Thrilling Wonder Stories, June, 1937
Dark Sun
by Raymond Z. Gallun
ORBERT PONS did not like to be
keeping fearful natural forces at bay.
alone here. Always, in the gleam of
He would look at the tremendous
Ninstruments, and in the smells and pillars that supported the roof of the refining sounds, and other details of his environment,
plant; and he would wonder what would
there was a suggestion of ever pending happen to them, and to himself, if something menace.
chanced to go wrong with the gravity
He would try to relax in his quarters,
reduction system.
which were quite as comfortably appointed as
“Those pillars would break like dry
if he were at home on Earth. He would try to
twigs!” he’d tell himself. “A man would
read or sleep, but sooner or later dread, and
flatten out like a rotten fruit that a dinosaur the memory of his responsibility, would drive
had stepped on! A dark star is no place for a
him out into the halls and chambers where
human being to be! Mass makes gravity, and
complex elements were refined, and where
the mass of Khoraba is countless millions of
machines hummed with quiet efficiency, times greater than that of Earth. Why, if the
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2
gravity reducers weren’t busy, I’d weigh which Mars and Earth had defeated the something over a hundred tons!”
Venus-Ganymede-Europa coalition. But those
For many minutes at a time, Norbert
hectic moments of struggle seemed child’s
Pons would stand at some high-placed play to being the only man on Gargantuan window of the plant and stare, gaunt-faced
Khoraba. There had been gay moments of
and haggard-eyed, out over the awesome and
relief, then, with his comrades, and when
almost featureless terrain of Khoraba, where
death came it was swift. Demolition beams
natural law itself seemed curiously warped
dissolved matter instantly, no gruesome
and hostile.
remnants remained, and the feeling
There was starlight here, as at home.
experienced by the survivors was more a
The Pleiades were all about this monster sun
feeling of vague surprise than of horror.
that had blazed gloriously during another era
Pons had never seen a man crushed in
of cosmic history. But the nearest of those
the inconceivable grip of a dark sun, yet his
Pleiades was still several light years away.
fancy could fill in the knowledge gaps with
They gleamed with harsh brilliance in a black
ghastly vividness. There’d be a wide blot,
sky, for there was very little atmosphere here.
irregular in shape like a bloodstain, with
It had not been dissipated by molecular maybe a white fragment of bone projecting up leakage into space; rather, its own weight had
from it here and there. In Khoraba’s pull, most forced it into the substance of the dense, black organic solids would act like liquids.
rock of Khoraba’s surface.
It was not a pretty picture to hold
Only a tenuous and shallow layer of
crystallized in one’s mind, particularly when
hydrogen, lightest of elements, remained of a
one knew that he must stay here alone for a
once mighty blanket of gas. Clinging close to
long time. Old Hans Epstein, veteran guardian
the ground, it glowed with a faint of the refinery, had died of a heart attack.
phosphorescence induced by electrical Pons, his youthful assistant, but recently emanations coming up from Khoraba’s still
introduced to the mysteries of Khoraba, and
tremendously heated interior.
by no means accustomed to his surroundings
The expanse of the dark star’s surface
as yet, must carry on until another expert was
was utterly level. No mountain or hill could
brought from Earth.
have lifted its crest against the drag of the
Khoraba’s titanic gravity made it the
gravity. There was little to break the drab
source of substances which could not have
monotony of that limitless plain except come into being on any sphere of much patches of glowing, dusky red, which marked
smaller mass and density. Only the terrifying
the positions of hot lava pools.
pressures existing within Khoraba could have
produced elements as dense and complex as
SUCH was Khoraba, named after some horror
those numbered 205 to 221 of the Periodic
of Martian myth. On the desolate immensity
Table. These heavy, tremendously hard and
of its outer shell, the refining plant, which had refractory materials were now vital to the
been assembled in space ten years ago and
sciences and industries of civilization.
lowered into position with its gravity reducers Pons’ position would not have been so
functioning, was like a button carelessly bad if there had been sufficient work to do, or dropped on the Sahara.
