought Bailey. Get off that. Think about something -else. - -He remembered Krotzer well, an expert on extra-terrestrial life, a -man with a face mingling sensitivity and courage. He had lectured -once at Prelim. Bailey remembered some of it. Almost imperceptible, -living crystals that swarmed in the air of one planet. They got into -your system, converted your matter, and you suddenly crumbled into a -heap of the same kind of crystals. And the unknown life of the planet -Caliban, called the Shunned Planet because of some influence that -reached out and sucked ships down by doing something to the minds of -the men. And the singing smoke droves. And the dissolvers. And others. - -... _A shudder in the mind of Bailey and the other same minds_ ... - -Krotzer was beginning again: "This is Captain Krotzer of the ..." when -there was a blinding white flash and the ship rang like a great bell -slammed with a sledge-hammer. A spurt of white-hot blasted into the -compartment and Benning, who had been near the bulkhead, cartwheeled -with hands to his seared face. - -A wild horse of fright leaped inside Bailey and he wanted to tear off -the headset. Above the alarm bell DiCredico was yelling. "Pinhead -meteor. No danger. Jones, Alvarez, help Benning. Bulkhead will seal -itself, men, it's only a pinhead meteor." - -Bailey's ears rang. A tiny, immensely fast meteor had hit, been -vaporized, the coagulant between the inner and outer shells had sealed -the hole. His spine itched. Did the little one mean they were near a -swarm where they might catch a big one? - -His answer was a modulated mechanical keening from the proximity -teller, up forward. - -He glanced at DiCredico for the don-space-suits order, but the captain -was floating forward fast and wordlessly. To control himself Bailey -gave his attention to the radar. All he heard was the insinuating -laughter. - -The teller was howling like a hound in hell. DiCredico emerged from the -forward compartment, his short bulk ungraceful in the air. "Don suits!" -he ordered. "We're in a swarm!" - -Matt wrenched off the headset and launched himself toward his suit -rack. He scrambled into his suit, dogged down the helmet, and sound and -fire burst through the ship. - -He was lifted and slammed against a bulkhead. Black fire belched behind -his eyes. He had a flashing vision of the backyard of his folks' home -in Pittsburg, and a dark curtain fell over it. - -... _Everywhere they had a vision of their home in Pittsburg. A black -curtain fell over it_ ... - -When he opened his eyes he saw he was alone among a crew of death. -They hung in their spacesuits against the bulkheads like limp grey -bats while the ship tore on through space. Two had failed to get their -helmets on. Their faces were bruised plums, mottled. Inside their -bloated chests, the lungs would be pink froth, literally having -exploded with the instant drop in air pressure. A third man's suit had -ruptured up the front, the raggedy edges flayed back like skin. The man -was swollen like one long drowned. - -There was no air. It had rushed through the barrel-sized hole in the -hull. There was only one hole--the meteor had burst on impact and not -passed clear through. Chunks of stone, ribbons of blood, scraps of -metal hung quiet or floated above the deck. - -Matt had never told anyone how he felt about space. It was a freezing, -heart-killing loneliness that waited icily, and now it had come in -through the hull and was with him. His jaw clenched. He had no idea -whether he could carry on alone, but he was going to. - -Then one of the grey bats stirred, drew up its legs, and launched -itself off the bulkhead. The others began to move. A laugh rolled in -Bailey's throat. Like him, they had only been stunned. - -They froze the encapsulated dead and patched the hole as best they -could and found a clock still running and re-set their instruments, -and each man had a souvenir piece of meteor stone, and less than two -weeks after this was done the boredom dropped over them again as though -excitement had never been. - -The tension about their mission to Krotzer, tighter from hour to hour -only made it worse. They began to hate each other's mannerisms, the -way a person scratched an ear or cleared a throat. It's getting you, -Bailey, Matt told himself. This way men go nuts. - -... _Go nuts, echoed the minds that were him without knowing. Go -nuts ... go nuts ... go nuts_ ... - - * * * * * - -It was after chow that he did it. He walked over and turned off the -television. All kinds of emotions stood on the faces of the others. -Rage was the one on the face of a hulking man named Regan. - -"It was right at the best place!" growled the big spaceman. "Turn it -on!" - -Matt placed himself directly before the screen. "Turn it on yourself!" -he baited, with a twisted smile he meant to be lightly humorous. - -Regan shoved from the wall and floated slowly toward him. - -"There's a reason for watching this stuff," one of the crewmen put in, -"I tell you we've got to watch it! Turn it back on, son." - -Matt laughed. "What a stinker. The Space Service! Glamour! Commentators -and books and slogans and kids and girls all talk about it like a hero -carnival but it stinks, it's a bunch of guys going nuts on the other -side of nowhere and--" - -Regan hit him. He flew backward, seeing stars, rolling in the air. -DiCredico's voice gonged from the captain's cabin. - -"Knock it off! Regan, turn the set on, get back to the entertainment. -Bailey, want to see you in here." - -It all went out of Bailey and he felt foolish and frightened. He swung -into the cabin and floated at attention. - -... _They were all a recruit, frightened before DiCredico_ ... - -It took DiCredico ten minutes to get through his talk with Bailey, -speaking in tough, slicing sentences. The service was no bed of roses, -said the skipper, and nobody in the service had ever claimed it was. -It was a damned mean racket and nobody asked you to get into it. You -volunteered. And you didn't have to stay. Before each voyage you could -ask for honorable discharge, or earth duty if available. But once you -blasted off, you had to stand the gaff. You had to. - -There were men who cracked. There were whole crews. If one man lost -control, another might, and finally all of them. Nobody knew how many -flights were lost through "mental hazard." There were shrewd guesses. - -Bailey could make the Ranger another missing ship. And they weren't on -freight nor patrol--they were on a rescue mission. He should think -about that. - -You had to learn to use the television and the other corny -"entertainment"--let it soak you up, take you away for awhile. - -He could have Bailey put under dormisol, so he'd sleep through the rest -of the trip. But he was needed. But he could request it, and DiCredico -would do it. - -Bailey did not request it. He went back and shook hands with Regan, -who was very decent about it all, and sat down to learn to use the -television. - -Things were a little better after that. - -... _And they relaxed a little, the many that were one_ ... - -Krotzer's reports kept coming in, and they were nearing the unknown -satellite. Everyone felt a little numble-witted because the meteor -patch was leaking and pressure was low. DiCredico kept a tight routine -and they leaned into it for support. - -Finally a little red globe appeared on the viewer, and they were -approaching Katherine Two. - -They followed Krotzer's bearings and they saw his ship and near it the -bubble. Nobody responded when they fired flares. - -The Ranger touched down. DiCredico took Bailey, Regan, and the medic -Fry out with him. Conditions were similar to earth, and they wore no -space suits. - -They swished through red waist-high growths like spongy fern. - -"There's his ship," said Fry. "It doesn't look in bad shape." - -"Can't tell," said DiCredico. "Funny things happen." - -They reached the ship and paused by it. It appeared unharmed. A body -lay near it, burned in two. - -Matt turned to the skipper. "It looks like--like a heater did it. Do -you suppose these things have something like that?" - -"Funny things happen," said DiCredico. "Anyway, he's dead. Let's get on -to Krotzer." - -They saw that Krotzer had half-opaqued his bubble. They would have to -come in close enough to see and be seen through it for him to know they -were there. Nobody saw any indication of life or motion outside it. - -"We'll give it a wide circle," said DiCredico. "See if there's any -visible danger." - -It took twenty minutes to make the circle. Nobody saw anything. - -"Something's damned queer," said Regan. - -"Something's always queer," said DiCredico. "Now, here's the plan. -Get your suits on. From Krotzer's reports, whatever is after him is -stopped or impeded by material substance. Then we go in one at a time. -I go first. If