Unwelcome Tenant
by ROGER DEE
The first Earthman to hit deep space discovered
what was so terribly wrong with the world he
had left behind. Why couldn't he turn back?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Summer 1950.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
It happened just before he reached the zero point, the no-man's landin space where the attenuated gravity fields of two planets meet andcancel out.
Maynard was dividing his attention equally between the transparentbubble that housed the Meinz pendulum and the two ports, forwardand aft, that broke the steel panelling of the control cubicle. Helistened critically to the measured clicking of the Geiger countersand the quiet sibilance of the air purifiers, and in spite of hisweightlessness and his total loss of equilibrium he was quite calm.
But deep inside him, under his trained calmness, Maynard felt asteadily growing triumph, a swelling exultation that was a thing quiteapart from scientific pride. The feeling that he was a pioneer, anadvance guard for a conquering people, elated him and multiplied theeagerness in him when he turned his eyes to the forward port whereMars hung, full and ruddy, a spotted enigmatic disc of promise.
Earth hung in the after port behind and below him, a soft emeraldcrescent in its first thin quarter. A warm green sickle that was home,a hustling verdant young world impatient to push its way across blackempty space and satisfy its lusty curiosity about its cosmic neighbors.
He was at the end of his second day out, and he had covered roughlyhalf of the distance he must travel. The atomic jets had cut off longago, at escape velocity, and would not come on again until they wereneeded to slow his approach. The midpoint lay just ahead; in a matterof minutes now he would leave Earth's waning field and fall free intothe grasp of the red planet.
He was watching the cobalt ball of the Meinz pendulum quiver on itsthin quartz thread with the first fluttering release of Earth's gravitywhen the fear came.
Terror struck him suddenly, galvanically, blanking out all reason andall sensation. The control cubicle whirled giddily before his eyes, andthe abysmal panic that gripped his mind was a monstrous thing boilingup out of unguessed subconscious depths. It froze him, breathing, likea man paralyzed under an overwhelming electric shock.
Then terror struck!
It was not fear of death. It was not even his own fear.
It was the blind panic of Something inside him whose existence hehad never remotely suspected, Something that shrieked soundlessly insenseless maniac terror and fought to tear Itself free of him.
He was torn by the struggle for an interminable instant, and then itwas over. He felt it writhe loose from the encumbrance of his mind,like a madman writhing out of a strait-jacket, and then It was fallingback toward Earth, away from him. He could sense It plainly, once Itwas outside him—a malevolent, intangible Thing that fell back swiftlytoward the emerald crescent of Earth.
He sat for a moment dazed while breath came back into his lungs and thesteel-panelled cubicle grew steady again before his starting eyes.And, when It had gone in the distance and he could no longer feelthe frenzy of Its terror, he felt the swift unbounded freedom that aspirited horse feels when it ha