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Engineer Harry Vinson arrives early at a remote testing facility, eager to witness the culmination of eight years of work on a massive, ultra‑complex electro‑mechanical device. Instead he finds the lab stripped clean—panels removed, power lines disconnected, the massive machine gone without a trace. The thoroughness of the disappearance suggests a deliberate, highly coordinated theft rather than accident, plunging Vinson into a bewildering mystery that threatens the future of his life's project.
Haunted by a vivid nightmare of being trapped in a metallic monster alongside a frightened woman, Vinson tries to shake the symbolism as he prepares to investigate. He meets Narina Varada, a striking but terrified figure cornered by a small, wayward device that has turned hostile, its indifferent metal clashing with human panic. Together they must confront a machine that has slipped from its intended purpose, hinting at a deeper danger lurking behind the theft.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (102K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Columbia Publications, Inc, 1950.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Apr 21, 2023
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1911–1981
A pioneering Golden Age science fiction writer, George O. Smith combined an electronics engineer’s knowledge with stories about communication, invention, and life in space. He is best remembered for the inventive Venus Equilateral series, which began with his 1942 debut in Astounding Science-Fiction.
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