
He awakens in a stark, gray chamber that defies gravity, a mechanical voice repeatedly demanding that he confirm his name and press a button. Disoriented and naked except for heavy shorts, David Corbin struggles to make sense of the floating environment, feeling the cold metal walls and the eerie hum of dials that seem to watch his every move. The room’s curved ceiling and sealed doors hint at a purpose far beyond a simple accident, and the voice’s insistence pulls him toward a decision he can’t fully grasp.
Venturing into a narrow passage, he discovers a rail system that lets him glide effortlessly through the weightless corridor, eventually reaching a doorway that opens onto a vast view of space. Stars blaze against an inky blackness, visible through portholes that reveal the emptiness beyond the ship’s hull. As the enormity of the cosmos presses against the glass, David realizes he is a captive of an unknown technology, and the mystery of why he was sent here begins to unfold.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (57K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-11-29
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Best known for the science-fiction story Captain Chaos, this pulp-era writer is a fairly elusive figure today. The surviving record points to a short, energetic space adventure first published in the early 1950s and later preserved online for new readers.
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