The Project Gutenberg EBook of Triplanetary, by Edward Elmer Smith

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Title: Triplanetary

Author: Edward Elmer Smith

Release Date: March 8, 2007 [EBook #20782]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRIPLANETARY ***

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[Transcriber's note:

Typographical errors have been corrected.

This etext was produced from Amazing Stories January,
February, March and April 1934. Extensive research did not
uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
publication was renewed.]

_Triplanetary_

By EDWARD E. SMITH, Ph.D.

We are sure that our readers will be highly pleased to have
us give the first installment of a story by Dr. Smith. It
will continue for several numbers and is a worthy follower
of the "Skylark" stories which were so much appreciated by
our readers. We think that they will find this story
superior to the earlier ones. Dr. Smith certainly has the
narrative power, and that, joined with his scientific
position, makes him an ideal author for our columns.

Illustrated by MOREY

CHAPTER I

Pirates of Space

Apparently motionless to her passengers and crew, the Interplanetary
liner _Hyperion_ bored serenely onward through space at normal
acceleration. In the railed-off sanctum in one corner of the control
room a bell tinkled, a smothered whirr was heard, and Captain Bradley
frowned as he studied the brief message upon the tape of the recorder--a
message flashed to his desk from the operator's panel. He beckoned, and
the second officer, whose watch it now was, read aloud:

"Reports of scout patrols still negative."

"Still negative." The officer scowled in thought. "They've already
searched beyond the widest possible location of the wreckage, too. Two
unexplained disappearances inside a month--first the _Dione_, then the
_Rhea_--and not a plate nor a lifeboat recovered. Loo