Gold Star by Zach Hughes

Author:Zach Hughes [Hughes, Zach]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451152121
Google: o9KRAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0451126254
Publisher: Roc
Published: 1983-12-05T22:00:00+00:00

Pete leaped to the computer and began punching instructions. He knew what to do this time. The program was already in the computer, so it took just seconds to alter the field of the generator, a few more seconds, as the communications gong began to sound, to see the stat message begin to emerge in print and to hear a metallic voice intoning words which sent Pete into even more frenzied action.

"You are in peril, identify. You are in peril, identify."

Pete punched quickly. " U.P.S. Stranden 47." He sent it. The metallic voice ceased. The communications gong went silent.

" Stranden 47 requests communication," Pete sent.

The answer was silence.

"Who are you?" Pete sent.

Silence.

He kept trying. There were people down there.

Once again their hopes had been dashed, because the monetary reward for the discovery of a life-zone planet made the salvage money on Rimfire seem insignificant. But there were people there and they'd been cut off from the United Planets for a thousand years. That alone was a discovery.

That alone kept Pete at the communications board, begging for contact.

"Pete," Jan said, in a strained voice, "you'd better have a look at this."

They had been moving ever closer to the planet. Neither of them had seen the long streaks of fire which arced up from both the northern and southern continents of the planet. But the time Jan looked and adjusted focus the shapes were there, long, sleek, antique. They trailed tails of fire.

"Holy jumping—" Pete was mesmerized. It was like something out of a period piece, a space thriller. He watched the antique rockets reaching up for them, the Stranden 47 herself helping to close the distance with her forward speed.

He put the instruments on them, and they were metal and something else.

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