Bryce Walton 14 min read

Barstac can't believe the girl helped him escape, until he learns her reason. He must reach one of the sports rockets and get to Deimos, or die trying, and one is as good as the other.

Bryce Walton's 1950 story is a fast, atmospheric space-opera adventure of escape and hidden motives on Mars. Sharp, driven golden-age SF. Read it for a rousing tale of a desperate flight across the red plains, and the woman whose help conceals a secret purpose.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Milton Luros