Amazing Stories, July, 1927
Amazing Stories
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SECOND HONORABLE MENTION IN THE $500 PRIZE COVER CONTEST
Awarded to A. Hyatt Verrill, New York City, for “A Voice from the Inner World.”
ON the eighteenth of October, the New York
terrific wind. It is headed—’ It is probable that
papers reported the appearance of a the vessel, if struck, was instantly destroyed. It remarkable meteor which had been seen in
has been suggested, however, that it is
mid-Pacific, and the far more startling possible that the meteor or meteors were announcement that it was feared that the accompanied by electrical phenomena which amazing celestial visitor had struck and may have put the Chiriqui’s wireless destroyed a steamship.
apparatus out of commission and that the ship
“At eleven-fifteen last evening,” read
may be safe.”
the account in the Herald, “the Panama-
Later editions of the press announced
Hawaiian Line steamship Chiriqui reported by
that no word had been received from the
radio the appearance of an immense meteor
Chiriqui, that other ships had reported the
which suddenly appeared above the horizon to
meteor, and that two of these had radioed that
the southeast, and which increased rapidly in
the aerolite, instead of exploding, had been
size and brilliance. Within ten minutes from
seen to continue on its way and gradually
the time the phenomenon was first sighted, it
disappear beyond the horizon. These reports
appeared as a huge greenish sphere of somewhat allayed the fears that the Chiriqui dazzling brilliance high in the sky, and had been struck by the meteor, and prominent heading, apparently, directly for the Chiriqui.
scientists expressed the opinion that the
Almost at the same time as reported by the
supposed explosion had been merely an
Chiriqui, several other ships, among them the
optical illusion caused by its passage through
Miners and Merchants Line Vulcan, and the
some dense or cloudy layer of air. They also
Japanese liner Fujiama Maru also reported the
quoted numerous cases of immense meteors
meteorite, although they were more than one
having been seen by observers over immense
thousand miles apart and equidistant from the
distances, and declared their belief that the
position of the Chiriqui.
aerolite had not reached the earth, but had
“In the midst of a sentence describing
merely passed through the outer atmosphere.
the appearance of the rapidly approaching When asked regarding the possibility of the meteor, the Chiriqui’s wireless message came
meteor having affected the ship’s wireless
to an abrupt end, and all attempts to get into
apparatus, experts stated that such might have
further communication with her operator been the case, although, hitherto, severe failed. The other vessels reported that a electrical disturbances had never been scintillating flash, like an explosion, was associated with the passage of meteors.
followed by the meteor’s disappearance, and it
Moreover, they declared that even if the
is feared that the immense aerolite may have
wireless had been injured, it could have been
struck the Chiriqui, and utterly destroyed her
repaired in a few hours, and that they could
with all on board. As no SOS has been not explain the continued silence of the received, and as the ship’s radio broke off
Chiriqui. Word also came from Panama that
with the words: ‘It is very close and the sea is
the naval commandant at Balboa had
as bright as day. Below the immense mass of
despatched a destroyer to search for the
green fire are two smaller spheres of intense
Chiriqui, or any survivors of the catastrophe if red. It is so near we can hear it roaring like a
the ship had been destroyed.
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A few hours later, despatches were
character that it appeared incredible, and yet
received from various points in Central and
was so borne out by facts and details that it
South America, reporting the meteor of the
had all the earmarks of truth. So astounding
previous night. All of these agreed that the
was this communication that, despite the fact
fiery mass had swept across the heavens in a
that it will unquestionably be scoffed at by the
wide arc and had vanished in the east beyond
public, I feel that it should be given to the
the summits of the Andes.
world. As soon as I had received the story I
It was, therefore, fairly certain that the
hurried with it to the American Minister in
Chiriqui had not been struck by the meteor,
Lima, and related all that I had heard. He
and in a few days the incident was by agreed with me that the authorities at completely forgotten the public at large.
