Vandals of the Void (Classic Australian SF #3)
J.M. Walsh
Where the crested invaders came from no man could say--
but they threatened to bring destruction to the three civilized planets!
Seeking a Vactation, Interplanetary Guard Jack Sanders Runs
into Romance and a Space War!
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER I: Off to Mars
CHAPTER II: Sanders Acts
CHAPTER III: The Lunar Call
CHAPTER IV: The Wreck in the Void
CHAPTER V: The Sleepers
CHAPTER VI: I Wasn't Dreamming...
CHAPTER VII: The Guard Ship
CHAPTER VIII: A Martian Girl Seeking Knowledge
CHAPTER IX: A Friend, or Perhaps a Little More
CHAPTER X: I Take Over
CHAPTER XI: The Inexplicable Incident
CHAPTER XII: The Space-Raiders
CHAPTER XIII: Rendezvous
CHAPTER XIV: The Gaudien Base
CHAPTER XV: The New Command
CHAPTER XVI: The Red Planet
CHAPTER XVII: The Calm Before the Storm
CHAPTER XVIII: The Storm Breaks
CHAPTER XIX: The Extra Passengers
CHAPTER XX: Between Worlds
CHAPTER XXI: At Grips
CHAPTER XXII: The Vandals of the Void
CHAPTER XXIII: The Evening Star
CHAPTER XXIV: Armageddon of the Void
CHAPTER XXV: Ad Astra
a selection from CHAPTER I - Off to Mars:
THE message that was to change the whole course of my life came through on the General Communicator about 10 P.M., Earth Time, while we were still within the planet's atmospheric envelope. The interstellar liner Cosmos, bound from New York (Earth) to Tlanan (Mars) had lifted from the Madison Landing scarcely an hour before and we were still making altitude when the call came through from Harran.
This was to have been my first interplanetary trip as a private passenger, my first carefree holiday in years. Not that the journey itself held any attraction for me or that I was new to the outer reaches of space. On the contrary.
As an official of the Interplanetary Guard, which is responsible for the smooth running of traffic and the maintenance of law and order in the void between the inner planets, I had seen rather too much of them. Nevertheless I was looking forward to a holiday free from emergency calls, the long restful voyage to the Red Planet and the hope, if time allowed, of a stopover on Venus on the way home.
Captain Hume--a man of Earth parentage, though he had first seen the light on Mars--and I were old friends and I expected a heartier welcome than usual, since on this particular trip I had no official status. As a rule the captains of the interplanetary liners look askance at us.
We mean trouble for them, the endless scrutinizing of passengers and documents and often as not the complete suspension, where the need justifies it, of the skipper's own functions.
I boarded the Cosmos early in the evening while the liner was still tilting in the slips. Captain Hume was then in his cabin. His own particular duties would not begin until after the takeoff and in the meanwhile the running was in the hands of the first and second officers.
The first, a man named Gond with whom I had some slight acquaintance, came up to me as I crossed the gangway and told me the skipper would be glad to see me as soon as I could make time, presumably after I got settled in my cabin.
That did not take long. To one used to the stark simplicity of the Guard-ship accommodation, the passenger cabins spelled luxury. But I did not linger as my training had taught me how to dispose of my few belongings in the minimum of time with the minimum of effort. Then I made my way in what I judged to be the direction of Hume's cabin.
The Cosmos was a new type of craft to me. She was the first to be commissioned of the new giant liners that were meant ultimately to ply to the outer planets, though until the entire fleet was ready she was being tried out on the home run between Earth, Mars and Venus.