The Robot God E-Book

Ray Cummings

• Herausgeber: Wildside Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 50

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The Golden God ruled a nation of walking nightmare statues—machines with lust and murder in their hearts! Classic pulp fiction by the author of The Girl in the Golden Atom. Introduction by John Betancourt.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

THE ROBOT GOD, by Ray Cummings

INTRODUCTION

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

THE ROBOT GOD,by Ray Cummings

INTRODUCTION

To anyone interested in the roots of modern science fiction, the name of Ray Cummings (1887–1957) should already be well known. He wrote at the dawn of the science fiction field, publishing genre stories in mainstream magazines like Argosy, Munsey’s Magazine, and other top publications of the day. Of course, as soon as the science fiction pulp magazines debuted, he moved to them, where his work received a hearty welcome from fans. He continued publishing through the 1950s.

Cummings was born in New York City. He worked with Thomas Edison as a personal assistant and technical writer from 1914 to 1919, which provided much background for his fiction. His most famous work remains the novel The Girl in the Golden Atom, first published in 1922. It combined a short story by the same name first published in 1919 (in which he combined an idea of Fitz James O'Brien’s The Diamond Lens with H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine), and its sequel, “The People of the Golden Atom,” which appeared in 1920.

During the 1940s, with his literary career in decline—his work was decidedly old-fashioned in comparison to that of Asimov, Heinlein, van Vogt, and the other new authors—Cummings found himself relegated to second-tier science fiction magazines. He began to turn to comic books for a market, and he soon found work writing for Timely Comics, the predecessor to Marvel Comics. In those days, comics appealed to a much younger and far less sophisticated audience. For Timely, he recycled the plot of The Girl in the Golden Atom as a two-part Captain America tale, Princess of the Atom (Captain America Comics #25 & 26). He also contributed stories to the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, sometimes in collaboration with his daughter, Betty Cummings (who also wrote comics scripts by herself, often using her father’s more famous name). He also began to write mysteries, often with a science-based or fantastic twist.

Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Cabin John, Maryland

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

First published Weird Tales, July 1941.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

CHAPTER 1

Voyage of Doom

To young George Carter the girl seemed more beautiful tonight than he had ever seen her. The shine of spacelight was in her eyes—soft pale-blue glow of the million million starry worlds. It filtered down through the overhead glassite dome of the little space-liner, bathing him and her in its soft effulgence.

“ ‘Flinging back a million starglints,’ ” he quoted softly, “ ‘the depths of space remind me of thine eyes.’ That’s literally true, tonight, Dierdre.”

The Starfield Queen was a day out from Earth on its voyage to Ferrok Shahn, capital of the Martian Union. By Earth-time it was August, 2453 A.D. By ship’s routine the time could be called mid-evening—an hour or two after the passengers and crew of the little liner had had their evening meal. Still within the giant cone of the Earth’s shadow the great black firmament blazed with its myriad white worlds. It was an awe-inspiring sight to Carter—his first voyage out of the Earth’s stratosphere. He was a big, rather handsome blond fellow in his early twenties. An Anglo-American Mining chemist; and his company was sending him now on a prospecting trip to Mars.

The girl laughed; a little ripple of silver laughter. But to Carter, somehow it seemed forced. He had known Dierdre Dynne about a year. She was traveling now to Mars with her father; only by chance had they both taken this voyage on the Starfield Queen.

And there was something, now, about her that was abnormal. He had noticed it at once. A restlessness; a vague uneasiness?

He stared into her blue eyes, where the starshine was mirrored. Was it terror there, glowing in the limpid depths? They were on the upper deck of the hundred foot spaceship—an oblong space on the superstructure roof, with the glassite pressure dome close over them. Behind them, beyond the stern-peak, the great dull-red ball of Earth, with the cone of its giant shadow streaming out here from it, filled a quadrant of the heavens.

For a moment silent, he gazed at Dierdre, who was stretched beside him in her padded deck chair. Slim, beautiful little figure in gray-blue traveling trousers, blue blouse with white neck ruff; and her blond hair, pale as spun gold, braided and coiled on her head. The small platinum ornaments that dangled from her bare arms clinked as with nervous fingers she toyed with them.

He said suddenly, “What’s the matter with you, Dierdre?”

“Matter with me?”

It was terror in her eyes. No question of it now. He leaned toward her. The little starlit deck space up here at the moment seemed empty—a few deck chairs scattered about, and squat metal vents of the ventilators and air-pressure mechanisms. No one seemed here. But he lowered his voice.

“Something is worrying you,” he insisted. And then he smiled. “All right—but I asked you a while ago and you didn’t answer. Why are you and your father going to Mars?”

Her jeweled hand went out and touched his arm. “I guess I—will tell you, George,” she murmured. She was suddenly breathless. “You know, of course—these last few years, several space-liners have vanished. Just—never heard of again—”

Five passenger ships, enroute between Earth, Venus and Mars, mysteriously had been lost. He knew that, of course. Little space-vehicles in commercial service—like this Starfield Queen—equipped with radio-helio and every modern safety device—just vanishing. And now, of course she was timid, here on her first voyage—

“Oh,” he said. “Well, I don’t blame you. But nothing is going to happen to us.”

“No, it’s more than that, George. Father’s on his way to Ferrok Shahn to consult with some of the Martian Robot Manufacturer’s. You see, what you don’t know—what naturally has never been made public—”

* * * *