Instead of the welcome they'd expected, the returning crew of the first interstellar spaceship were kept in space, imprisoned in their craft. In quarantine, as carriers of a deadly alien disease! When the prisoners escaped, the worried authorities hired Earth's top detective Martin Slade to track them down, little suspecting that Slade had his own personal agenda to find the men. Slade's search for the missing crew spans millions of miles of space, following a trail of hideous deaths . . .
Release date:
January 30, 2014
Publisher:
Gateway
Print pages:
224
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The Cap Kennedy (F.A.T.E.) Series (E.C. Tubb writing as Gregory Kern)
1: Galaxy of the Lost (1973)
2: Slave Ship from Sergan (1973)
3: Monster of Metelaze (1973)
4: Enemy Within the Skull (1974)
5: Jewel of Jarhen (1974)
6: Seetee Alert! (1974)
7: The Gholan Gate (1974)
8: The Eater of Worlds (1974)
9: Earth Enslaved (1974)
10: Planet of Dread (1974)
11: Spawn of Laban (1974)
12: The Genetic Buccaneer (1974)
13: A World Aflame (1974)
14: The Ghosts of Epidoris (1975)
15: Mimics of Dephene (1975)
16: Beyond the Galactic Lens (1975)
17: The Galactiad (1983)
Alien Dust (1955)
Alien Impact (1952)
Journey Into Terror (originally published as Alien Life (1954, rev 1998))
Atom War on Mars (1952)
Fear of Strangers (first published as C.O.D. - Mars (1968))
Century of the Manikin (1972)
City of No Return (1954)
Death God’s Doom (1999)
Death is a Dream (1967)
Dead Weight (first published as Death Wears a White Face (1979))
Escape into Space (1969)
Footsteps of Angels (2004) (previously unpublished work written c.1988)
Hell Planet (1954)
Journey to Mars (1954)
Moon Base (1964)
Pandora’s Box (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)
Pawn of the Omphalos (1980)
S.T.A.R. Flight (1969)
Stardeath (1983)
Starslave (2010) (previously unpublished work written 1984)
Stellar Assignment (1979)
Temple of Death (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)
Fifty Days to Doom (first published as The Extra Man (1954))
The Life-Buyer (1965, 2008 )
The Luck Machine (1980)
World in Torment (originally published as The Mutants Rebel (1953))
The Primitive (1977)
The Resurrected Man (1954)
The Sleeping City (1999)
The Space-Born (1956)
The Stellar Legion (1954)
To Dream Again (2011)
Venusian Adventure (1953)
Tide of Death (first published as World at Bay (1954))
E. C. Tubb (writing as Arthur MacLean)
The Possessed (revised version of Touch of Evil (1957))
E. C. Tubb (writing as Brian Shaw)
Argentis (1952)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Carl Maddox)
Menace from the Past (1954)
The Living World (1954)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Charles Grey)
Dynasty of Doom (1953)
The Extra Man (first published as Enterprise 2115 (1954) & then as The
Mechanical Monarch (1958))
I Fight for Mars (1953)
Space Hunger (1953)
The Hand of Havoc (1954)
Secret of the Towers (originally published as The TormentedCity (1953))
The Wall (1953)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Gill Hunt)
Planetfall (1951)
E. C. Tubb (writing as King Lang)
Saturn Patrol (1951)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Roy Sheldon)
The Metal Eater (1954)
E. C. Tubb (writing as Volsted Gridban)
The Green Helix (originally published as Alien Universe (1952))
Reverse Universe (1952)
Planetoid Disposals Ltd. (1953)
The Freedom Army (originally published as De Bracy’s Drug (1953))
Fugitive of Time (1953)
MARTIN Christopher Slade, detective extraordinary, rested the tips of his fingers together, admired the sheen of his nails, and spoke to a bowl of orchids on his desk. “You may speak quite freely,” he said. “This room is proof against violation.”
“And against your own recorders?”
“That too.” Slade dropped his hands and stared at his visitor. The remark had been crude in its implication. The man is a crumb, he thought. A weasel. A lump of nurd. But, apparently, he was rich. “If you would care to activate your own safeguards,” he said pleasantly, “I have no objection. But I assure you, my word is generally considered to be safeguard enough.”
“I am aware of your reputation.” Herb Jasker, second-generation Martian, shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The seat was too soft, the air too close, the gravity too high. Even though it was night and the air-conditioning was on at full blast the humidity was appalling. And the people! He felt smothered, choked by a sweltering mass of humanity. He tugged at his collar. Slade watched, silent, an aging idol of weathered stone. The Martian had bought five hundred solars’ worth of his time. In ten minutes he would have stated his business, arrived at a satisfactory conclusion, or Slade would have him thrown out. He had sis minutes to go.
