
Sign of Life
A lone astronaut awakens amid the howling, dust‑laden storms of Venus, the wreckage of his ship half‑buried in a landscape of invisible, lethal winds. With his crew dead and supplies dwindling, he must ration oxygen, water and food while the planet’s relentless gale threatens to erase every trace of their mission. The hostile environment forces him into a desperate routine—lying low to conserve breath, scavenging for the few unspoiled provisions left, and recording his dwindling condition in a log that may be his only voice.
Soon, the storm carries in strange, teardrop‑shaped forms that settle in the cracks of his makeshift shelter. Their eerie, slow movements hint at an alien presence that could be either a new danger or an unexpected ally. As dehydration and isolation blur his thoughts, the astronaut clings to the hope that understanding these entities might offer a chance to survive—or at least to give meaning to the sacrifices that brought him to this alien world.
Language
en
Duration
~12 minutes (12K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Dec 5, 2020
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1915–2003
A short-lived but memorable voice in 1950s science fiction, Dave Dryfoos wrote inventive stories about alien worlds, android societies, fear, and human identity. His work appeared in leading genre magazines including Galaxy, If, Astounding, and Fantastic Adventures.
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