nothing happens to me, Regan comes in. If he makes it, -Bailey. Then Fry. If anything goes wrong, I want the man with next turn -to try the other side of the bubble. Except you, Fry. If you're the -only one left, get back to the ship. You'll have to make a report, and -you and the men can decide the next step. Dig?" - -They nodded. DiCredico sauntered off through the spongy feathers. He -reached the bubble, looked in, waved on Regan. Regan reached it, peered -into it, turned and waved to Bailey, an odd expression on his face. - - * * * * * - -Bailey started across the red field. Aloneness, menace, strangeness -settled on him as he walked. Maybe you got used to these feelings. -Maybe you got over them. Maybe they got you. Or maybe something else -got you. So this was the service. - -He was at the bubble. Fry and DiCredico were looking at him so -strangely ... partly expectant, appraising, ironic--indefinable. Matt -turned to wave Fry on, then went up and peered into the bubble. - -Then he knew what had happened to Captain Krotzer. - -The captain sat with his shirt undone and dirty, his eyes fixed -glassily to a place on the dome some twenty feet from where Bailey -stood. Unkempt beard was on his face. A blaster lay on the table. The -bodies of his crew lay about him. - -Krotzer held the radar mike, his lips moving monotonously. - -It must have smelled terrible in there. - -Space was the monster that had got Krotzer and the crew of the Galileo, -moving in on them with icy probings until one of them had cracked. - -Bailey felt a hand on his shoulder. Fry had arrived. The medic gazed -into the dome. They went over and sat near DiCredico. - -"We may as well go in and get him," said their skipper. "Try to be easy -on him." - -Matt Bailey felt something breaking inside his chest. Maybe it would -grow back, maybe it wouldn't. - -... _They felt something breaking inside his chest in all the rooms in -Minnesota and Bloomsbury and Hong Kong, and then there was a separation -and they were no longer Bailey but themselves, watching a thin man -stand up beside a desk._ - -_"I am Wilson Bonner of World Tele," he said. "You have just witnessed -the world's first kinevision broadcast, and you may have your brains -back. Practically everybody on earth tonight was Matt Bailey--although -there is really no Matt Bailey at all._ - -_"Perhaps you expected something more pleasant from your first -kinevision, and your government owes you an explanation. You are aware -of the progress of space flight research. We have achieved planetary -escape. There is wild optimism. The space ministry has been swamped, -clogged, with space-ship volunteers._ - -_"It was time for realism._ - -_"Matt Bailey was a synthetic personality. We invented him. We fed -personality factors into a calculator, and we also fed into the -calculator some highly informed guesses about just a few of the -conditions likely to be encountered in space flight._ - -_"We used the calculator to project the neural reactions of the -synthetic person, Bailey, under the assumed conditions._ - -_"Through kinevision, these sensations were reproduced in you._ - -_"I need not labor the point. Space flight will be no Sunday outing. -You deserve to know that--to know it with your feelings as well as -your brains. And especially you young men should know it--you who are -thinking about joining the volunteers. Frankly, we hope some of you -will not volunteer. For though there is no Matt Bailey, there will be, -someday, soon."_ - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLIGHT INTO THE UNKNOWN *** - -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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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Harris</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Flight Into the Unknown</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Tom W. Harris</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 18, 2021 [eBook #65377]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLIGHT INTO THE UNKNOWN ***</div> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Flight Into The Unknown</h1> - -<h2>By Tom W. Harris</h2> - -<p>It was Bailey's first trip into space and<br /> -things began to happen that made him wonder if<br /> -luck alone would bring him back to Earth alive!</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -August 1957<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>... <i>A hand moved</i> ...