Washington should be acquainted with the
But when, ten days later, the warship
matter at once, and together we devoted many
reported that no sign of the missing ship could
hours to coding the story which was cabled in
be found, and the officials of the Panama-
the secret cipher of the State Department. The
Hawaiian Line admitted that the Chiriqui was
officials, however, were inclined to regard the
four days overdue, interest was again aroused.
matter as a hoax, and, as far as I am aware, no
Then came the startling news, featured in steps have yet been taken to follow out the screaming headlines, that the meteor or its
suggestions contained in the communication
twin had been again reported by various ships
which I received, and thus save humanity
in the Pacific, and that the U. S. S. from a terrible fate. Personally, I am McCracken, which had been scouring the seas
convinced that the amazing tale which came to
for traces of the missing Chiriqui, had sent in me in such an astounding and unexpected
a detailed report of the meteor’s appearance,
manner is absolutely true, incredible as it may
and that her wireless had gone “dead,” exactly
seem, but whether fact or fiction, my readers
as had that of the Chiriqui. And when, after
may decide for themselves.
every effort, no communication could be
My son-in-law was intensely interested
established with the war vessel, and when two
in radio, and devoted all of his spare time to
weeks had elapsed without word from her, it
devising and constructing receiving sets, and
was generally conceded that both ships had
in his home in the delightful residential suburb
been destroyed by the amazing celestial of Miraflores, were a number of receiving sets visitor. For a time the double catastrophe of both conventional and origi
nal design.
filled the papers to the exclusion of nearly
Having been closely in touch with the subject
everything else, and such everyday features as
for several years, I was deeply interested in
scandals and murder trials were crowded to
Frank’s experiments, and especially in a new
the back pages of the dailies to make room for
type of hook-up which had given most
long articles on meteors and missing ships and
remarkable results in selectivity and distance.
interviews with scientists. But as no more
Practically every broadcasting station in
meteors appeared, and as no more ships America, and many in Europe, had been vanished, the subject gradually lost interest
logged by the little set, and on several
and was no longer news.
occasions faint signals had been heard which,
About three months after the first although recognizable as English, evidently report of the green meteor appeared (on emanated from a most remote station. These, January fifteenth, to be exact) I was in Peru,
oddly enough, had come in at the same hour
visiting my daughter, when I received a each night, and each time had continued for communication of such an utterly amazing
exactly the same length of time.
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We were discussing this, and trying to
and very rapidly increased in size and
again pick up the unintelligible and brilliancy. At the time I was particularly unidentified signals on that memorable struck by the fact that it left no trail of light or January evening, when, without warning, and
fire behind it, as is usual with large meteorites,
as clearly as though sent from the station at
but so rapidly did it approach that I had little
Buenos Ayres, came the most astounding time to wonder at this. Within a few moments communication which ever greeted human from the time that it was first seen, the ears, and which, almost verbatim, was as immense sphere of green incandescence had follows:[1]
grown to the size of the moon, and the entire
sea for miles about our ship was illuminated
“LISTEN! For God’s sake, I implore all who
by a sickly green light. It appeared to be
may hear my words to listen! And believe
headed directly towards our ship, and,
what I say no matter how unbelievable it may
standing as I was on the bridge-deck near the
seem, for the fate of thousands of human wheel-house, I heard the chief officer cry out: beings, the fate of the human race may depend
‘My God, it will strike us!” By now the mass
upon you who by chance may hear this of fire had altered in appearance, and a short message from another world. My name is distance below the central green mass could James Berry, my home is Butte, Montana, my
be seen two smaller spheres of blinding red,
profession a mining engineer, and I am like huge globes of molten metal. By now, speaking through the short wave transmitter of
too, the noise made by the meteor was plainly
the steamship Chiriqui on which I was a audible, sounding like the roar of surf or the passenger when the terrible, the incredible sound of a tornado.
events occurred which I am about to relate. On
“Everyone aboard the ship was panic-
the evening of October sixteenth[2] the stricken; women screamed, men cursed and Chiriqui was steaming across the Pacific in
shouted, and the crew rushed to man the boats,
calm weather when our attention was attracted
as everyone felt that the Chirique was
by what appeared to be an unusually brilliant
doomed. What happened next I can scarcely
meteor of a peculiar greenish color. It first
describe, so rapidly did the events occur. As
appeared above the horizon to the southeast,
the meteor seemed about to hurl itself upon
the ship, there was a blinding flash of light, a
1 The message as it came in, was halting, and
terrific detonation, and I saw men and women
interrupted, with many unintelligibles words
falling to the decks as if struck down by shell
and repitition, as if the sender were laboring
fire. The next instant the meteor vanished
under the intense strain or was an amateur. For
completely, and intense blackness followed
the sake of clarity and continuity, the
the blinding glare. At the same moment, I was
communication has been edited and filled in,
aware of a peculiar pungent, suffocating odor
but not altered in any detail.
