While the meteor was miles above Mars in the upper reaches of the
rarefied atmosphere, the young astronaut would die of the intense heat
from the friction of the air. Under the terrific heat, the space flyer
would explode and burn up to a cinder within the space of a fleet
second, to leave the death's head meteor mass continuing on its wild
flight to destruction!
Jan Trenton quickly snapped himself out of the channel of gloomy,
terrorizing thoughts which assailed his mind, holding it paralyzed for
a brief moment. He had nearly two hours by Earth time before the meteor
reached Mars, and he would die like a man, fighting for his life to the
very last minute. He gazed out of the window on the side towards the
meteor to note his position, and find out in what manner he was caught.
A chill crept over him at the irony of fate! The little space car was
jammed up against that dark rift of shadow which was likened to the
mouth of the death's head! From a short distance, it would appear as
if the grinning skull held the space flyer in its teeth, carrying it
rapidly to oblivion!
If he could only have torn the imprisoned grapples free. But this was
impossible in view of the fact that they were on the outside where
he could not gain access to them. He released his atomic energy in
all directions, trying to work his way loose, but the flyer was as
immovable as a part of the meteor itself. He placed a terrific power
behind him, capable of sending him racing through space at top speed
had he been free. It was well that the staunch little craft had no
weak spot or it would have torn itself to pieces. But the space car
was strongly made and the effect of its great, atomic energy release
was not to free the space ship or divert the course of the meteor, but
to cause a surprising result. The meteor began to rotate on its axis,
slowly turning in the direction opposite to that of the power release.
The planet Mars flashed past the window at short intervals, its
semi-circle of light glowing a dull red. As Jan peered from the window
during several complete rotations of the big meteor, he saw that
the rest of the meteor train had vanished, no doubt pursuing their
original, aimless course past Mars.
The young astronaut had one last plan, and he lost no time in
proceeding to put it into operation. He would attempt to drill his way
out with the exterior drills on the little craft towards the side which
was held by the meteor. It was a question whether or not the drills
could free him before the meteor crashed into Mars. He reached quickly
for the controls which operated the drills to find that there were only
three drills on that side of the flyer towards the meteor which had not
been damaged. The others had either been broken off or else lay twisted
amid the wreckage of the exterior apparatus which imbedded itself in
the meteor. Jan set them going, directing their sharp ends into the
rock around the point at which the little space craft clung to the
meteor. Tiny showers of dust rattled against the sides of the flyer as
the drills bit into the huge meteor rotating slowly, as it ate up the
distance to the great world upon which it was destined to crash.
The young astronaut watched the three drills work, operating them from
inside the flyer, while at frequent intervals he would steal glances
at his chronometer, and then at the Martian planet which was gradually
filling his field of vision. A feeling of sickly despair tugged at this
heart, and hope grew dim as he saw that he had less than three quarters
of an hour left. He had drilled a series of holes in the meteor all the
way around the imprisoned grapples, at a distance of several inches
apart. With the steel fingers on the jointed rods outside his car, he
had torn away what rock had been loosened, and still the flyer clung
to the face of the whirling meteor rushing towards Mars at a frightful
speed, diminishing the distance at nearly a thousand miles a minute.
Still he worked doggedly at his controls, and a cold sweat broke
out upon him as he watched the minute hand crawl slowly around the
chronometer. Glancing at his three drills, he saw that one of them
needed changing, and proceeded to place it in a new position. His
spirits were at low ebb, but as long as life existed in his body, the
young astronaut would continue the attempt to free his imprisoned
flyer, and extricate himself. Jan felt that in his perilous calling he
had cheated death too long, and that this time the grim reaper held
the winning cards. The hands on the chronometer had now stolen to a
position which indicated that less than fifteen minutes were left him.
The vibration of the drills could still be felt within the space flyer,
and a steady swish of meteoric debris against the side of the craft
made itself heard.
Jan gazed dully out of the window away from the meteor whose rotation
gave him a round-trip view of the entire sky. He was now so close to
Mars that he could clearly discern some of the mountain ranges and
flat, red deserts as the planet swung past his eyes. He gazed longingly
at the brilliant green star, his home, which turned upon its orbit
far off in space. He had left it for the last time. The scintillating
stars gleamed brilliantly in the blackness and from the incandescent
mass of the sun leaped great columns of flame. Once more the meteor had
completed its day of little more than a minute, and the certainty of
doom grew more ominous.
As the last minute crept around on the chronometer, Jan Trenton
prepared for his end. Setting the three drills working at their maximum
speed, he turned on the entire power of the craft as it sailed down
into the Martian atmosphere with the meteor on its terrific flight.
A glare of light flitted quickly through the windows, and a weird
whistling arose to a wailing scream. Just before he lost consciousness,
the young astronaut was aware of a great wave of heat which swept over
him like a blast from a furnace.
The meteor struck upon the darkened side of Mars at an hour closely
preceding dawn. Martians who saw it, afterward described it as a great
ball of fire which rushed out of the sky like a comet, setting the
heavens aglow with its glare. While still high in the air, it exploded
with a loud concussion which was heard for hundreds of miles, the
masses of scattered fragments catapulting themselves into the quivering
ground, throwing up a cascade of dirt and rocks, flattening trees, and
leaving great craters. It appeared to burst into two large central
nucleii with smaller pieces surrounding them. Those near its landing
place reported a tremendous wave of suffocating heat which swept the
vicinity when the meteor landed.