Dark Sun by Raymond Z Read online

  Thrilling Wonder Stories, June, 1937

  Dark Sun

  by Raymond Z. Gallun

  ORBERT PONS did not like to be

  keeping fearful natural forces at bay.

  alone here. Always, in the gleam of

  He would look at the tremendous

  Ninstruments, and in the smells and pillars that supported the roof of the refining sounds, and other details of his environment,

  plant; and he would wonder what would

  there was a suggestion of ever pending happen to them, and to himself, if something menace.

  chanced to go wrong with the gravity

  He would try to relax in his quarters,

  reduction system.

  which were quite as comfortably appointed as

  “Those pillars would break like dry

  if he were at home on Earth. He would try to

  twigs!” he’d tell himself. “A man would

  read or sleep, but sooner or later dread, and

  flatten out like a rotten fruit that a dinosaur the memory of his responsibility, would drive

  had stepped on! A dark star is no place for a

  him out into the halls and chambers where

  human being to be! Mass makes gravity, and

  complex elements were refined, and where

  the mass of Khoraba is countless millions of

  machines hummed with quiet efficiency, times greater than that of Earth. Why, if the

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  gravity reducers weren’t busy, I’d weigh which Mars and Earth had defeated the something over a hundred tons!”

  Venus-Ganymede-Europa coalition. But those

  For many minutes at a time, Norbert

  hectic moments of struggle seemed child’s

  Pons would stand at some high-placed play to being the only man on Gargantuan window of the plant and stare, gaunt-faced

  Khoraba. There had been gay moments of

  and haggard-eyed, out over the awesome and

  relief, then, with his comrades, and when

  almost featureless terrain of Khoraba, where

  death came it was swift. Demolition beams

  natural law itself seemed curiously warped

  dissolved matter instantly, no gruesome

  and hostile.

  remnants remained, and the feeling

  There was starlight here, as at home.

  experienced by the survivors was more a

  The Pleiades were all about this monster sun

  feeling of vague surprise than of horror.

  that had blazed gloriously during another era

  Pons had never seen a man crushed in

  of cosmic history. But the nearest of those

  the inconceivable grip of a dark sun, yet his

  Pleiades was still several light years away.

  fancy could fill in the knowledge gaps with

  They gleamed with harsh brilliance in a black

  ghastly vividness. There’d be a wide blot,

  sky, for there was very little atmosphere here.

  irregular in shape like a bloodstain, with

  It had not been dissipated by molecular maybe a white fragment of bone projecting up leakage into space; rather, its own weight had

  from it here and there. In Khoraba’s pull, most forced it into the substance of the dense, black organic solids would act like liquids.

  rock of Khoraba’s surface.

  It was not a pretty picture to hold

  Only a tenuous and shallow layer of

  crystallized in one’s mind, particularly when

  hydrogen, lightest of elements, remained of a

  one knew that he must stay here alone for a

  once mighty blanket of gas. Clinging close to

  long time. Old Hans Epstein, veteran guardian

  the ground, it glowed with a faint of the refinery, had died of a heart attack.

  phosphorescence induced by electrical Pons, his youthful assistant, but recently emanations coming up from Khoraba’s still

  introduced to the mysteries of Khoraba, and

  tremendously heated interior.

  by no means accustomed to his surroundings

  The expanse of the dark star’s surface

  as yet, must carry on until another expert was

  was utterly level. No mountain or hill could

  brought from Earth.

  have lifted its crest against the drag of the

  Khoraba’s titanic gravity made it the

  gravity. There was little to break the drab

  source of substances which could not have

  monotony of that limitless plain except come into being on any sphere of much patches of glowing, dusky red, which marked

  smaller mass and density. Only the terrifying

  the positions of hot lava pools.

  pressures existing within Khoraba could have

  produced elements as dense and complex as

  SUCH was Khoraba, named after some horror

  those numbered 205 to 221 of the Periodic

  of Martian myth. On the desolate immensity

  Table. These heavy, tremendously hard and

  of its outer shell, the refining plant, which had refractory materials were now vital to the

  been assembled in space ten years ago and

  sciences and industries of civilization.

  lowered into position with its gravity reducers Pons’ position would not have been so

  functioning, was like a button carelessly bad if there had been sufficient work to do, or dropped on the Sahara.