</p> - -<p>Young Bailey fell. It was a terrible sensation, falling. Bailey was not -sure how long he had been falling. There was no one near him. They had -been scattered like seeds from a burst pod when the meteor hulled the -ship. Bailey was falling through the dark alone; he had been falling -endlessly.</p> - -<p>... <i>Those with him now were all palefaced with fear</i> ...</p> - -<p>The voice of Krotzer was still in the headphones: "... closing in on -me, I can't describe them, you've got to get here...." Krotzer had -meant so much for so long; now his voice was less than nothing. Bailey -was falling like a stone; the sensation drove everything else out of -him. Bailey could not stand it any longer, and began to scream.</p> - -<p>It shattered his visor and icy space rushed in. There was light and -his captain was looking at him. Captain DiCredico was shaking him.</p> - -<p>Bailey's face was dripping. He grabbed the skipper. "I'm falling! Hold -me!"</p> - -<p>... <i>Thousands of eyes bulged, hands twitched</i> ...</p> - -<p>DiCredico squeezed a plastic bottle, squirting water into his face. -Drops spattered and drifted off slowly through the air. Bailey blinked -and stared. He was aboard the Ranger. Safe. Then panic came gibbering -back at him as his body told him unmistakably he was falling.</p> - -<p>"You're not!" snapped DiCredico. "No gravity, remember? Spin ship!" he -ordered over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>Gently, Bailey's body felt the reassuring tug as centrifugal force -duplicated a light gravity and the alarm bells in his nerves and -glands stopped ringing. The hull of the ship became "down," and men -walked instead of floating—walked on the walls and ceiling, too, like -wheel-spokes radiating from the axis of spin.</p> - -<p>"Over it?" asked DiCredico.</p> - -<p>"I guess so. I'm sorry."</p> - -<p>"Happens to all of us. Human body is made with a built-in, full-scale -emergency response to falling—and lack of gravity is what triggers -it. When you're awake you can consciously control it. I'm going to have -to quit spinning ship now—can't take bearings, and this slant-standing -can be worse than no gravity."</p> - -<p>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 was -the same canned show he'd seen ten times already. And the canned radio -show was one he hadn't liked in the first place. The Service did its -best to make a ship a synthetic, miniature Earth—but it couldn't. Ten -months already—maybe a year more. Plenty of people blew their stacks. -A wonder they all didn't. Would he?</p> - -<p>Like black, bad blood, a pulse of fear in Bailey's mind.</p> - -<p>... <i>and in those others that were his</i> ...</p> - -<p>It was time for his stint on radar. Benning handed him the headset -gratefully. "Krotzer's still sending," he said. "Awful to listen to. -Whatever they are, they're doing something to his bubble. He thinks -they may be in soon. I hope to Christ we get there."</p> - -<p>"What do you think they are, anyway?"</p> - -<p>"Beats me," Benning answered. "Looks like you'll see some grade-A -monsters your first time out, you lucky boy." An unconvincing smile -crossed his face, which like all their faces was dead white from months -of being away from anything like sunlight. "A lot of lousy things can -happen in space. I hope we get less than our share of them."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Bailey snugged the headset over his ears. The voice of Krotzer was -weaker. Bailey pictured him crouched in his bubble, his radar broken -and only fit for sending, wondering if any lonely ship at all was -hearing him, and if it was, if it would arrive in time. Krotzer had a -wife, and a child he had never seen.</p> - -<p>Now he was talking about the things outside the bubble. "I never saw -anything like them. In fact, I can't see them. Can't exactly. You can -see them with your feelings, somehow—hooded sort—and beginning to -come through...."</p> - -<p>He broke off, started again. "This is Captain Krotzer of the <i>Galileo</i>. -We have crashed on Katherine Two, satellite of Saturn, continental -area. Something has killed five of us. Chan Lee and I are living in the -bubble. Cannot receive you on disabled radar. Besieged."