
A Complete Novelette
Transcriber's Note:
By Paul Ernst
CHAPTER I - The Red Spot
CHAPTER II - The Pipe-like Men
CHAPTER III - The Coming of Greca
CHAPTER IV - In the Tower
CHAPTER V - The Torture Chamber
CHAPTER VI - The Inquisition
CHAPTER VII - In the Power-House
Commander Stone summons the eager Captain Brand Bowen for a mission that could decide the fate of humanity’s fledgling space program. An ominous, glittering red zone on Jupiter’s southern hemisphere—known only as the “Red Spot”—has already claimed three ships and their crews, leaving only static silence where radio once crackled. With his close friend Journeyman lost to that mysterious void, Bowen must fly low over the deadly swirls, armed with only his wits and a trusted pilot, Dex Harlow.
The story blends classic pulp adventure with early visions of interplanetary travel, capturing the awe and danger of venturing into the unknown. As Bowen approaches the swirling vortex, the narrative builds tension around the eerie metallic sheen of the planet’s surface and the unsettling quiet that follows. Listeners will be drawn into a tense, atmospheric quest for answers, feeling every pulse‑quickening moment of humanity’s first brush with a cosmic enigma.
Language
en
Duration
~2 hours (135K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-10-08
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1899–1985
A prolific American pulp writer, this early science-fiction and fantasy author filled magazines with fast-moving adventures and strange ideas. He is especially remembered for the Doctor Satan stories and for work that appeared in magazines like Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories.
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