The bell tinkled! He looked at the dial and saw that the needle pointed
straight ahead of him upon the course he was pursuing. The company
of meteors were rushing toward him head on. He turned his flyer on a
slant, and slackened his speed continuously for hours until finally it
was down to twenty miles per second. He was rushing off at an acute
angle so that he would avoid a possible collision. He watched the
needle and saw that the train of meteors would soon be opposite him.
He was careful to place himself on the sunward side of their approach,
for had he been on the opposite side, they would have passed within a
few feet of his flyer and he would have been unaware of it, except that
his dials would have announced their proximity. He now watched the dial
which recorded the smaller number of miles, and saw that the meteors
were a thousand miles distant. Turning his flyer back in the direction
from which he had come, he ran parallel to the course the celestial
bodies would pursue, slackening his speed down to ten miles per second.
The distance, as his dial informed him, was rapidly being decreased
by the oncoming meteor train. It was now within five hundred miles of
him, uncomfortably close, considering the fact that he was not entirely
certain of its speed. The astronaut was traveling ten miles per
second in the same direction as the meteors' course, and the cluster
comprising the meteor train was bearing down upon him, so he figured
that it must be traveling at approximately fifteen miles per second. He
tested it by speeding up his space flyer to the same rate; it gained on
him slightly. The young astronaut decided to allow it to pass him, and
then come up from behind; so continuing at fifteen miles per second, he
awaited its passing, five miles from its course.
He saw it only as a sudden indistinct flicker, for it passed at a speed
greater by three thousand miles per hour than his own. Increasing his
speed, he began to creep up behind the meteor cluster, preparing for
his hazardous work of running alongside one of the meteors at the same
exact speed, and hooking on with his grapples. It required nerve,
precision and dexterity, and many an astronaut had met his death trying
to ride a meteor in the seas of space.
He soon came within sight of the cosmic wanderers and whisked by them.
It was hard work attuning his speed exactly to that of the meteor
group, and as he slackened his speed, the meteors flashed past him once
more, reflecting the sunlight which struck them. It was the delicate
control of the little space craft which finally enabled the astronaut
to ride even with the meteor train only a hundred yards away. From this
distance he surveyed it. The head was composed of three huge meteors
better than two hundred feet thick with rough, jagged sides, resembling
miniature mountains careening through space. In the wake of the first
three, came smaller ones with fragments intermingled with dust.
[Illustration: _The head was composed of three huge meteors better than
two hundred feet thick, with rough sides resembling miniature mountains
careening through space. In the wake of the first three came smaller
ones._]
The young astronaut singled out the nearest of the large meteors and
sent his space ship in on a narrow slant which would gradually converge
with the course of the meteor, bringing the two together. One hand was
ready on the switch operating the grapples, while his other hand rested
on the steering controls. All immediate danger would be over when he
grappled on to the celestial body, but it was perilous work, requiring
experience, skill and steady nerves in order to close successfully upon
the giant meteor.
The sun beat its blinding light upon the rugged, uneven side of the
huge meteor, throwing into sharp relief every detail. The sunlit
portions lay scattered over its face, relieved by numerous shadows due
to the fact that the irregular surface did not allow the sunlight to
strike all of the meteor's side which faced the sun. These shadows,
because the great rock lacked a surrounding atmosphere, lay etched in
bold relief, so that the sunlit side of the meteor presented a series
of shadows and illuminated crags to the young astronaut.
Probably the remains of an old comet, thought Jan, gazing thoughtfully
at the meteor he was nearing slowly but surely. It was odd how queer it
was shaped, bulging at the top, and narrowing at the bottom. Somehow,
it was an unpleasant reminder of something he had seen but could not
place at the moment. He was within a hundred feet of the great piece of
rock, and gradually the distance narrowed as they raced along through
space together at the rate of sixteen miles a second.
Suddenly, an uncomfortable discovery forced itself upon the mind of
the young astronaut. As he neared the meteor, he recognized what it
resembled, and why it had stirred his memory so strangely. From a short
distance away, it bore the perfect likeness of a death's head! There
was the white, bulging forehead, the sloping jaws, and two huge, round
shadows, with a third midway below it, for the sunken eyeholes and the
nose. Most horrible of all was the mouth, bearing the fixed grin of
death! The death's head glared at him malevolently, as if issuing an
ominous warning!
