What did Fane know about Mercury that he never
told? For instance, a push-button war, fifty million
years old, that had been put into cold storage ...
dead storage ... but maybe not quite dead?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories May 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Red signal lights winked on, on the white walls that surroundedthe tiers of bunks there in the belly of the Sun Child. Tensionsharpened. Crap and card games broke up. Last-minute checking of gearand weapons was dropped, as five hundred men of the Survey Serviceclimbed into their bunks for the deceleration.
This would be only the second time that Terrans, surging out tocolonize the planets, had reached Mercury, the Paradox World.
As he pocketed the cards, there was only a brief flicker in Fane's paleeyes, suggesting to Rick Mills that he was a bad loser at poker. Butthe savage glint was masked at once.
Fane's low, broad forehead crinkled. "You lucky stiff, Mills," he saidwith a shrug and a grin. "Well, I don't need to win money now."
Rick knew Frank Fane some after three months of journeying from Earthcooped up in a space transport with him. He seemed a fairly good Joe,some ways. He never lent or borrowed anything. That was sound policy.Or independence carried to a fault. Besides, Rick had an idea thatFane's thin face was a flexible mask, too inclined to act out thesurface he wished to show, instead of revealing his honest emotions.And his sly hints, which never told very much about Mercury, seemedSatanically designed to provoke dread in less experienced listeners.
Here came Fane's great distinction. He was the sole survivor of theMartell Expedition, the one man alive who had been on the most sunwardworld. Six months he'd spent there. That made him an object of awe inyounger eyes. It also inspired insidious doubts about him.
And the one thing that set Rick Mills a little apart from other hardyoung experts that had recently graduated from the Survey ServiceSchool on Mars, and who now formed most of the five hundred aboard theSun Child, was that he had almost made friends with Fane. Curiosity,and warmth toward people had prompted the effort. And wariness beforesuspicion.
From his bunk across from Rick's, Fane now spoke:
"Well, here we go. Just a few more minutes. The end of book learning,eh, you guys? The beginning of experience. I wonder if all of us willstill be alive inside of twenty-four hours?"
Maybe it wasn't malicious humor. Maybe it was just the brutal kind ofjoshing that helps to make men.
"Shut up, Fane," Rick joshed back in the tough manner that Fane seemedto like in him. "Keep on your toes yourself or you might be the firstto die."
Fane chuckled. "Always the smart boy, eh, Mills? Better keep it up.Because Mercury's a crazy place. It's the planet closest to the sun.But it forgot to turn on its axis ages ago. So the dark side is colderthan Pluto must be. But on the solar side your space-boots can sloshinto wetness that you might believe is water. Umhm-m. Only it turns outto be a puddle of molten lead.
"Hell, you guys have always known stuff like that. So why repeatmyself? When there are interesting circumstances? A push-button warfifty million years old that got put into cold storage, for instance.Dead storage. But maybe not quite dead. I wouldn't know, for sure. Howabout getting mixed up with that?"
Some strange jubilance seemed to possess Fane.
The retard-jets of the Sun Child thundered to check vast speed.Conversation died as,