The Hell Fruit

by John Russell Fearn, Laurence F. Rose

Genres: Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Space Opera

Synopsis

A space opera in which an interplanetary criminal reminiscent of Charteris' character, The Saint, foils a plot to flood Earth with an addictive Venusian fruit.

Release date: September 30, 2015

Publisher: Gateway

Print pages: 86

Sample

THE year A.D. 2200, and in the main a world and Solar System at peace—for no other reason than that men had discovered that weapons had become so incredibly destructive as to make war impossible.

Control of the elements, travel between the inner worlds—as opposed to the still-unexplored giants of the System—the mastery of mind control over the body in the place of archaic medical and surgical remedies, abundant food, regulated employment, long life…. Man had all these hard-earned amenities, and it was into this era of calm prosperity that there came one Earmar Brown, half Earthman, half Martian, the only living interplanetary half-breed on Earth.

His father had been Robertson Brown, wealthy owner of the Inner Space-ways, and his mother a delectable Martian of high caste—courteous, immensely intelligent, as became her race, far advanced beyond Earth, even at its highest attainable peak. Earmar Brown was indeed unique. Interplanetary law, about the time of his birth, had commanded that the offspring of all interplanetary marriages should be exterminated, chiefly because the progenitors were usually rocket-men, scum of the space-ways, and low-born Martian women. Rather than clutter up the faultless social orders of Mars and Earth, the ruthless edict had gone forth, and been carried out.

Not so with Earmar Brown. The wealth of his father and the affection of his mother had kept him hidden until he had reached the age of five, and was consequently beyond jurisdiction. Now he was thirty; his parents were dead. He had his father’s wealth and doggedness and his mother’s charm…. He was a shining light in a society from which crime had been outlawed….

Or so the majority believed…. The fact that this was not entirely true was first signalled when the FG/86, a meteor-scarred old space-freighter, touched down at London’s commercial space-port on June 9th, 2200. Commander Holden, bearded, taciturn, square-shouldered, promptly made his way to the big administrative building to declare his cargo. Nobody spoke to him as he entered the big room. Stern and unapproachable, there were few who liked him—and even the check clerk’s genial banter was met with a flinty stare of ice-blue eyes.

“Get these filed and give me my clearance pass,” Holden requested briefly, and threw a bundle of advice notes and manifests on the broad desk.

The clerk nodded and went into action with his red pencil and rubber stamp.

“Three tons of tacos weed,” he muttered, “eighteen tons of West Venusian tobacco, sixteen tons of milnothite fuel, seventy-two cases of Venusian Tropica cherries…. Yes, everything seems to be in order.”

“Naturally,” Holden said brusquely. “What else did you expect?”

The clerk gave him a surprised look. He knew from experience that Commander Holden was a short-tempered man, but on this occasion there even seemed to be a nervous tension in the sting behind his words. He was plainly disturbed over something, constantly glancing about him and shifting his feet restlessly.

“Have a bad trip, Commander?” the clerk asked, writing out the clearance pass for the Interplanetary Customs.

“No. And hurry up, can’t you? I’ve no time to waste. I’m behind schedule as it is. Just time to unload, refuel, give my boys a few hours’ Earth-leave—then back again into space.”

“There’s certainly no thrill any more in flying through the void,” the clerk agreed, handing over the pass. “My wife was saying only this morning——”

Holden was not even listening. He as good as snatched the pass and strode from the room—back across the wide, metallic take-off ground, and so to his freighter. Passing through the airlock, he snapped on the microphone.

“Okay, boys, get her unloaded. Fast as you can!”

The crew instantly went to work, all except the navigator and first mate. Their positions were intellectually above the man-handling of cargo.

“Any trouble, Skip?” the first mate asked, as Holden turned from the microphone.

“None. Why should there be? Who’s to know the difference between Venusian Tropica cherries and kurna berries? They look identical.”

“Until somebody tastes ’em,” the navigator grinned.

Holden shrugged and looked out of the port on to the busy loading and goods bays, ablaze with cold, unquivering light.

“Nobody here will bother tasting them,” he said. “If I’d believed that possible I wouldn’t have taken the risk. And it is a risk,” he added grimly. “You realize that, I hope?”