Jan Trenton was not superstitious. Superstition had died out completely
from the Earth hundreds of years ago. But the abruptness of the
discovery, and its gruesome appearance startled the young astronaut
and, for the first time in his career as a lone space flyer, he felt
himself weighed down with an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Out in
this vast depth of endless space he was millions of miles from friends
and all manifestations of life with this grinning effigy, one of the
freakish coincidences of the Universe, as a solitary companion. From
whence had this meteor come? Probably from the region of the asteroids
adjacent to Jupiter, possibly from outside the solar system, from some
other system of worlds, having traveled to this destiny perhaps for the
last billion years or more.
He had half a mind to swerve off from his prospective landing on the
huge meteor, and couple on to one of the other two, but he laughed
at himself and his unreasonable timidity. He dispelled by ridiculing
himself the morbid imaginings, which had been stimulated through sight
of the death's head. He prepared to go through with his original plans,
despite the fact that the task was strangely distasteful.
The young astronaut was now very close, so close that the meteor
towered above the little space ship. Jan stood ready at the grapple
controls, waiting for the supreme moment of contact. It came with a
terrific jar which threw him out of his seat against the side of the
flyer, bruising him severely, just as he shoved over the grappling
controls. He must have made a slight mistake in his calculations of
angles, thought Jan, for he had not been prepared for the shock of the
contact which greeted him. The grapples had taken hold, anyway, and he
was safe for the present, at least. He feared, however, that part of
his outside apparatus had been damaged in the contact, but if there was
enough of it left with which to work on the meteor, he did not care,
for he could have it repaired when he got back to Earth, or he might
even stop at one of the Martian stations, for that matter.
Caught!
He tested the grapple controls, the rock drills and the iron fingers,
finding that over half the number on the flyer next the meteor were
either broken or jammed out of shape. With the remaining exterior
apparatus, he took samples of the meteor's substance, drilling out
small chunks and depositing them into the receptacles along the side.
The next procedure was to ascertain whether or not the meteor contained
valuable metals, unknown substances or precious stones.
Before him, at the top of his instrument board were three dials ranged
in a row. The central dial was a huge affair, while its two companions,
one on each side, were a great deal smaller. Each of the two small
dials was equipped with a small manipulator which moved the needle
around the face. The dial on the left represented the means by which
the young astronaut discovered whether or not a meteor held diamonds,
sapphires or other valuable stones. At various intervals around the
face of the dial, the names of all precious stones known to science
were marked off. By slowly moving the arrow around the dial, and
pointing to the name of each individual jewel, it was possible to find
out the presence of one or more of the stones. Above the dial was a
small light which flashed on whenever the arrow pointed at a type of
stone which was present in the meteor's mass.
The small dial on the extreme right operated on the same principle
except that it was for finding various metals. Around the rim of the
large dial in the middle, was listed all of the elements composing the
Universe. Opposite the name of each element was a small indicator which
swung away from it, pointing towards the center of the dial; outside,
rested a series of small buttons, each button communicating with one
of the elements listed within the dial. A button depressed would cause
the tiny indicator to swing out of neutral and point to the element,
providing that element was present in the meteor's composition. In this
manner, a great many combinations not listed on the two smaller dials
could be formed to ascertain their possible existence within the meteor.
Jan tested the meteor for the various stones. It was entirely devoid
of gems. Had he discovered a supply within the wanderer of space, the
astronaut would have drilled them out, providing they were near the
surface, for the little space flyer was equipped with the facility for
pointing out the definite location of the stones as well as recording
their proximity. In case of their being too deep for the surface
drills, he would chart the course of the meteor, and if the deposit of
jewels or metals proved valuable enough, a wrecking crew would be sent
out a few days later to overtake the meteor and extract its treasures.
