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Norton, Andre, 1912-2005

"Plague Ship"

I've seen
pictures--"
"Of the outer rim," Dane corrected, having already solved that problem
for himself. "This must be farther in than any survey ship ever came.
Great Spirit of Outer Space, what has happened here?"
Rip had enough technical training to know how to get part of the answer.
He leaned halfway across the com, and was able to flick down a lever with
the very tip of his longest finger. Instantly the cabin was filled with a
clicking so loud as to make an almost continuous drone of sound.
Dane knew that danger signal, he didn't need Rip's words to underline it
for him.
"That's what's happened. This country is pile 'hot' out there!"


Chapter XIV
SPECIAL MISSION

That click, the dial beneath the counter, warned them that they were as
cut off from the luxuriance outside as if they were viewing a scene on
Mars or Sargol from their present position. To go beyond the shielding
walls of the spacer into that riotous green world would sentence them to
death as surely as if the Patrol was without, with a flamer trained on
their hatch. There was no escape from that radiation--it would be in the
air one breathed, strike though one's skin.


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