
A solitary freighter named Vera cuts through the cold vacuum, racing toward a notorious void pirate whose reputation even the Space Patrol fears. The pilot, a hulking figure in a cramped cockpit, guides his ship with practiced precision, eyes fixed on a dark silhouette that threatens a drifting luxury liner. The tension builds as he draws ever closer, aware that every second could decide the fate of the wreckage and the lives it once held.
Inside the shattered vessel, the lone rescuer slips into a scene of ruin—smashed hull, floating corpses, and the eerie silence of a massacre. He moves methodically among the remains, driven by a desperate hope that the one he seeks might still be alive. When he finally discovers a young woman, her beauty untouched by death, he cradles her gently and vows silently to remember her, even as the void around him swallows the echo of his oath.
Language
en
Duration
~34 minutes (32K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-06-08
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1913–1977
A lively pulp-era science fiction writer, he published energetic stories in the 1930s and 1940s and later became especially remembered for working with Ray Bradbury on an early fanzine. His fiction mixes big ideas, adventure, and the imaginative spirit of classic magazine SF.
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