</p> - -<p>He stopped. The headphones were silent except for the uncanny -snickering static of deep space. They sometimes called it "laughter." -It was not good for the nerves. It was as though space itself were -cackling at them, thought Bailey. Get off that. Think about something -else.</p> - -<p>He remembered Krotzer well, an expert on extra-terrestrial life, a -man with a face mingling sensitivity and courage. He had lectured -once at Prelim. Bailey remembered some of it. Almost imperceptible, -living crystals that swarmed in the air of one planet. They got into -your system, converted your matter, and you suddenly crumbled into a -heap of the same kind of crystals. And the unknown life of the planet -Caliban, called the Shunned Planet because of some influence that -reached out and sucked ships down by doing something to the minds of -the men. And the singing smoke droves. And the dissolvers. And others.</p> - -<p>... <i>A shudder in the mind of Bailey and the other same minds</i> ...</p> - -<p>Krotzer was beginning again: "This is Captain Krotzer of the ..." when -there was a blinding white flash and the ship rang like a great bell -slammed with a sledge-hammer. A spurt of white-hot blasted into the -compartment and Benning, who had been near the bulkhead, cartwheeled -with hands to his seared face.</p> - -<p>A wild horse of fright leaped inside Bailey and he wanted to tear off -the headset. Above the alarm bell DiCredico was yelling. "Pinhead -meteor. No danger. Jones, Alvarez, help Benning. Bulkhead will seal -itself, men, it's only a pinhead meteor."</p> - -<p>Bailey's ears rang. A tiny, immensely fast meteor had hit, been -vaporized, the coagulant between the inner and outer shells had sealed -the hole. His spine itched. Did the little one mean they were near a -swarm where they might catch a big one?</p> - -<p>His answer was a modulated mechanical keening from the proximity -teller, up forward.</p> - -<p>He glanced at DiCredico for the don-space-suits order, but the captain -was floating forward fast and wordlessly. To control himself Bailey -gave his attention to the radar. All he heard was the insinuating -laughter.</p> - -<p>The teller was howling like a hound in hell. DiCredico emerged from the -forward compartment, his short bulk ungraceful in the air. "Don suits!" -he ordered. "We're in a swarm!"</p> - -<p>Matt wrenched off the headset and launched himself toward his suit -rack. He scrambled into his suit, dogged down the helmet, and sound and -fire burst through the ship.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He was lifted and slammed against a bulkhead. Black fire belched behind -his eyes. He had a flashing vision of the backyard of his folks' home -in Pittsburg, and a dark curtain fell over it.</p> - -<p>... <i>Everywhere they had a vision of their home in Pittsburg. A black -curtain fell over it</i> ...</p> - -<p>When he opened his eyes he saw he was alone among a crew of death. -They hung in their spacesuits against the bulkheads like limp grey -bats while the ship tore on through space. Two had failed to get their -helmets on. Their faces were bruised plums, mottled. Inside their -bloated chests, the lungs would be pink froth, literally having -exploded with the instant drop in air pressure. A third man's suit had -ruptured up the front, the raggedy edges flayed back like skin. The man -was swollen like one long drowned.</p> - -<p>There was no air. It had rushed through the barrel-sized hole in the -hull. There was only one hole—the meteor had burst on impact and not -passed clear through. Chunks of stone, ribbons of blood, scraps of -metal hung quiet or floated above the deck.</p> - -<p>Matt had never told anyone how he felt about space. It was a freezing, -heart-killing loneliness that waited icily, and now it had come in -through the hull and was with him. His jaw clenched. He had no idea -whether he could carry on alone, but he was going to.</p> - -<p>Then one of the grey bats stirred, drew up its legs, and launched -itself off the bulkhead. The others began to move. A laugh rolled in -Bailey's throat. Like him, they had only been stunned.</p> - -<p>They froze the encapsulated dead and patched the hole as best they -could and found a clock still running and re-set their instruments, -and each man had a souvenir piece of meteor stone, and less than two -weeks after this was done the boredom dropped over them again as though -excitement had never been.