if he had had human companionship. But with
Norbert Pons wasn’t a coward—at Hans Epstein dead, both of these things were least not in most ways. Death had threatened
denied him. All the machinery was automatic
him often during the interplanetary war in
and almost perfect. It needed supervision only
Dark Sun
3
because no mechanism can quite be trusted.
battle with the pull of the dark sun, they
During the first month after Epstein’s
slanted grandly toward the landing stage. The
death, Pons’ existence was one of growing
atomic energy of many pounds, Earth weight,
tension, that mounted rapidly toward of uranium, was freed in the task of bringing nightmare pitch. His constant worry about the
them to rest.
functioning of the gravity reduction system’s
Norbert Pons was almost choked with
power units might have done irreparable harm
relief as he rushed through passages and
to his mind, had not reason told him that he
rooms, arriving at last before the great
must find a way to relieve the tension. And so
entrance airlock. For a little while now, he
he began to build a small remote control would be able to talk with people from home.
apparatus, operated by radio.
Clumsy with haste, he worked the valves of
This apparatus was not difficult to the airlock.
construct. Within a week it was completed. It
“Hello there!” he called cheerily, as
consisted of two small black boxes.
the inner portal of the lock opened.
One of these was located
His happy smile of greeting did not
inconspicuously in the rear of the switchboard
change for a second. Then, gradually, the
that stood in the power chamber of the gravity
expression on his face became one of
idiotic
reducers. It’s operation disturbed not at all the surprise. Twenty bulky figures, clad in space
normal action of the various devices on the
armor, confronted him. A half dozen
switchboard. The meters there could still be
demolition tubes were pointed menacingly at
read accurately, and the levers and dials could his breast. Pons saw the icy glitter of cruel
be worked there, just as before.
reptilian eyes behind the glazed fronts of
oxygen helmets. He saw the hobgoblin grins
THE other box was portable. Pons could keep
of fanged mouths, and the iridescent sheen of
it with him at all times, no matter where he
reptilian scales that reflected the glow of
was, if he so desired. Its meters and gauges
illuminators.
could tell him at a glance just how well every
Norbert Pons recovered quickly from
part of the gravity reduction system was his consternation. He knew that he faced operating. It also had duplicate controls with
merciless enemies, but he had faced their kind
which readjustments could be made, just as if
he were actually in the power chamber.
danger of these animate foes was not as
Now that he was thus equipped, fearsome as the constant, brooding threat of Norbert Pons’ nervous dread was less acute.
Khoraba.
He ate and slept somewhat better.
“Well?” he questioned coldly.
Fundamentally, however, Khoraba seemed
One of the intruders opened the face
just as terrible as it had before. Grimly, the
panel of his armor. Guttural English, thick and youth awaited the arrival of the freight ships
blurred, issued from the broad, troll-like
from Earth.
mouth.
At last, far out in the star-sprinkled
“We of Venus are never truly
void, there was a flicker of rocket tubes. A
conquered, Earth scum,” he said. “You know
dozen vessels had crossed the
why we are here. We shall take over the plant.
transdimensional passage from the Solar The loot of Khoraba shall make us strong. We System. Pons watched their approach from a
shall build new fleets, and new engines of
window of his quarters. Their repulsion plates
destruction. Our work shall go on until every
glowing incandescent in their tremendous Terrestrial and Martian has ceased to be! Now
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4
my faithful ones shall confine you to your lair the floors of Pons’ living quarters alone. The
until I determine what end is most appropriate
activity of the other sections could be
for you!”
decreased as much as desired.
Pons was unarmed, and either protest
Now the Earthman strode toward the
or resistance could have had but one result—
box. His hands reached out. Then, oddly, his
instant death. Presently he was a prisoner in
movements were checked. A flood of cold
the room where he slept. A guard stood in the
horror welled up from the deeper recesses of
passage before the door. The latter was his mind. His cheeks whitened, and he began locked, but it was provided with a small, to tremble. He could not force his fingers into round window through which the guard could
contact with the dial that must be turned if the peer. The place had been carefully searched,
Venus fleet was to be destroyed. To shut off
for weapons. Escape from the thick, metal
any portion of the gravity reduction system
strengthened windows was definitely seemed more terrible to him now than suicide impossible.