“Smuggling always is,” the first mate responded. “But the pay makes it worth it. Not that I fully understand what the idea is back of it.”

“Not our place to question that,” Holden told him. “All we know is that Anziba of Venus is paying us something close to a fortune to deliver these kurna berries to Earth in the place of the usual Tropica cherries which have the blessing of the Earth and Venusian Governments…. We know what we have to do when the berries are safely through the Customs. Notify the people Anziba told us about and let them handle the distribution.”

The first mate was looking puzzled. “All that we know, Skip—but what does Anziba get out of it? That’s what I don’t see. He doesn’t even ask for the money return on selling these damned berries, and even if he did he wouldn’t be able to use it. As an outlaw he’s been kicked out of Venusian society and lost all civil rights. Or have I got the idea wrong?”

“You have it right,” Holden answered. “And keep it to yourself. Nobody is ever to know what we’re doing; nobody must ever know that agents of Anziba contacted us on Venus and got us to handle this smuggling job. Don’t forget that the penalty for smuggling is to be outlawed to the penal settlement in the lunar catacombs.”

This sobering thought brought silence down on the first mate and navigator. It had been one thing to accept the illegal offer of the Venusian insurgent: the thought of the penalty was something very different. Those outlawed to the penal settlement within the moon never returned. They finished their lives in the artificial light and air-conditioned catacombs, mining the valuable minerals of which Earth, owner of the moon, had constant need.

Brooding to himself, Holden turned again to the airlock and watched his men at work. Altogether it took them three hours to unload the cargo, after which they lined up for pay and were given eight hours’ Earth-leave. Then again they would be at work, loading up quite legitimate cargo intended for Venusian colonists; but on the return trip more illegal kurna berries would be brought in, alongside genuine Tropica cherries, one of the most delectable fruits the torrid equatorial regions of Venus could produce.

Commander Holden spent his own few hours of Earth-leave in completing the details of the mission entrusted him by Anziba’s agents. He contacted many men and women whom he had never seen in his life before, most of them in the questionable dives fringing the edge of the great commercial space-grounds. He suspected that some of them were Venusians who had reached Earth on faked passports. Being not unlike Earth-people, except for a dead whiteness of skin and slit-pupil eyes like those of a cat, which they could hide with tinted glasses, they could manage to get away with it. In any case, Commander Holden was not interested in this aspect. He merely handed on the distribution instructions he had received and left it at that, though here and there he did have an uneasy moment as he wondered what exactly was behind this peculiar business of the little-known kurna berries.

Once he had completed his business he retired to a spaceman’s hostel to sleep, then, as dawn was breaking over the mighty city, he was on the move again, refreshed, and ready for the sixty-million-mile hop which was more or less a part of his life.

And from the distribution centres where the kurna berries had been taken there went transport after transport, loaded with the cases, the purveyors being under the impression they were getting their usual consignment of Tropica cherries…. In all parts of the city, and indeed throughout the country, in the fruit markets, stores, and higher-class restaurants there appeared the counterfeit cherries—and, as of yore, they were bought by all those who could afford them. Where peaches and grapes had once taken the fancy of the masses, it was now Venusian cherries, and had been for nearly ten years. So stable had the market become that the Interplanetary Customs never even thought of the possibility of pseudo-cherries. In fact, hardly anybody knew there were berries on Venus which exactly duplicated their luscious cousins in everything except substance.

Four days after the kurna berries had been eaten the head of London’s Department of Public Affairs was a much-worried man. Anything appertaining to the health of the community had long been abolished, so completely had the mind-healers got man’s various fleshly ailments in hand. Yet here were reports of mounting trouble, of hundreds of men, women, and children mysteriously thrown off balance by eating Tropica cherries. The thing did not make sense. The Tropica cherries had been consumed for years and were renowned for their nourishing properties.

A victim of the “fruit poisoning” was selected and subjected to voluntary examination by the experts, and the result was surprising. The man seemed to be semi-intoxicated, and yet he had complete control over his limbs and other reactions and could walk a toe-line when asked to do so. The outstanding features of his “complaint” seemed to be his intense reaction to high-pitched sou. . .