</p> - -<p>The tension about their mission to Krotzer, tighter from hour to hour -only made it worse. They began to hate each other's mannerisms, the -way a person scratched an ear or cleared a throat. It's getting you, -Bailey, Matt told himself. This way men go nuts.</p> - -<p>... <i>Go nuts, echoed the minds that were him without knowing. Go -nuts ... go nuts ... go nuts</i> ...</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was after chow that he did it. He walked over and turned off the -television. All kinds of emotions stood on the faces of the others. -Rage was the one on the face of a hulking man named Regan.</p> - -<p>"It was right at the best place!" growled the big spaceman. "Turn it -on!"</p> - -<p>Matt placed himself directly before the screen. "Turn it on yourself!" -he baited, with a twisted smile he meant to be lightly humorous.</p> - -<p>Regan shoved from the wall and floated slowly toward him.</p> - -<p>"There's a reason for watching this stuff," one of the crewmen put in, -"I tell you we've got to watch it! Turn it back on, son."</p> - -<p>Matt laughed. "What a stinker. The Space Service! Glamour! Commentators -and books and slogans and kids and girls all talk about it like a hero -carnival but it stinks, it's a bunch of guys going nuts on the other -side of nowhere and—"</p> - -<p>Regan hit him. He flew backward, seeing stars, rolling in the air. -DiCredico's voice gonged from the captain's cabin.</p> - -<p>"Knock it off! Regan, turn the set on, get back to the entertainment. -Bailey, want to see you in here."</p> - -<p>It all went out of Bailey and he felt foolish and frightened. He swung -into the cabin and floated at attention.</p> - -<p>... <i>They were all a recruit, frightened before DiCredico</i> ...</p> - -<p>It took DiCredico ten minutes to get through his talk with Bailey, -speaking in tough, slicing sentences. The service was no bed of roses, -said the skipper, and nobody in the service had ever claimed it was. -It was a damned mean racket and nobody asked you to get into it. You -volunteered. And you didn't have to stay. Before each voyage you could -ask for honorable discharge, or earth duty if available. But once you -blasted off, you had to stand the gaff. You had to.</p> - -<p>There were men who cracked. There were whole crews. If one man lost -control, another might, and finally all of them. Nobody knew how many -flights were lost through "mental hazard." There were shrewd guesses.</p> - -<p>Bailey could make the Ranger another missing ship. And they weren't on -freight nor patrol—they were on a rescue mission. He should think -about that.</p> - -<p>You had to learn to use the television and the other corny -"entertainment"—let it soak you up, take you away for awhile.</p> - -<p>He could have Bailey put under dormisol, so he'd sleep through the rest -of the trip. But he was needed. But he could request it, and DiCredico -would do it.</p> - -<p>Bailey did not request it. He went back and shook hands with Regan, -who was very decent about it all, and sat down to learn to use the -television.</p> - -<p>Things were a little better after that.</p> - -<p>... <i>And they relaxed a little, the many that were one</i> ...</p> - -<p>Krotzer's reports kept coming in, and they were nearing the unknown -satellite. Everyone felt a little numble-witted because the meteor -patch was leaking and pressure was low. DiCredico kept a tight routine -and they leaned into it for support.</p> - -<p>Finally a little red globe appeared on the viewer, and they were -approaching Katherine Two.</p> - -<p>They followed Krotzer's bearings and they saw his ship and near it the -bubble. Nobody responded when they fired flares.</p> - -<p>The Ranger touched down. DiCredico took Bailey, Regan, and the medic -Fry out with him. Conditions were similar to earth, and they wore no -space suits.</p> - -<p>They swished through red waist-high growths like spongy fern.</p> - -<p>"There's his ship," said Fry. "It doesn't look in bad shape."</p> - -<p>"Can't tell," said DiCredico. "Funny things happen."</p> - -<p>They reached the ship and paused by it. It appeared unharmed. A body -lay near it, burned in two.</p> - -<p>Matt turned to the skipper. "It looks like—like a heater did it. Do -you suppose these things have something like that?"</p> - -<p>"Funny things happen," said DiCredico. "Anyway, he's dead. Let's get on -to Krotzer."</p> - -<p>They saw that Krotzer had half-opaqued his bubble. They would have to -come in close enough to see and be seen through it for him to know they -were there. Nobody saw any indication of life or motion outside it.