Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930Pelcher, Anthony
Science
Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930
Pelcher, Anthony
Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
The _Stellar_, in the merest matter of seconds, had become spoil of the
sea, and her crew and passengers had vanished forever from the sight of
men. Yet Prester Kleig lived on, knew that he lived on, and that there
was an element, too strong to be disbelieved, of reality in his dream.
There was a vibratory sense, too, as of the near activity of a noiseless
motor. Noiseless motor! Where had he last thought of those two words?
With what recent catastrophe were they associated? No, he could not
recall, though he knew he should be able to do so.
Then the sense of motion to the front was apparent--an unnumbered sense,
rather than concrete feeling. Motion to front, influenced by the rising
and falling motion of mountainous waves.
So suddenly as to be a distinct shock, the wave motion ceased, though
the forward motion--and _upward!_--not only continued but increased.
That airplane of the bulbous body, the queerly slanted wings....
But the glimmering of realization vanished as a sickishly sweet odor
assailed his nostrils and sent its swift-moving tentacles upward to wrap
themself soothingly about his brain. But the sense of flight,
unbelievably swift, was present and recognizable, though all else eluded
him. He had the impression, however, that it was intended that all save
the most vagrant, most widely differentiated, impressions elude
him--that he should acquire only half pictures, which would therefore be
all the more terrible in retrospect.
The only impressions which were real were those of motion to the front,
and upward, and the sense of noiseless machinery, vibrating the whole,
nearby.
Then a distinct realization of the cessation of the sense of flying, and
a return, though in lesser degree, of the rising and falling of waves.
This latter sensation became less and less, though the feeling of
traveling downward continued. Prester Kleig knew that he was going down
into the sea again, down into it deeply.... Then that odor once more,
and the elusive memory.
Forward motion at last, in the depths, swift, forward motion, though
Prester Kleig could not even guess at the direction. Just swift motion,
and the mutter of voices, the giving of orders....
* * * * *
Prester Kleig regained consciousness fully on the sands of the shore. He
sat up stiffly, staring out to sea. A storm was raging, and the sea was
an angry waste. No ship showed on the waters; the mad, tumbled sky above
it was either empty of planes or they had climbed to invisibility above
the clouds that raced and churned with the storm.
Out of the storm, almost at Prester Kleig's feet, dropped a small
airplane. Through the window a familiar face peered at Kleig. A
helmeted, begoggled figure opened the door and stepped out.
"Kleig, old man," said the flyer, "you gave me the right dope all right,
but I'll swear there isn't a wireless tower within a hundred miles of
this place! How did you manage it?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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