by leaping into a white-hot furnace would
Still, Pons should scarcely have been
have been.
helpless. Circumstances had combined to give
The science of psychiatry records
him an opportunity the like of which few
many strange and similar cases. People who
captives have ever enjoyed. Resting on a stout
live normal lives are seldom subject to such
metal table was a little black box, whose quirks. But to a person living in the malefic simple capacities could now be used to environment of Khoraba, life is automatically accomplish a grim purpose. The Venusians,
abnormal.
recognizing it as a crude radio device of some
Brave men, even on Earth, have
kind, but not studying it closely enough to
learned to feel terror for things far less
determine its true purpose, had not troubled to dangerous than the gravity of a dark star.
remove it.
Reason frequently tells them that their fears
are magnified, but emotionally they cannot
BEYOND the windows of the room were accept the truth.
visible the grey, rakish forms of the war
Norbert Pons had stayed too long on
vessels. The majority of the Venusians who
Khoraba, the inconceivable giant of the void.
composed their crews were still aboard them,
By slow stages it had thrown its morbid spell
and would probably so remain until the party
over his nervous system. He could not grasp
of twenty had completed the investigation of
thrust their roots deep into the shadowy
ships, working on the same principle as the
regions of his mind. Only accident might
gravity reducers here, would be completely
bring him better understanding.
shut off.
Roaring, snapping sounds reverberated
Inevitably and automatically, Norbert
thunderously in his thoughts. They were like
Pons’ attention was drawn to the black box.
the sounds of the collapse of rigid metal,
His personal risk in what he contemplated
suddenly too heavy to bear its own weight. He
doing, would be small. If everything went as it pictured men reduced to bloody slime, and the
should, the reducer plates here would continue
horror of the vision was too unnaturally clear
to work as usual. The gravity reduction system
for his self-control to master. He who had
of the entire plant was divided into twelve
gone calmly through an interplanetary war,
sections, each of which could be operated
moved backward away from the box, and
separately. One of these sections was under
threw himself, face downward, upon his bunk.
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5
A dry sob rattled in his throat. Norbert Pons’
a catastrophe that can happen within the next
dread was beyond mere personal danger now.
second or the next hour or the next week.
For an hour or more he lay cursing
The young Earthman did not
himself, and fighting his useless inner battle.
immediately realize this truth, but after a
He could still hear the steady drone of moment the core of his fear arose into his machinery, and now and then guttural conscious mind.
Venusian voices, conversing in low tones.
Uncertainty had become grim fact
Then a key grated in the lock of t
he
now. There was no reason to suppose that the
door beyond which the guard was stationed.
Venusian leader had lied when he had
The guard entered, followed by the hideous
pronounced sentence. But it was not fact that
leader, who had ordered Pons’ temporary Norbert Pons had dreaded so much, but incarceration.
uncertainty—the knowledge that there was
The Venusian aristocrat spoke his danger, and the endless suspense of waiting thick, blurred English, coming swiftly to the
for it to strike. Out of this suspense had come point:
his morbid visions.
“I have arrived at a decision,
This uncertainty was over now, and so
Earthman,” he said. “The gravity of Khoraba
there was a faint spark of relief glowing
offers me an opportunity to get rid of you in a within Norbert Pons. The check on his natural
unique and interesting manner. I am going to
courage was relieved. He looked straight into
expose you, unprotected, to that gravity, the cruel, reptilian eyes of the commander of Earthman. I wish that I could do the same to
the Venusians.
your entire race.”
“Mind if I have a cigarette before you
take me out?” he asked quietly.
NORBERT PONS was sitting up on the edge
The Venusian bowed with facetious
of his bunk, now. His eyes and face went
grandiloquence.
dazed and blank as he listened to the sentence.
“Certainly that is a small favor to grant
His consciousness heard it and grasped it. Yet, to one so soon to perish,” he replied. “Ooboh,
curiously, the overwhelming wave of utter give the Earthling a cigarette, and light it for emotional collapse, which logic told him him.”
should result at once, failed to come. Rather,
Ooboh, the guard, responded quickly
the sentence brought to him a curious sense of
to the commands of his master, but took the