Larry Offenbecker 27 min read

The plague is wiping out the colony and the serum must get through, but Captain Rawson's ship holds a course he never ordered, steady as a bullet, as if the vessel itself has other plans.

Larry Offenbecker's 1945 story opens on a chilling mystery aboard a mercy mission, building a fast space opera. Sharp, atmospheric golden-age pulp. Read it for a tense tale of a starship that won't obey its captain, with a colony's survival hanging in the balance.

In its time

Published in 1945, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

27 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Joseph Doolin