Where My Writing Began...My First Surviving Short Story

Guy Stewart                                                                                                    1478 words

1924 Sugarloaf Trail

Brooklyn Park, MN 55444

 

©1969-1970

(I was 12 years old and in 7^th grade at Osseo Junior High School, my second year of reading SF.)

 

(This is my second story as far as I can remember, the first being “The White Vines”, a rip off of John Christopher’s THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, which I must have just finished reading. This is clearly based on the works of Andre Norton, probably THE ZERO STONE or possibly FARMER IN THE SKY by Robert A. Heinlein…though my thought is that it feels like I was trying to imitate Norton and her use of cats…)

 

THE BLACK PLANET

by Guy Stewart

 

            The Scout ship drifted slowly in the middle of the galaxy NY-CX4

            Rand Tinnar slumped over the Con a newly developed guidance system though it could give nothing new for it was melted mass of metal and wire.

            Rand had been choosen as pilot for the expedition along with Medico Neland, Con Tech engineer Filensu and mated pair of nexors. Nexors were much like Terran cats though they had three brown eyes and green fur.

            The party had been assigned to explore sector ten of galaxy NY-CX4 by foot or by ship whichever planet conditions would allow.

 

            There was a slight moaning as Rand brought himself to consciousness. He tried to stand but almost fell, he grabbed a control bar and steadied himself. In a few moments he walked to the rest of the party who lay unconscious on the floor.

            He revived the quickly and told them the position they were in.

            Suddenly the ship gave a lurch which threw them off their feet.

            Rand moved to the fore viewscreen and activated it. The screen stayed dark except for a yellow ring in space. He adjusted the dials still nothing.

            Rand yelled out, “We’ve hit a magnetic gravitational field! Get into the acceleration seats!”

            He strapped himself into the seat and, put the nexors into the empty seat. He pressed a button and foam began to fill it protecting men and animals from harm.

 

            The ship began to get hot. Rand could feel the heat building up. The ship shook as something hit it. It hit the ground and Rand was thrown forward into the foam.

 

            Rand began to crawl out of a mass of twisted smoldering, black metal and oozing foam. He lay in the mass for a few moments too stunned to move. His head reeling, he slid out of the wreck onto the ground and layed gaping for breath. He tried to stand, suddenly a stabbing pain shot through his leg, he fell to the ground and lapsed into unconsciousness.

 

            Again Rand awoke, still lying near the wreck. He stood up; this time no stabbing pain made him fall to the ground, he moved to the wreck and began to pull the blackened metal away trying to find the Con Tech, the Medic, and the two nexors.

            First he came to the Tech, he dragged him out of the wreck and quickly examining him thought, “Dead!”

            He went back to the wreck and soon found the doctor alive, but barely. He carried him a few feet and put him in a small clearing then went back and looked for the nexors but didn’t find them. He thought to himself, “The impact must have thrown them into the bushes!”

            He began the slow painful search to find the valuable pair. He came upon them suddenly but tragically, or one was dead. Rand moved toward the living animal and picked it up. He put it down near the wreck. The nexor gave a sort of sigh, curled up and went to sleep. Rand walked to the doctor who began to stir.

 

            The nexor and the Tech buried, the weakened party slept silently awaiting day.

            Suddenly the silent night air was pierced by a chilling screach. Rand awakened by the screach grabbed for the beamer which he had salvaged from the wreck and fired into the darkness, the greenish beam lighting up the scene.

            The screach stopped as a sickening stench filled the air, making Rand wretch violently.

            He set the beamer on high and went slowly into the brush, watching for anything that moved.

            Again Rand saw a shadow, the same sickening stench filling the air, though this time Rand was ready. He saw nothing else and went back to the tiny camp.

           

            The next few days the doctor, now fully recovered and Rand explored the planet. Their only weapons were two lasers and a beamer, which had two extra charges.

            The only things that the explored were usually uninteresting, though they had some encounters with hostile alien creatures one taking two beamers blasts to kill it.

            The fifth day of their stay on the Black planet the saw something which neither of them had ever dreamed or expected to see in their life time; an alein fortress!

 

            It was of no design the pair had ever seen. There were gleaming towers of heights that astounded the,, and of colors never dreamed of. The towers were linked with roads twisting and turning, rising and dropping, and of thin staight catwalks which criss-crossed under and over the roads.

            Suddenly the nexor darted into a green bush; as a stunner beam or a beam from some other gun used for the same purpous, dropped them to the ground unconscious.

 

            Rand awoke in a small room tied hand a foot. The room was small but light, blue-green light, radiated from the walls. He soon worked out of his bonds and began to pound on the metal door hoping to attract attention. Soon the door slid open and a creature walked in. The minute the creature had stepped into the room, the stench which had filled the air five nights ago, made him retch again.

            The creature began to speak, “I am sorry that my odor sickens you. But reason is not of apology. I am Nardis of the race called the Kloiy I have come here of my own accord. I have come to warn you. We will, in seventy-two hours, attack your planet.”

            Rand almost chocked, “No! No! Why? Why?”

            Nardis replied, “For conquest. I am not that group. But I have come to help you and your people. Here is your gun. Now go! Go destroy our reactor! I will die, yes, but my mission is over! Now go!” Nardis left the room and Rand stood up, the beamer hanging limply in his hand as he thought.

            He regained his senses and ran into a hallway. He looked both ways and ran down the left hall.

            He began to feel vibrations as he zigzagged down the featureless hallways. He approached an open door and looking inside saw it was a radio shack, a Kloy sitting at the seat. He set the beamer on low and fired. The Kloy fell to the ground, stunned for at least an hour. Rand sat at the controls for a few minutes studying them then pressed a button he thought to be broadcast and sent his message, “This is Rand Tinnar, Scout Car 791 in sector 5B7 on, “ He thought for a moment, “The Black Planet.” He repeated the message then an answer came in, “This is Space Fleet Ship Alphatron. You a being acknologed S.C.791.”

            “I am marroned on a planet in galaxy NY-CX4 on the fourth planet. Coordinates, unknown. Recommend planet scan.” Rand said.

            The Fleet replied, “We are preparing to…” suddenly the radio short-circuited and blew up. Rand staggered out of the smoking room and went down the hall on his way to the reactor.

            Nothing else stopped him as he went on, the vibration getting louder and stronger as he neared the end of his journey.

            Then he saw it, the open door which had alien writing on it. Rand studied for a moment and read it aloud, “Reactor!”

            He suddenly became more cautious and went slowly through the door watching for a Kloy guards.

            He went slowly through three doors before he came to it. The last door, a giant iron door. He set the beamer on Hyper and fired at the door. He felt a blast of heat as the door began to glow and melt.

            Rand glanced at the charge and said to himself, “If that door doesn’t melt in a few seconds…” He heard the clanging an alarm bell in his ears and heard running. “The Kloys are coming!” he thought frantically. He heard a yell and he whirled around, the beamer still on frying the Kloys as they came through the doors.

            The beamers ray began to falter as the charge ran lower he whipped out the laser and trained it on the door beaming anything as they came through the door.

            He saw the iron door cave in he thumbed the beamer on then beam and fired at the reactor. There was a titanic explosion as the reactor blew up, the lights, the circulation, everything stoped.

            Rand heard all the Kloys choking in the darkness as he ran down the halls. He lasered a wall and burst into a clearing. Just in time, for he saw an army of Patrol men and space ships attack the city.

            He ran to where the Kloy had stunned them to find a scout car awaiting him the xeob and the doctor inside. He turned around and looked at the city, now a crumbled burning mass and wondered, “What about Nardis and the Black Planet?”