Flight Into The Unknown By Tom W. Harris It was Bailey's first trip into space and things began to happen that made him wonder if luck alone would bring him back to Earth alive! [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy August 1957 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] ... _A hand moved_ ... Young Bailey fell. It was a terrible sensation, falling. Bailey was not sure how long he had been falling. There was no one near him. They had been scattered like seeds from a burst pod when the meteor hulled the ship. Bailey was falling through the dark alone; he had been falling endlessly. ... _Those with him now were all palefaced with fear_ ... The voice of Krotzer was still in the headphones: "... closing in on me, I can't describe them, you've got to get here...." Krotzer had meant so much for so long; now his voice was less than nothing. Bailey was falling like a stone; the sensation drove everything else out of him. Bailey could not stand it any longer, and began to scream. It shattered his visor and icy space rushed in. There was light and his captain was looking at him. Captain DiCredico was shaking him. Bailey's face was dripping. He grabbed the skipper. "I'm falling! Hold me!" ... _Thousands of eyes bulged, hands twitched_ ... DiCredico squeezed a plastic bottle, squirting water into his face. Drops spattered and drifted off slowly through the air. Bailey blinked and stared. He was aboard the Ranger. Safe. Then panic came gibbering back at him as his body told him unmistakably he was falling. "You're not!" snapped DiCredico. "No gravity, remember? Spin ship!" he ordered over his shoulder. Gently, Bailey's body felt the reassuring tug as centrifugal force duplicated a light gravity and the alarm bells in his nerves and glands stopped ringing. The hull of the ship became "down," and men walked instead of floating--walked on the walls and ceiling, too, like wheel-spokes radiating from the axis of spin. "Over it?" asked DiCredico. "I guess so. I'm sorry." "Happens to all of us. Human body is made with a built-in, full-scale emergency response to falling--and lack of gravity is what triggers it. When you're awake you can consciously control it. I'm going to have to quit spinning ship now--can't take bearings, and this slant-standing can be worse than no gravity."