The Project Gutenberg EBook of Solar Stiff, by Chas. A. Stopher

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Title: Solar Stiff

Author: Chas. A. Stopher

Release Date: April 30, 2009 [EBook #28646]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SOLAR STIFF

By

CHAS. A. STOPHER

_Totem poles are a dime a dozen north
of 63 deg. ... but only Ketch, the lying
Eskimo, vowed they dropped out of
frigid northern skies._

Probos Five gazed at the white expanse ahead, trying to determine where
his ship would crash. Something was haywire in the fuel system of his
Interstar Runabout. He was losing altitude fast, so fast that all five
pairs of his eyes couldn't focus on a place to land.

Five pairs of arms, each pair about three feet apart on the loglike
body, pushed buttons and rotated controls frantically, but to no avail.
In a few short minutes it would all be over for Probos Five. Even if by
some miracle he remained unhurt after crashing, he would die shortly
thereafter. The frigid climatic conditions of the third planet were
deadly to a Mercurian. He thought once of donning his space suit but
decided against it. That would merely prolong the agony. From Planet
Three, when one has a smashed space cruiser, there is no return. Probos
Five knew that death was riding with him in the helpless ship. The
situation did not unnecessarily dismay him; Mercurians are philosophers.

Probos Five ceased to manipulate the unresponding controls. Stretching
his trunklike torso to its full twenty feet, four heads gazed through
observation ports at the four points of the compass while the remaining
head desultorily watched the instrument panel.

Since die he must, Probos Five would meet his end stoically, and five
pairs of stumpy arms folded over five chests in a coordinated gesture of
resignation.

Probos Five thought fleetingly of his wife Lingua Four and remembered
with some annoyance that she was the author of his present predicament.
A social climber, Probos Five t