Mist Men of Mercury

by Arnot Bissel. Originally published in Planet Comics #4, April 1940.

Would this terrible dizziness never cease? Would the projectile go on forever, whirling endlessly through space, taking its limitless orbit around the sun -- round and round forever in its deadly parabola adding its path to those of the comets -- a man-made comet carrying its helpless victim throughout eternity? Kirk shuddered as his frantic mind tried to grasp some reality in all this chaos.

And eternity it would be, too. Kirk knew this. For out here in space there was no time, no life, and no death. Was he destined to a living doom?

Perhaps it would have been better not to have left his home planet, Earth, so hastily. But it had been a question of death on Earth or a chance of life in the unknown. What man would have hesitated at such a choice?

The certain death that he had faced on Earth was at the hands of a vicious dictator who had imprisoned him in a concentration and who had ordered his execution for a crime he had never committed.

But there in the black cells of the torture camp, where most of the great minds of his country were being beaten into insanity and decay, Kirk met the brilliant scientist Hoffer, who told him of his secret work on rocket projectiles and space travel. He gave Kirk directions to his hidden workshop and aided him in every way till he miraculously escaped from the prison camp and fled like a hunted animal to the depths of the Black Forest where he found the rocket, almost complete and ready to be launched into space.

But the guns were barking in his ears as he dropped into the strange craft. He had no time to lose. Without further investigation, he followed the inventor's instructions that had been whispered to him nightly through damp walls.

The Brownshirted pursuers had reached the workshop just in time to hear the roaring zoom as the rocket was hurled from its catapult into the night and soon became a blazing, shooting star speeding through the heavens.

"And now I am condemned to worse than death --" Kirk moaned to himself, but even as he spoke the whirling lessened. The rocked seemed to be straightening out and slowing down. Gradually regaining his senses that had been thrown into utter confusion, Kirk crept to the small port that looked into the inky reaches of space. Suddenly, a brightness almost blinded him. He was nearing a brilliant star -- no, a planet.

"It must be very near the sun -- perhaps Mercury." Kirk watched the planet grow larger as its gravitational pull drew the rocket closer and closer.

Several hours later Kirk lay panting with the great heat on the floor of his rocket. He rolled over on his back and a grim smile crossed his face. "Looks like this time I really did land in the fire. Well, I took a long chance on my life, and I'm not through yet."

Weekly, he rose to his feet and stumbled out of ship. For a moment the heat sent him gasping back against the metal sides of the rocket, only to be scorched by the red-hot surface.

But as he swayed forward something mercifully cool brushed his sweat stained cheek. He looked about and found himself surrounded by mysterious vaporish bodies that wove about and embraced him in gentle coolness.

These mists were intelligent beings!

And more than that, Kirk felt with great thankfulness in his heart, after all that had happened to him on Earth these Mist men of Mercury were imbued with pity and kindness.

They led him gently to an opening in the burning soil and dropped down into a pit, holding Kirk among them so that he floated slowly toward the interior and into a large cavern filled with the strange Mercurians that floated about creating an intangible sea of mist.

It took several months for Kirk to understand the sign language of the Mist men. But when he finaly grasped their meaning he was astonished to learn that they had understood his language almost from the very first. Their intelligence was millions of years in advance of the Earth man's. They considered him a backward barbarian although their superhuman kindness would not allow them to show this. His tales of wars and misery on Earth only helped to confirm their theory.

But in that great sub-terrainian cavern on the planet Mercury, so near the sun, many plans were discussed that were to greatly influence the future history of Earth.

The man who had left Earth in an incomplete rocket ship was destined to lead the greatest attack on the forces of evil ever to be launched on the warring nations of Earth.

It was the year 1945, when half of Europe lay demolished under the tread of war and the firing still resounded over boundaries that changed hands many times, that the great Mist fell like a smothering blanket from the skies.

Frantically the Earth soldiers struggled against the strange phenomena. Orders came from startled rulers to keep firing under all conditions, but soon they realized that they were up against more than foggy weather conditions.

In vain the humans fought the elusive Mercurians. The built great fires that succeeded in destroying the Mist men for awhile, but soon they would vaporize again and descent in even heavier forces smothering the flames.

Within a week the guns were silent and all of humanity lay in a strange mist-blanketed stupor. There was no activity on Earth. Only the plants and animals grew and moved. But man was silent.

Then in the Spring of the year the great mist rose. Hundreds upon hundreds of Mercurians left the Earth and floated back to their planet. Men and women woke from their dreamless sleep and began to go about their daily work in peace.

The curious thing was that everyone had forgotten how to fight. The sight of guns meant nothing to the people anymore. They melted them down into useful tools and wondered what they had ever made them for. No one knew what had happened and everyone was content and working peacefully.

No one, that is, but one man who had gone back to a workshop in the Black Forest to work with his friend, the inventor, on more and greater ships to explore the outer reaches of space. Kirk never told of his strange experience or explained the coming of the Mist men to Earth for fear of awakening terrible memories that were hidden by the superior intelligence that the Mercurians had left on Earth.


















The original scans are below.





















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The Earth Queen's Last Refuge

By Don Varick Originally published in Planet Comics Feb. 1940

Fleeing from the Red Fleet of Betelgeux, the Space-Ship of War Defiance, bears the last remnants of the shattered Earth Race.