which, perhaps owing to my long experience
with deadly gases in mining work, I at once
2 The metropolitan papers reported the meteor
recognized as some noxious gas. Almost
on the eighteenth and stated it was observed
involuntarily, and dully realizing that by some
by those on the Chiriqui on the evening of the
miracle the ship had escaped destruction, I
seventeenth, but it must be remembered that
dashed below and reached my cabin almost
the Chiriqui was in the western Pacific and
overcome by the fumes which now penetrated
hence had gained a day in time.
every portion of the ship. Among my
possessions was a new type of gas-mask
A Voice from the Inner World
5
which had been especially designed for mine
half the sky, was the stupendous meteor like a
work, and my idea was to don this, for I felt
gigantic globe of green fire, and seemingly
sure that the meteor had exploded close to the
less than one hundred feet above me. Still
ship and had released vast quantities of nearer, and hanging but a few yards above the poisonous gases which might hang about for a
bow and stern of the ship, were the two
long time.
smaller spheres of glowing red. Cowering
“Although almost overcome by the against the rail, expecting to be shriveled into choking fumes, I managed to find and put on
a charred cinder at any instant, I gazed
the apparatus, for one of its greatest transfixed and paralyzed at the titanic masses advantages was the rapidity and ease with
of flaming light above the ship.
which it could be adjusted, it having been
“Then reason came back to me. My
designed for emergency use. But before it was
only chance to escape was to leap into the sea,
fairly in place over my face, the electric light
and I half clambered upon the rail prepared to
in my room went out and I was in complete
take the plunge. A scream, like that of a
darkness. Also, the ship seemed strangely still,
madman, came from my lips. Below me was
and as I groped my way to the stateroom door
no sign of the waves, but a limitless void,
it suddenly dawned upon me that the engines
while, immeasurably distant beneath the ship,
had stopped, that there was no longer the
I could dimly see the crinkled surface of the
whirr of dynamos from the depths of the hull.
sea. The Chiriqui was floating in space!
Not a light glimmered in the passageway, and
“It was impossible, absolutely
twice, as I felt my way towards the social hall,
<
br /> preposterous, and I felt convinced that I had
I stumbled over the sprawled bodies of men,
gone mad, or that the small quantity of gas I
while in the saloon itself I several times had breathed had affected my brain and had stepped upon the soft and yielding flesh of
induced the nightmarish vision.
Perhaps,
passengers who lay where they had been I thought, the meteors above the ship were struck down by the poisonous gas. In all also visionary, and I again stared upward.
probability, I thought, I was the sole survivor
Then, I knew that I was insane. The spheres of
aboard the ship, unless some of the firemen
green, and red light were rushing upward as I
and engineers survived, and I wondered how I
could see by the brilliant stars studding the
would manage to escape, if the vessel should
sky, and the ship upon which I stood was
be sighted by some other ship, or if it should
following in their wake! Weak, limp as a rag, I
be my gruesome task to search the Chiriqui
slumped to the deck and lay staring at the
from stem to stern, drag the bodies of the dead
great globes above me. But the insanely
to the deck and cast them into the sea, and
impossible events which had crowded upon
remain—perhaps for weeks—alone upon the
my overwrought senses were as nothing to the
ship until rescued by some passing vessel. But
amazing discovery I now made.
as I reached the door and stepped upon the
“As my eyes became accustomed to
deck all such thoughts were driven from my
the glare of the immense green sphere, I saw
brain as I blinked my eyes and stared about in
that instead of being merely a ball of fire it
dumfounded amazement. I had stepped from
had definite form. About its middle extended a
Stygian darkness into dazzling light. Blinded
broad band from which slender rods of light
for the moment, I closed my eyes, and when I
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