
Part 1
On a remote, law‑less world, Quasmin scrambles from the wreck of his own ship, clutching a salvaged telescope and a wary sense that he’s being hunted. When a lone space‑suit‑clad figure, J. Trolla, descends from a newly arrived craft, Quasmin watches from the shadows, trying to decipher whether the newcomer is friend, foe, or something far stranger. Their silent standoff unfolds amid alien flora and the ghostly remnants of a crashed vessel, hinting at hidden motives and a justice system that operates without courts.
The tension rises as Trolla methodically loots the wreck, searching for clues while muttering to himself, unaware—perhaps—that Quasmin’s eyes are upon him. Both men are isolated, each suspecting the other of betrayal, and both sense a deeper, unseen authority watching their every move. The story weaves suspense with the stark beauty of an uncharted planet, inviting listeners to wonder what law truly governs a place where only a judge remains.
Language
en
Duration
~18 minutes (18K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1963.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2023-12-12
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1918–1997
A mid-century science fiction writer with a knack for human-alien encounters, he built stories around contact, misunderstanding, and survival in space. His work appeared widely in the pulp and digest magazines of the 1940s and 1950s, and many of his tales later found new readers through reprints and public-domain editions.
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