Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury Read Online Free PDF

there holding the fort," said Mindes, hatred suddenly flooding his face with momentary color, "telling everyone I'm crazy. Or Dr. Peverale, either, for that matter."
    "Dr. Peverale doubts your sanity?" asked Lucky softly.
    "Well… Look, Starr, I've been scouting the Sunside in a small rocket-scooter ever since the accidents started getting bad. I had to do it. It's my project. Twice, now, I-I've seen something."
    Mindes paused and Lucky prodded Mm. "Seen what, Dr. Mindes?"
    "I wish I could say for sure. I saw it only from a distance each time. Something moving. Something that looked human. Something in a space-suit. Not one of our inso-suits, our special insulated jobs, you know.
It
looked more like an ordinary space-suit. Ordinary metal, you know."
    "Did you try to get closer?"
    "Yes, and I lost it. And the photographs showed nothing either. Just spots of light and dark that might have been something, or nothing. But it was something, all right. Something that moved under the Sun as though it didn't care a thing for the heat and radiation. It would even stand still in the Sun for minutes at a time. That's what got me."
    "Is that strange? Standing still, I mean?"
    Mindes laughed shortly. "On the Mercury Sun-side? It sure is. Nobody stands still. Insulated suit and all, you go about your business as fast as you can and get out from under as fast as you can. This near the Terminator the heat isn't so bad. It's the radiation, though. It's just good practice to take as little of it as possible. The inso-suits aren't complete protection against gamma rays. If you must stand still, you move into the shade of a rock."
    "What's your explanation of it all?"
    Mindes's voice fell to an almost shamed whisper. "I don't think it's a man."
    "You're not going to say it's a two-legged ghost, are you?" said Bigman suddenly, before Lucky could nudge him into silence.
    But Mindes only shook his head. "Did I use that phrase on the surface? I seem to remember-- No, I think it's a Mercurian."
    "What?" cried Bigman, sounding as if he thought that were worse.
    "How else could it endure the Sun's radiation and heat so?"
    "Why would it need a space-suit then?" asked Lucky.
    "Well, I don't know." Mindes's eyes flashed, and a restless wildness settled upon them. "But it's
something.
When I got back to the Dome, every man and every suit could be accounted for each time. Dr. Peverale won't authorize an expedition to make a real search. He says we're not equipped for it."
    "Have you told him what you told me?"
    "He thinks I'm crazy. I'm sure of it. He thinks I'm seeing reflections and building men out of them in my imagination. But that's not so, Starr!"
    Lucky said, "Have you contacted the Council of Science?"
    "How can I? Dr. Peverale wouldn't back me. Urteil would say I was mad and they would listen to
him.
Who would listen to me?"
    "I would," said Lucky.
    Mindes sat up in bed with a jerk. His hand shot out as though it were ready to grasp the other's sleeve but then held back. He said, in a choked voice, "Then you'll investigate it?"
    "In my way," promised Lucky, "I will."
    The others were already at the banquet table that evening when Lucky and Bigman arrived. Above the hum of greeting that rose as they entered and the beginning of the introductions, there were obvious signs that the gathering was not entirely a pleasant one.
    Dr. Peverale sat at the head of the table, his thin lips set and his sunken cheeks quivering, the picture of dignity maintained under difficulty. At his left was the broad-shouldered figure of Urteil, lounging back in his chair, thick fingers playing delicately with the rim of a drinking glass.
    Toward the foot of the table was Scott Mindes, looking painfully young and tired as he stared with angry frustration at Urteil. Next to him was Dr. Gardoma, watching with an anxious and thoughtful eye as though ready to interfere in case Mindes grew rash.
    The remaining seats, except for two empty ones at Dr. Peverale's right, were