  if he had had human companionship. But with

  Norbert Pons wasn’t a coward—at Hans Epstein dead, both of these things were least not in most ways. Death had threatened

  denied him. All the machinery was automatic

  him often during the interplanetary war in

  and almost perfect. It needed supervision only

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  3

  because no mechanism can quite be trusted.

  battle with the pull of the dark sun, they

  During the first month after Epstein’s

  slanted grandly toward the landing stage. The

  death, Pons’ existence was one of growing

  atomic energy of many pounds, Earth weight,

  tension, that mounted rapidly toward of uranium, was freed in the task of bringing nightmare pitch. His constant worry about the

  them to rest.

  functioning of the gravity reduction system’s

  Norbert Pons was almost choked with

  power units might have done irreparable harm

  relief as he rushed through passages and

  to his mind, had not reason told him that he

  rooms, arriving at last before the great

  must find a way to relieve the tension. And so

  entrance airlock. For a little while now, he

  he began to build a small remote control would be able to talk with people from home.

  apparatus, operated by radio.

  Clumsy with haste, he worked the valves of

  This apparatus was not difficult to the airlock.

  construct. Within a week it was completed. It

  “Hello there!” he called cheerily, as

  consisted of two small black boxes.

  the inner portal of the lock opened.

  One of these was located

  His happy smile of greeting did not

  inconspicuously in the rear of the switchboard

  change for a second. Then, gradually, the

  that stood in the power chamber of the gravity

  expression on his face became one of
idiotic

  reducers. It’s operation disturbed not at all the surprise. Twenty bulky figures, clad in space

  normal action of the various devices on the

  armor, confronted him. A half dozen

  switchboard. The meters there could still be

  demolition tubes were pointed menacingly at

  read accurately, and the levers and dials could his breast. Pons saw the icy glitter of cruel

  be worked there, just as before.

  reptilian eyes behind the glazed fronts of

  oxygen helmets. He saw the hobgoblin grins

  THE other box was portable. Pons could keep

  of fanged mouths, and the iridescent sheen of

  it with him at all times, no matter where he

  reptilian scales that reflected the glow of

  was, if he so desired. Its meters and gauges

  illuminators.

  could tell him at a glance just how well every

  Norbert Pons recovered quickly from

  part of the gravity reduction system was his consternation. He knew that he faced operating. It also had duplicate controls with

  merciless enemies, but he had faced their kind

  which readjustments could be made, just as if

  before. Helplessness he felt, but the acute

  he were actually in the power chamber.

  danger of these animate foes was not as

  Now that he was thus equipped, fearsome as the constant, brooding threat of Norbert Pons’ nervous dread was less acute.

  Khoraba.

  He ate and slept somewhat better.

  “Well?” he questioned coldly.

  Fundamentally, however, Khoraba seemed

  One of the intruders opened the face

  just as terrible as it had before. Grimly, the

  panel of his armor. Guttural English, thick and youth awaited the arrival of the freight ships

  blurred, issued from the broad, troll-like

  from Earth.

  mouth.

  At last, far out in the star-sprinkled

  “We of Venus are never truly

  void, there was a flicker of rocket tubes. A

  conquered, Earth scum,” he said. “You know

  dozen vessels had crossed the

  why we are here. We shall take over the plant.

  transdimensional passage from the Solar The loot of Khoraba shall make us strong. We System. Pons watched their approach from a

  shall build new fleets, and new engines of

  window of his quarters. Their repulsion plates

  destruction. Our work shall go on until every

  glowing incandescent in their tremendous Terrestrial and Martian has ceased to be! Now

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  4

  my faithful ones shall confine you to your lair the floors of Pons’ living quarters alone. The

  until I determine what end is most appropriate

  activity of the other sections could be

  for you!”

  decreased as much as desired.

  Pons was unarmed, and either protest

  Now the Earthman strode toward the

  or resistance could have had but one result—

  box. His hands reached out. Then, oddly, his

  instant death. Presently he was a prisoner in

  movements were checked. A flood of cold

  the room where he slept. A guard stood in the

  horror welled up from the deeper recesses of

  passage before the door. The latter was his mind. His cheeks whitened, and he began locked, but it was provided with a small, to tremble. He could not force his fingers into round window through which the guard could

  contact with the dial that must be turned if the peer. The place had been carefully searched,

  Venus fleet was to be destroyed. To shut off

  for weapons. Escape from the thick, metal

  any portion of the gravity reduction system

  strengthened windows was definitely seemed more terrible to him now than suicide impossible.