“You know of the Prox expedition,” said the Martian abruptly. You know that the Hope arrived back more than two weeks ago.”
“I know it.”
“Do you know that the crew of the Hope is now in strict quarantine?”
“I heard the broadcast,” said Slade. “Tomorrow every paper will carry the news. You will be able to buy it for twenty cents.”
“But I have information that you cannot buy for twenty cents—or for twenty thousand solars!” Jasker was annoyed. He forced himself to be calm. Anger was not the weapon with which to deal with Slade. “Do you know what decision has been reached by the UP regarding the disposal of the three surviving members of the crew?”
Slade knew but said nothing. His agents in United Planets could rely on his discretion.
“They are to be blasted into space,” said Jasker. “Sent on an unending journey into the unknown.”
“They are diseased,” said Slade. “UP can’t risk the infection running wild on a habitable world.”
“Diseased!” Jasker snorted his disgust. “What kind of disease are they supposed to have? What disease is it that modern medical science cannot cure? Why must they be blasted into space? Why can’t they be kept in controlled isolation for long-term tests and study?”
Slade glanced at his watch. The man had three minutes to go.
“Those questions were asked by the Martian delegate in the United Planets Supreme Council,” said Jasker. “They weren’t answered to our satisfaction. The representative from Callisto asked the same questions and received the same vague answers. It’s time Earth stopped treating us like irresponsible children and told us what we wanted to know.”
Two minutes—Jasker was going to find that propaganda could be expensive.
“All right,” he said. “That’s why I’m here. I want you to find out the truth about the Hope.”
“What’s it worth to you?” Slade believed both in shock tactics and getting to the heart of things.
“The truth?” Jasker hesitated. “Well—”
“I’ll give it to you for free,” interrupted Slade impatiently. “The crew is diseased. We cannot cure the disease. Rather than run the risk of a planet-wide epidemic we are sacrificing the lives of three men. They are spacers and should be able to accept the decision. So should you.”
“And if they are not diseased?”
Slade leaned back and lit a pale green cigar. His instincts were working overtime and they told him that Jasker was holding something back. He knows something, he thought. Something worth money. If it weren’t he wouldn’t be interested. He cares as much for the welfare of the crew of the Hope as I do for some alley cat down in Mexico. And he must be fighting a time limit. If he weren’t he wouldn’t have come to me. Not with the Scorfu to call on. Those Martian hellcats would stop at nothing if they thought it to be in their interest.
“You are suggesting,” he said aloud, “that the United Planets examination teams conspired to lie. That the story given to the public is a pure fabrication.”
“It could be.”
“But why? Why should they lie? What do they hope to gain out of it?”
“I don’t know,” said Jasker. “Without proof we shall never know.”
“And you want me to find the proof.” Slade drew thoughtfully at his cigar. “You claim to have special information,” he said casually. “When is the Hope to be blasted into open orbit?”
“As soon as they have completely wrecked the engines and made certain that the life-maintainence mechanisms are fully operational,” said Jasker. His eyes narrowed with suspicion. How did yon know that they were to be sent off in the Hope?”
“Logical deduction,” lied Slade. “If they are diseased then their ship must also be suspected of being contaminated. When?”
“Soon. Three days, maybe four. Not much longer than that.”
“It’s not long enough,” said SIade. “I won’t have time to make a thorough investigation. Listen.” He explained, “The examination teams are still up m orbit with the Hope. They are the only ones who know the real truth. Maybe some high official in UP knows it also and maybe not. And, for all you know, they could be telling the simple truth. It takes as long to determine one thing as the other. Truth or lie, the investigation has to be the same.”
“I don’t see that,” protested Jasker.
“You wouldn’t,” said Slade. “You’re not a detective.” He drew again at his cigar. “And even if I discovered the real truth,” he said, “no matter what it is, it wouldn’t do you any good There wouldn’t be time to stop the blasting. Once the ship is lost in space any investigation becomes pointless.”
“True—that’s why they are in such a hurry.”
Slade shrugged.
“It wouldn’t be because it’s the United Planets, would it?” said Jasker. “I mean, you aren’t afraid of them or anything?”
“No.”
“I thought not.” Jasker looked down at his hands; they were hard, calloused, the hands of a worker, but he looked at them to hide his eyes. This was the moment he had led up to, and now he had to gamble that greed and c. . .
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