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17 - Task to Luna · Outer Space Adventures in Sci-Fi

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  Speaker 1: Task to Luna by Alfred Kopple. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please go to LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recorded by Atomic Dragons of Mars. Task to Luna by
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  Speaker 1: Alfred Kopple, published Planet Stories January nineteen fifty one. Two
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  Speaker 1: rocket ships bit into lunar dust. Two men, a Yankee,
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  Speaker 1: a Russian dueled in Nightmare, Shadow and Glare, each eager
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  Speaker 1: to destroy the enemy. What cosmic joke made them drop
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  Speaker 1: their weapons and die laughing? The rockets started almost simultaneously
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  Speaker 1: from two yds idly separated points on the great curving
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  Speaker 1: surface of Earth. They reached upward and outward toward the Moon.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't really so strange a coincidence. Space navigation is
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  Speaker 1: governed by mathematics and logic, not politics. The fact that
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  Speaker 1: man carrying spaceships happened to be developed concurrently on two
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  Speaker 1: sides of an iron curtain meant little to the universe.
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  Speaker 1: It happened, that's all, and there is a proper time
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  Speaker 1: to launch such missiles. When that time came, they were launched.
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  Speaker 1: In a manner of speaking, it was a race, a
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  Speaker 1: race wherein the prizes were such things as gravity gauge
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  Speaker 1: and surveillance point and impregnable launching sites. The contestants were earnest,
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  Speaker 1: capable men, each certain that the moon must not fall
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  Speaker 1: into the hands of the opponent. It made a stirring
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  Speaker 1: and patriotic picture, vivid with nationalistic fervor. It was thrilling
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  Speaker 1: with its taste of high adventure and self sacrifice. For
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  Speaker 1: each rocket pilot it was a personal crusade against the
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  Speaker 1: thing he had been raised to regard as the enemy.
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  Speaker 1: But somehow, under the steady, cold scrutiny of the eternal stars,
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  Speaker 1: they must have looked a little ridiculous, perhaps just a
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  Speaker 1: tiny bit tragic. Too harsh was the moon. There was
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  Speaker 1: black and there was white. Great jagged cliffs and razor
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  Speaker 1: backed mountains slashed the pocked surface of the crater floor,
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  Speaker 1: humping themselves at the huge, unwinking stars. The sun was
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  Speaker 1: a stark disk of fire, incredibly white, hung in the
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  Speaker 1: black sky. The shadows were bottomless pools. Within them, there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing in the sunlight. The pummice's soil glared white.
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  Speaker 1: The Russian rocket had crashed. On landing, Randick could see
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  Speaker 1: the tiny buckled shape of it high on the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt the pilot was dead, but he had to
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  Speaker 1: be sure. The risks were too great for any unsupported assumptions.
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  Speaker 1: He had to go up there and see for himself.
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  Speaker 1: Ponderous in his pressure suit, Randick emerged from the open
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  Speaker 1: lock of the Anglo American rocket. He slogged across the
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  Speaker 1: pummas of the crater floor toward the spot where the
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  Speaker 1: mountain's sheer talus erupted skyward. If there were no trouble
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  Speaker 1: from the Ruski, he would return to his own ship
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  Speaker 1: and begin setting up the first cell of what would
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  Speaker 1: soon be the Anglo American moon base. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: he signaled a safe landing and no opposition from the Russian,
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  Speaker 1: other rockets would come to aid their cells, and presently
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  Speaker 1: there would be an atomic rocket pointed dead at the
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  Speaker 1: heart of every Russian population center, a rocket each for Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Vladivostok.
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  Speaker 1: Randick frowned. It would be a lot simpler if the
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  Speaker 1: crash had finished the Russian pilot. He knew the Russians
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  Speaker 1: had exactly the same plan for the Moon, only the
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  Speaker 1: rockets would be aimed at Washington, London, Paris, San Francisco.
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  Speaker 1: The slight weight of the one man Bezuka on Randick's
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  Speaker 1: back seemed suddenly very comforting. Randick knew himself to be
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  Speaker 1: on the very edge of known territory. His map showed
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  Speaker 1: him that he was in the highest part of the
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  Speaker 1: D'orfell Mountains. Behind him lay the two great bulls of
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  Speaker 1: Bailey and Shigared, and far to the north he could
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  Speaker 1: see as he climbed higher, the smooth surface of the
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  Speaker 1: mare he Morum. He looked up to the spinelike ridge
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  Speaker 1: beyond and slightly above the wreck of the Russian ship.
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  Speaker 1: There was a deep pass that slashed like a wound
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  Speaker 1: into the backbone of the range. He felt a slight thrill.
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  Speaker 1: Beyond that cleft lay mystery the other side of the moon.
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  Speaker 1: The Sun's rays beat down brutally even through the heavily
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  Speaker 1: insulated suit. Randick could feel their searing touch. All around
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  Speaker 1: him stretched a jumbled nightmare of black and white. He
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  Speaker 1: was suddenly very glad that he could not see the
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  Speaker 1: Earth in the sky. The homesickness would be unbearable. Randick
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  Speaker 1: found himself frowning. He had no time for such thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: He was a soldier. He reminded himself that up there
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  Speaker 1: in the tangled wreckage of the Russian spaceship, there might
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  Speaker 1: be another soldier ready to kill him. Two human beings
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  Speaker 1: on the moon, each eager to kill. Randick shook his
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  Speaker 1: head angrily. He had no right to let his mind
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  Speaker 1: dwell on such things. He was within a hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: of the wreck when a streak of fire and a
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  Speaker 1: soundless blast drove him into the shadows. Pumus showered him
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  Speaker 1: from the star shaped to depression where the explosive missile
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  Speaker 1: had struck. Randick cursed heartily. The Ruski was very much alive,
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  Speaker 1: and there wasn't a thing wrong with his eyesight. The
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  Speaker 1: shot had been uncomfortably close. Unslinging his bazuka, Randick began
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  Speaker 1: to work his way around behind the Russian rocket. A
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  Speaker 1: slight movement along the wreckage caught his trained eye, and
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  Speaker 1: he launched a projectile at it. It flared wickedly, tearing
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  Speaker 1: fragments of metal loose and flinging them fantastic distances down
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  Speaker 1: the sheer slope the ridge. There was no return fire.
