DESTINATION—DEATH-1
350 Words
DESTINATION—DEATH
One man had to die on Uranus’ frozen crust, so that the other might live—and Bart Caxton had a gun.
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THE YELLOW GAUGE CLICKED with a tiny sound, and the oxygen tank went dry. The relay ratchetted slowly, automatically coupled on the next tank, and the needle on the gauge climbed to high-pressure again.
Bart Caxton watched the needle swing, and beads of perspiration rode high on his cheekbones. He twisted the metal mug in his hands, and his voice was ragged with welling emotion.
“Three weeks,” he said viciously. “And we’re five weeks from the shipping lanes. There isn’t enough oxygen to carry us back.”
“Shut up!” Tom Headley’s tone was thin with suppressed anger. “All the damned talking in the world won’t change things. We’ve got to land now, have got to find the kronalium, or we’ll never get back.”
He leaned against the wall, searching the cloud-shrouded ground below the ship, feeling the uneven drumming of the rockets driving the ship forward. Nerves crawled his back, and sweat slimed his hands. He shuddered, imagining the horrors that might lie below.
The mug banged against the floor, and Caxton was standing, half-crouched, his heavy face set and stony, his hands riding the butts of his twin dis-guns.
“I say we go back,” he snarled through set teeth.
Headley laughed, and the sound was the only thing that could have broken the tension of the moment. He tilted his head and laughed until the tears ran from his eyes; and slowly the rage faded from Caxton’s face, and his shoulders sagged in weary futility.
“Okay, you win,” Caxton said sullenly. “I know I can’t force you to turn around, since you’re the only one of us that can recognize and work kronalium for the stern jets. But,” and his eyes were swirling pools of flaming hate. “When we do get back, I’m going to blow a hole through your back some night.”
Tom Headley turned away, the fear piling in his mind until it was a choking cloud that stifled all thought.
“If we get back,” he said dully.
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- Writer
