Chandler Davis 19 min read

A man sabotaging a ship's lifeboat is caught mid-theft, forced into a deadly gamble he can only win blind.

Chandler Davis's 1951 story tightens the screws as Nick Pappas, siphoning fuel in secret, is nearly discovered by the crew of the Tang, leaving him one desperate play. Taut, claustrophobic space opera about treachery and split-second nerve. Read it for a tense golden-age thriller played out in the cramped danger of a spaceship's guts.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

19 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Raymond F. Houlihan