
Four men float alone in the black void, each sealed inside a self‑contained pressure suit that is as much a spacecraft as a lifeboat. After a catastrophic crash leaves their ship a shattered husk, the aging veteran Dunbar claims to know a path to a fabled “Paradise” beyond a red‑rimmed sun that haunts every horizon. As they drift ever deeper into darkness, the survivors cling to a fragile, gravity‑linked rope while their helmets whisper through the ether, trying to keep sanity and hope alive.
The narrative follows Russell, the youngest, whose mistrust of Dunbar’s optimism fuels an inner battle between dread and the desperate need for direction. With scarce supplies, a life‑support system that recycles every breath, and a mysterious “life‑gun” that can thrust them farther, the quartet must confront the emptiness of space and the weight of their own choices. Their trek through an uncharted sector hints at larger mysteries, promising a tense, thought‑provoking journey before any true resolution appears.
Language
en
Duration
~26 minutes (25K 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
2010-02-22
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1918–1988
A hard-working pulp writer with a gift for suspense, adventure, and strange ideas, he moved easily between science fiction, television, and mystery. His stories helped shape mid-century popular fiction, from magazine racks to early TV screens.
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