He now turned his attention to the right hand dial, his hand upon the
manipulator which sent the arrow around the face in short, periodic
jerks. As he expected, the light above the dial flashed on when the
arrow pointed to "iron." He found that the bulky mass also contained
nickel, and a small amount of platinum whose scarcity did not warrant
the trouble of its extraction. The central dial proved the fact that
the meteor's main constituents consisted of iron and aside from the
nickel and platinum deposits was entirely devoid of all other minerals.
Having finished with the death's head meteor, Jan decided to cast loose
and explore the other two celestial wanderers which comprised the
meteor train. The astronaut loosened the grapples, and threw in his
controls which would send him away from the meteor. To his surprise,
the space flyer refused to move. He turned on more power, and still
his flyer did not budge, though he knew that his atomic energy machine
was functioning perfectly, for his instrument board told him that.
Evidently the force of his contact with the meteor had been so great
that the little space car had become wedged in the side of the meteor,
or else the twisted parts of the broken grapples and the other exterior
apparatus which had been damaged in the collision, had become jammed
into the meteor when the two came together. It was certain that he was
stuck fast, and that he must search for some means which would effect
his release from the predicament in which he found himself. He wished
now that he had heeded the grave premonitions the sight of the gruesome
meteor had awakened in his mind, and avoided contact with it. But
then, it was likely to happen to any space flyer engaged in the same
hazardous pursuit as his.
He worked vainly at the controls of the damaged grapples and the
jointed, exterior appliances, but the attempt was useless for they
remained as immovable as if cast in a mold of steel. He was a prisoner,
a prey to the death's head meteor which carried him farther away with
it every moment, traveling at sixteen miles a second. They would soon
pass by Mars, continue upon a route midway between the Earth and
that planet, and eventually on out of the solar system towards the
distant stars. What would be his fate? Would he starve, or his oxygen
supply give out? Jan did not for a moment contemplate such thoughts.
The Meteorological Bureau, seeing that he did not return within a
reasonable time, would radio Mars, and the observatories of both
worlds would train their giant telescopes upon the meteor train and
discover his plight. No doubt, they were watching him now, the largest
telescopes revealing his space ship as a small bright speck upon one
of the three larger spots. It would be only a question of time, then,
before help would be sent him, and his release obtained.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a crashing jolt which once
more threw him out of his seat at the instrument board just as it had
done when his car had landed upon the meteor. What had happened? The
meteor must have struck something, and it could be nothing more than
one of its two companions, for there was nothing else in this vast void
for it to strike. It might have been another flock of meteors, and had
it been so, his instrument board would have announced their approach
long before this.
Jan's logical reasoning, and his cool headedness in the face of the
alarming situation, led him to the following solution. When his space
car had landed upon the meteor, the force of the contact had been great
enough to push the celestial wanderer off its course slightly, and all
of the time it had slowly but surely converged its plane of direction
with that of its nearer companion, so that they had come together at an
acute angle, producing the shock he had just felt.
If this was so, thought the young astronaut, then the course of the
meteor upon which his space ship was imprisoned must have veered again,
following the second contact, slightly changing its course once more.
He examined his instrument board and peered out of the brown glass
window into the black, cosmic void. The sight which greeted his eyes
appalled him with its terrifying significance fraught with sinister
menace! Below him was the planet Mars, and the meteor on its changed
course was rushing at it full speed! The red planet appeared as a half
circle of light, new contours appearing upon its face from out of the
darkened half.
The face of the young astronaut was drawn into tense lines, as he
turned about towards his instrument board to find that the distance
between himself and the planet Mars was a little better than a hundred
thousand miles. He rapidly figured that unless he could release the
space flyer from the giant meteor, he had but two hours in which to
live! The death's head meteor, which was originally charted to pass
by the planet Mars was now, through two slight collisions with the
space flyer and the other meteor, plunging head on towards Mars! Jan
visualized his end. The wanderer of space with its prisoner, traveling
sixteen miles a second, would hurl itself into the Martian atmosphere
which, though thinner than that of the Earth, would offer a great
enough friction to create out of the meteor a blazing ball of fire,
screaming through the air like a juggernaut to bury itself beneath the
surface of Mars with a terrible detonation!