</p> - -<p>"We'll give it a wide circle," said DiCredico. "See if there's any -visible danger."</p> - -<p>It took twenty minutes to make the circle. Nobody saw anything.</p> - -<p>"Something's damned queer," said Regan.</p> - -<p>"Something's always queer," said DiCredico. "Now, here's the plan. -Get your suits on. From Krotzer's reports, whatever is after him is -stopped or impeded by material substance. Then we go in one at a time. -I go first. If nothing happens to me, Regan comes in. If he makes it, -Bailey. Then Fry. If anything goes wrong, I want the man with next turn -to try the other side of the bubble. Except you, Fry. If you're the -only one left, get back to the ship. You'll have to make a report, and -you and the men can decide the next step. Dig?"</p> - -<p>They nodded. DiCredico sauntered off through the spongy feathers. He -reached the bubble, looked in, waved on Regan. Regan reached it, peered -into it, turned and waved to Bailey, an odd expression on his face.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Bailey started across the red field. Aloneness, menace, strangeness -settled on him as he walked. Maybe you got used to these feelings. -Maybe you got over them. Maybe they got you. Or maybe something else -got you. So this was the service.</p> - -<p>He was at the bubble. Fry and DiCredico were looking at him so -strangely ... partly expectant, appraising, ironic—indefinable. Matt -turned to wave Fry on, then went up and peered into the bubble.</p> - -<p>Then he knew what had happened to Captain Krotzer.</p> - -<p>The captain sat with his shirt undone and dirty, his eyes fixed -glassily to a place on the dome some twenty feet from where Bailey -stood. Unkempt beard was on his face. A blaster lay on the table. The -bodies of his crew lay about him.</p> - -<p>Krotzer held the radar mike, his lips moving monotonously.</p> - -<p>It must have smelled terrible in there.</p> - -<p>Space was the monster that had got Krotzer and the crew of the Galileo, -moving in on them with icy probings until one of them had cracked.</p> - -<p>Bailey felt a hand on his shoulder. Fry had arrived. The medic gazed -into the dome. They went over and sat near DiCredico.</p> - -<p>"We may as well go in and get him," said their skipper. "Try to be easy -on him."</p> - -<p>Matt Bailey felt something breaking inside his chest. Maybe it would -grow back, maybe it wouldn't.</p> - -<p>... <i>They felt something breaking inside his chest in all the rooms in -Minnesota and Bloomsbury and Hong Kong, and then there was a separation -and they were no longer Bailey but themselves, watching a thin man -stand up beside a desk.</i></p> - -<p><i>"I am Wilson Bonner of World Tele," he said. "You have just witnessed -the world's first kinevision broadcast, and you may have your brains -back. Practically everybody on earth tonight was Matt Bailey—although -there is really no Matt Bailey at all.</i></p> - -<p><i>"Perhaps you expected something more pleasant from your first -kinevision, and your government owes you an explanation. You are aware -of the progress of space flight research. We have achieved planetary -escape. There is wild optimism. The space ministry has been swamped, -clogged, with space-ship volunteers.</i></p> - -<p><i>"It was time for realism.</i></p> - -<p><i>"Matt Bailey was a synthetic personality. We invented him. We fed -personality factors into a calculator, and we also fed into the -calculator some highly informed guesses about just a few of the -conditions likely to be encountered in space flight.</i></p> - -<p><i>"We used the calculator to project the neural reactions of the -synthetic person, Bailey, under the assumed conditions.</i></p> - -<p><i>"Through kinevision, these sensations were reproduced in you.</i></p> - -<p><i>"I need not labor the point. Space flight will be no Sunday outing. -You deserve to know that—to know it with your feelings as well as -your brains. And especially you young men should know it—you who are -thinking about joining the volunteers. Frankly, we hope some of you -will not volunteer. For though there is no Matt Bailey, there will be, -someday, soon."</i></p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLIGHT INTO THE UNKNOWN ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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