E-text prepared by Greg Weeks, Joel Schlosberg,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
Transcriber's Note:
This eBook was produced from Comet magazine, July 1941, pp. 56-70.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyrighton this publication was renewed.
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The first ripples of blue firetouched Dio's men. Bolts of itfastened on gun-butts, andknuckles. Men screamed andfell. Jill cried out as he toresilver ornaments from her dress. |
A WORLD IS BORN
by LEIGHBRACKETT
Mel Gray flung down his hoewith a sudden tigerish fiercenessand stood erect. TomWard, working beside him, glancedat Gray's Indianesque profile, theyouth of it hardened by war and thehells of the Eros prison blocks.
A quick flash of satisfaction crossedWard's dark eyes. Then he grinnedand said mockingly.
"Hell of a place to spend the restof your life, ain't it?"
Mel Gray stared with slitted blueeyes down the valley. The huge sunof Mercury seared his naked body.Sweat channeled the dust on his skin.His throat ached with thirst. And thebitter landscape mocked him morethan Wade's dark face.
"The rest of my life," he repeatedsoftly. "The rest of my life!"
He was twenty-eight.
Wade spat in the damp black earth."You ought to be glad—helping theunfortunate, building a haven for thederelict...."
"Shut up!" Fury rose in Gray, hotterthan the boiling springs that ranp. 57from the Sunside to water the valleys.He hated Mercury. He hated JohnMoulton and his daughter Jill, whohad conceived this plan of building anew world for the destitute and desperateveterans of the Second Interplanetary War.
"I've had enough 'unselfish service',"he whispered. "I'm serving myselffrom now on."
Escape. That was all he wanted.Escape from these stifling valleys,from the snarl of the wind in the barrencrags that towered higher thanEverest into airless space. Escapefrom the surveillance of the twentyguards, the forced companionship ofthe ninety-nine other veteran-convicts.
Wade poked at the furrows betweenthe sturdy hybrid tubers. "Itain't possible, kid. Not even for 'Duke'Gray, the 'light-fingered genius whoheld the Interstellar Police at a standstillfor five years'." He laughed. "Iread your publi