As magnificent and steady as Venus, in her orbit, the great, gray, battered space-ship of War Defiance III glided in amongst the corrugated peaks of the little-known planetoid of Blix. Cathoid and ray guns had dented and battered the giant space-ship's Z-plate hull, carried away part of her bridge, and riddled her landing fins, but commander Lothain brought her in amongst those towering, knife-edged crags just as easily as if he were bringing her into her own earth spacefield.

The tall war-officer turned his bright blue eyes toward the regal young woman standing in the pilot-turret beside him. He smiled, and suddenly his face was young again.

"They're not likely to find us on this lost, out-of-the-way planetoid. Perhaps here we shall have peace, my Queen."

The young woman turned her lovely, proud face and let her eyes dwell wistfully on the strong countenance of the Space-Ship o' War commander.

"I hope you're right, but I'm afraid," she said. "Those Betelgeuxians mean to leave not a single Earth creature alive in the entire universe."

"I know," said the tall commander as he swung over the lever that released the magnetic anchors, "but they'll have to catch us first."

Two minutes later they were standing looking curiously about this forgotten island in the endless universe, while a company of marines set up camp in the lea of the space-ship. This might be the last refuge for this handful of Earth people.

Suddenly Lais, the Queen, saw the young commander's face grow taut under the clear, thin velox-glass of his helmet.

"What is it?" she said.

"Wait!"

He turned on his heel and his short ray pistol was in his hand. One leap brought him to the open port. The lithe queen was right behind him as he swung open the tubed-steel door of the wireless room. They were in time to see a red-faced, red-headed, scowling man swing around from the instrument.

"You, MaGloom! Traitor..."

The spit and hiss of the ray pistols in the hands of the commander and MaGloom filled the tight compartment with horrible static. For a moment Lais thought her eardrums had burst, in spite of her space helmet.

Then she saw the traitor MaGloom bend and wither like a leaf blown into a fire, and she swung fearfully to look at the commander.

He was pale, but he was standing unscathed and there was fire in his blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" she cried.

"I'm alright, but we've got to get out of here. MaGloom was C.Qing the Betelgeuxian fleet. I can always feel when anyone is using the spark. That silver plate they set in me during the early part of the war..."

He put out his strong brown hand and pressed the alarm switch. Three minutes later the Defiance was sweeping through space, reviving every ounce of power in her damaged engines.

In the television cabin aft, Lothain stood beside the tall queen. There was a grim set to his lean jaw.

"They're only forty-odd thousand miles behind us now," he said. "And at the rate they're going they'll overhaul us in no time. It looks as if the whole Betelgeuxian space-fleet is after us."

"What shall we do?" said Lais, and it was easy to see that all her trust was in this tall, lean man.

"I don't know. We'll show them our heels as long as we can. Then we'll fight. We'll go down fighting."

He roared into the engine-tube: "Give her all you've got!"

"Aye, aye, sir" came the reply, and the battered Defiance, living up to her name, gathered speed.

But it was all to no avail. Standing there in the television cabin, the tall, straight commander watched the swift red ships of the pursuers draw steadily nearer. There were no less than a thousand of them. He had been right when he said it looked like the whole Betelgeuxian air navy.

"They'll be trying to range us soon," Lothian said between tight lips. He had taken off his space-helmet. He would probably never need it again.

"Can't we hide from them?" Lais said desperately. "Can't we put in behind some planetoid and throw them off the trail?"

"I'm afraid not." The tall commander was looking at the universe chart spread on a great board before him. "It wouldn't throw them off long. Look," he said "now they're starting to shoot."

Great flashes like lightning seared the surrounding atmosphere. "Twenty thousand miles -- they're too far off yet to have much effect." He turned from his charts to face the young queen, and his face was very sad. "I'm afraid though, it's the end."

Lais' lips quivered but she managed to smile. She touched the young commander's pyro-cloth sleeve. "I'm ready."

He swung around and once more his eyes stabbed desperately at the universe chart. "Wait!"

"One chance," he cried. "One small chance!" He spoke again into the engine tube. "Give her every last bit of power you've got if it blows us to Saturn!"

Lais didn't ask what he meant to do. his desperate face was enough. Her eyes followed his to the opaque glass screen where the war fleet of Betelgeux loomed larger and more terrible.

Suddenly a strange noise filled the turret. A powerful roaring wracked Lais' ears. "What's that?" she cried.

Lothian gave a strange smile. "That," he said, "is life or death." He swung his television eye so it pointed straight upwards over their heads.

"We're in the path of Brorsen's comet," the young commander said calmly. "I remembered it passed through this zone every five and a half years. We may get by, just barely. We may get by, just barely. But it's as good a way to die as any."

They stood still, their breath held so tight it hurt, listening to this roaring, whirling molten mass approach. They could look up and see it with the naked eye. The Defiance shuddered and stood on its keel. The whole atmosphere burnt and burst and broke asunder. Lais and Lothian were thrown to [the] corner of the compartment. He seized her and screened her with his body as the Defiance careened like a chip in a fiery whirlpool. Then, without warning, everything quieted. A trail of fire still flashed by but the terrifying roar was softening.

"Whee...!" said Lothian with a grin. "What I call a close one."

End.



Note on transcription:
Most spelling and grammar are unchanged but in one case "Bettlegurst"was regularized to "Betelgeux." The original scans (Via Golden Age Comics) are below.