  by leaping into a white-hot furnace would

  Still, Pons should scarcely have been

  have been.

  helpless. Circumstances had combined to give

  The science of psychiatry records

  him an opportunity the like of which few

  many strange and similar cases. People who

  captives have ever enjoyed. Resting on a stout

  live normal lives are seldom subject to such

  metal table was a little black box, whose quirks. But to a person living in the malefic simple capacities could now be used to environment of Khoraba, life is automatically accomplish a grim purpose. The Venusians,

  abnormal.

  recognizing it as a crude radio device of some

  Brave men, even on Earth, have

  kind, but not studying it closely enough to

  learned to feel terror for things far less

  determine its true purpose, had not troubled to dangerous than the gravity of a dark star.

  remove it.

  Reason frequently tells them that their fears

  are magnified, but emotionally they cannot

  BEYOND the windows of the room were accept the truth.

  visible the grey, rakish forms of the war

  Norbert Pons had stayed too long on

  vessels. The majority of the Venusians who

  Khoraba, the inconceivable giant of the void.

  composed their crews were still aboard them,

  By slow stages it had thrown its morbid spell

  and would probably so remain until the party

  over his nervous system. He could not grasp

  of twenty had completed the investigation of

  all the causes for his fear yet, for those causes the plant. By now the repulsion plates of the

  thrust their roots deep into the shadowy

  ships, working on the same principle as the

  regions of his mind. Only accident might

  gravity reducers here, would be completely

  bring him better understanding.

  shut off.

  Roaring, snapping sounds reverberated

  Inevitably and automatically, Norbert

  thunderously in his thoughts. They were like

  Pons’ attention was drawn to the black box.

  the sounds of the collapse of rigid metal,

  His personal risk in what he contemplated

  suddenly too heavy to bear its own weight. He

  doing, would be small. If everything went as it pictured men reduced to bloody slime, and the

  should, the reducer plates here would continue

  horror of the vision was too unnaturally clear

  to work as usual. The gravity reduction system

  for his self-control to master. He who had

  of the entire plant was divided into twelve

  gone calmly through an interplanetary war,

  sections, each of which could be operated

  moved backward away from the box, and

  separately. One of these sections was under

  threw himself, face downward, upon his bunk.

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  5

  A dry sob rattled in his throat. Norbert Pons’

  a catastrophe that can happen within the next

  dread was beyond mere personal danger now.

  second or the next hour or the next week.

  For an hour or more he lay cursing

  The young Earthman did not

  himself, and fighting his useless inner battle.

  immediately realize this truth, but after a

  He could still hear the steady drone of moment the core of his fear arose into his machinery, and now and then guttural conscious mind.

  Venusian voices, conversing in low tones.

  Uncertainty had become grim fact

  Then a key grated in the lock of t
he

  now. There was no reason to suppose that the

  door beyond which the guard was stationed.

  Venusian leader had lied when he had

  The guard entered, followed by the hideous

  pronounced sentence. But it was not fact that

  leader, who had ordered Pons’ temporary Norbert Pons had dreaded so much, but incarceration.

  uncertainty—the knowledge that there was

  The Venusian aristocrat spoke his danger, and the endless suspense of waiting thick, blurred English, coming swiftly to the

  for it to strike. Out of this suspense had come point:

  his morbid visions.

  “I have arrived at a decision,

  This uncertainty was over now, and so

  Earthman,” he said. “The gravity of Khoraba

  there was a faint spark of relief glowing

  offers me an opportunity to get rid of you in a within Norbert Pons. The check on his natural

  unique and interesting manner. I am going to

  courage was relieved. He looked straight into

  expose you, unprotected, to that gravity, the cruel, reptilian eyes of the commander of Earthman. I wish that I could do the same to

  the Venusians.

  your entire race.”

  “Mind if I have a cigarette before you

  take me out?” he asked quietly.

  NORBERT PONS was sitting up on the edge

  The Venusian bowed with facetious

  of his bunk, now. His eyes and face went

  grandiloquence.

  dazed and blank as he listened to the sentence.

  “Certainly that is a small favor to grant

  His consciousness heard it and grasped it. Yet, to one so soon to perish,” he replied. “Ooboh,

  curiously, the overwhelming wave of utter give the Earthling a cigarette, and light it for emotional collapse, which logic told him him.”

  should result at once, failed to come. Rather,

  Ooboh, the guard, responded quickly

  the sentence brought to him a curious sense of

  to the commands of his master, but took the