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  Speaker 1: Randick broke out of the shadow and ran for the
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  Speaker 1: cover of a large pummice stone boulder farther up the draw,
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  Speaker 1: A sun bright flash of fire spattered the loose soil
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  Speaker 1: a dozen feet in front of him. He slid for
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  Speaker 1: the darkness on his belly. That one had been a
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  Speaker 1: near thing. Behind the boulder lay a trench like depression
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  Speaker 1: that sloped away up the draw toward the pass. Randick
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  Speaker 1: dropped into it and began to crawl laboriously upward. If
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  Speaker 1: he could flank the Ruski, he could finish this with
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  Speaker 1: one good shot. Another explosion rocked the boulder he had
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  Speaker 1: just left. Randick didn't even look back. He felt his
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  Speaker 1: breath rasping in his throat, and his body felt hot
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  Speaker 1: and sticky inside the bulky pressure suit. Glancing down into
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  Speaker 1: his right, he could see the proudly erect shape of
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  Speaker 1: his own rocket far below on the floor of the crater.
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  Speaker 1: It took him almost thirty minutes to reach the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the shadow that spilled from the side of the
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  Speaker 1: mountain pass. To his left, not ten feet away was
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  Speaker 1: the sudden white glare of the pumice floor. He was
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  Speaker 1: well above and almost behind the wreck of the Russian's ship.
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  Speaker 1: His flanks were heaving with the exertion of the climb.
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  Speaker 1: As he searched the buckled mass of the crash for
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  Speaker 1: his opponent, there seemed to be a dark shape wedged
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  Speaker 1: in between two twisted bulkheads. It looked like a man
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  Speaker 1: with pounding hearts. Randick murmured a prayer and lifted his bazukah, aimed,
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  Speaker 1: and pressed the firing stud. The shadow vanished in silent
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  Speaker 1: white fire. The return blast almost knocked him down. For
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  Speaker 1: a moment, Randick was stunned, wondering foggily where the shot
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  Speaker 1: had come from. Then his brain cleared and he realized
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  Speaker 1: that the Ruski two had climbed the pass, leaving Randick
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  Speaker 1: to fire at shadows. Randick cursed himself for his dangerous stupidity.
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  Speaker 1: The other must be among those shadowy rocks directly across
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  Speaker 1: the bright floor of the pass. He raised his bazuka, carefully,
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  Speaker 1: searching the Stygian blackness for some sign of movement. His
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  Speaker 1: finger curled around the firing stud. Out of the corner
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  Speaker 1: of his eye, he saw the flare. The Russian rocket
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  Speaker 1: erupted in a gout of bluish flame, and the whole
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  Speaker 1: mountain seemed to rock. Randick stared stupidly at the glowing
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  Speaker 1: crater where the ship had been. For just an instant
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  Speaker 1: he thought that perhaps a meteorite had struck it, but
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  Speaker 1: the explosion had been unquestionably atomic. The Russian must have
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  Speaker 1: been stunned, too, for he moved out into the light
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  Speaker 1: empty handed, his helmet turned woodenly toward the rapidly cooling
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  Speaker 1: lake of magma where his ship had been. They both
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  Speaker 1: saw the bright arc of fire that raced up from
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  Speaker 1: beyond the ridge and curved down gracefully toward the floor
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  Speaker 1: of the crater far below. Open mouthed, Randick watched his
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  Speaker 1: ship vanish into flame, and felt the vague tremor of
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  Speaker 1: the ground under him as the shock rumbled across the
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  Speaker 1: face of the Moon. The Russian rocket was gone, The
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  Speaker 1: Anglo American rocket was gone. Moon base was gone before
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  Speaker 1: it had ever been. The weapon fell from Randick's hand,
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  Speaker 1: and he stepped unsteadily into the light toward the Russian.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly human companionship was very, very important. Panicky terror was
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  Speaker 1: plucking at his throat. The two men stumbled toward each
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  Speaker 1: other across the pass, cut deep into the jagged back
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  Speaker 1: of the door fell mountains. As one, they turned and
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  Speaker 1: looked out across the vast expanse of the moon's hidden face.
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  Speaker 1: They were soldiers. They knew an invasion base when they
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  Speaker 1: saw one. As far as the eye could see, lines
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  Speaker 1: of sleek, mammoth spaceships of unknown design stretched away into
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  Speaker 1: the distance. The face of the vast, unnamed Mare was
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  Speaker 1: covered with them. Suddenly, Randick felt himself beginning to giggle.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to stop, but the laughter welled up inside
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  Speaker 1: of him, echoing wildly within his confining helmet. He could
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  Speaker 1: see that the Russian was laughing too, white teeth gleaming
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  Speaker 1: behind a plexiglass face plate. They laughed until they gasped,
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  Speaker 1: their sides hurt with laughter, tears rolled down their faces.
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  Speaker 1: They were arm in arm and still laughing when the
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  Speaker 1: third rocket arked down on them from out of the
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  Speaker 1: black and star flecked sky. And that is the end
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  Speaker 1: of Task to Luna by Alfred Copple