THE WAILING ASTEROID
by Murray Leinster
An Avon Original
AVON BOOK DIVISION
The Hearst Corporation
959 Eighth Avenue
New York 19, New York
Copyright, 1960, by Murray Leinster.
Published by arrangement with the author.
Printed in the U.S.A.
[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
There was no life on the asteroid, but the miles of rock-hewn corridorsthrough which the earth party wandered left no doubt about the purposeof the asteroid.
It was a mighty fortress, stocked with weapons of destruction beyondman's power to understand.
And yet there was no life here, nor had there been for untold centuries.
What race had built this stronghold? What unimaginable power were theydefending against? Why was it abandoned? There was no answer, all wasdead.
But—not quite all.
For in a room above the tomb-like fortress a powerful transmitterbeamed its birdlike, fluting sounds toward earth. Near it, on a hugestar-map of the universe, with light-years measured by inches, ten tinyred sparks were moving, crawling inexorably toward the center.
Moving, at many times the speed of light, with the acquired massof suns ... moving, on a course that would pass through the solarsystem.
The unknown aliens would not even see our sun explode from the forceof their passing, would not even notice the tiny speck called Earth asit died....
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
The signals from space began a little after midnight, local time, on aFriday. They were first picked up in the South Pacific, just westwardof the International Date Line. A satellite-watching station on anisland named Kalua was the first to receive them, though nobody heardthe first four or five minutes. But it is certain that the very firstmessage was picked up and recorded by the monitor instruments.
The satellite-tracking unit on Kalua was practically a duplicate ofall its fellows. There was the station itself with a vertical antennaoutside pointing at the stars. There were various lateral antennaeheld two feet above ground by concrete posts. In the instrument roomin the buil