Collected Short Fiction, page 5
The Power of Blackness, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1973
Previews of Hell, Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer, August 2004
The Prince of Space, Amazing Stories, January 1931
The Purchase of Earth, Science Fiction Age, July 1998
The Pygmy Planet, Astounding Stories, February 1932
R
Racketeers in the Sky, Argosy, October 12, 1940
The Rajah McCarthy and the Jungle Tomato, Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer, August 2004
The Red Beak of Thoth, Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer, August 2004
Red Slag of Mars, Wonder Stories Quarterly, Spring, March 1932
The Reefs of Space (Part One), If, July 1963
The Reefs of Space (Part Two), If, September 1963
The Reefs of Space (Conclusion), If, November 1963
The Reign of Wizardry (Part One), Unknown, March 1940
The Reign of Wizardry (Part Two), Unknown, April 1940
The Reign of Wizardry (Conclusion), Unknown, May 1940
Released Entropy (Part One), Astounding Stories, August 1937
Released Entropy (Conclusion), Astounding Stories, September 1937
Rogue Star (Part One), If, June 1968
Rogue Star (Part Two), If, July 1968
Rogue Star (Conclusion), If, August 1968
The Ruler of Fate (Part One), Weird Tales, April 1936
The Ruler of Fate (Part Two), Weird Tales, May 1936
The Ruler of Fate (Conclusion), Weird Tales, June 1936
S
Salvage in Space, Astounding Stories, March 1933
Second Man to the Moon, Fantastic, April 1959
The Second Shell, Air Wonder Stories, November 1929
Seedship, Amazing Stories, November 1982
Seetee Shock (Part One), Astounding Science Fiction, February 1949
Seetee Shock (Part Two), Astounding Science Fiction, March 1949
Seetee Shock (Conclusion), Astounding Science Fiction, April 1949
Shakespeare & Co., Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores, November 2002
Slave to Chaos, Galileo, October 1977
Space Family Smiths, JD Journal, 1983
Spider Island, Thrilling Mystery, April 1937
Star Bright, Argosy, November 25, 1939
The Star of Dreams, Comet, March 1941
Starchild (Part One), If, January 1965
Starchild (Part Two), If, February 1965
Starchild (Conclusion), If, March 1965
Stepson to Creation, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, January 1977
The Stone from the Green Star (Part One), Amazing Stories, October 1931
The Stone from the Green Star (Conclusion), Amazing Stories, November 1931
The Stonehenge Gate (Part One), Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February, January 2005
The Stonehenge Gate (Part Two), Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2005
The Stonehenge Gate (Conclusion), Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 2005
The Story Roger Never Told, Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny, September 1998
The Sun Maker, Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1940
T
Terraforming Terra, Science Fiction Age, November 1998
Terror Out of Time, Astounding Stories, December 1933
Through the Purple Cloud, Wonder Stories, May 1931
Tricentennial Century, The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute (1908-2008), 2008
Twelve Hours to Live!, Wonder Stories, August 1931
U
The Ultimate Earth, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2000
V
Venus is Hell, Omni, October 1992
W
The Wand of Doom, Weird Tales, October 1932
“We Ain’t Beggars”, New Mexico Quarterly, August 1933
With Folded Hands . . ., Astounding Science Fiction, July 1947
Wizard’s Isle, Weird Tales, June 1934
Wolves of Darkness, Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, January 1932
X
Xandulu (Conclusion), Wonder Stories, May 1934
Xandulu (Part One), Wonder Stories, March 1934
Xandulu (Part Two), Wonder Stories, April 1934
Y
You Can’t Beat a Marine, El Portal, May 1956
FICTION SERIES
[C] = Collection
[N] = Collection
[O] = Omnibus
[PN] = Magazine-published Novel
[SER] = Serial
[SF] = Short Story/Novelette
Series List
Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods
Cuckoo
Eldren
Humanoids
Jim Eden
Legion of Space
Legion of Time
Quarantine
Seetee
Starchild
Terraforming Earth
The Power of Blackness
Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods
Stepson to Creation [SF]
Slave to Chaos [SF]
Kinsman to Lizards [SF]
Brother to Demons [SF]
Brother to Gods [SF]
Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods [C]
Cuckoo
Farthest Star [N]
Wall Around a Star [N]
Doomship [N]
The Org’s Egg [N]
The Org’s Egg (Part One) [SER]
The Org’s Egg (Part Two) [SER]
The Org’s Egg (Conclusion) [SER]
The Saga of Cuckoo [O]
Eldren
Lifeburst [N]
Mazeway [N]
Humanoids
With Folded Hands . . . [SF]
. . . And Searching Mind (Part One) [SER]
. . . And Searching Mind (Part Two) [SER]
. . . And Searching Mind (Conclusion) [SER]
The Humanoids [N]
The Humanoids [PN]
The Humanoids [C]
The Humanoid Universe [SF]
The Humanoid Touch [N]
Jim Eden
Undersea Quest [N]
Undersea Fleet [N]
Undersea City [N]
The Undersea Trilogy [O]
Legion of Space
The Legion of Space (Part One) [SER]
The Legion of Space (Part Two) [SER]
The Legion of Space (Part Three) [SER]
The Legion of Space (Part Four) [SER]
The Legion of Space (Part Five) [SER]
The Legion of Space (Conclusion) [SER]
The Legion of Space [N]
The Cometeers (Part One) [SER]
The Cometeers (Part Two) [SER]
The Cometeers (Part Three) [SER]
The Cometeers (Conclusion) [SER]
The Cometeers [N]
One Against the Legion (Part One) [SER]
One Against the Legion (Part Two) [SER]
One Against the Legion (Conclusion) [SER]
One Against the Legion [N]
The Cometeers [O]
Nowhere Near [SF]
Three from the Legion [O]
The Queen of the Legion [N]
The Luck of the Legion [SF]
Legion of Time
The Legion of Time [SER]
The Legion of Time [SER]
The Legion of Time [SER]
The Legion of Time [N]
Quarantine
The Man from Outside [SF]
The Peddler’s Nose [SF]
The Greatest Invention [SF]
Man Down [SF]
The Happiest Creature [SF]
The Trial of Terra [N]
A Planet for Plundering [SF]
Seetee
Collision Orbit [SF]
Minus Sign [SF]
Opposites—React! (Part One) [SER]
Opposites—React! (Conclusion) [SER]
Seetee Shock (Part One) [SER]
Seetee Shock (Part Two) [SER]
Seetee Shock (Conclusion) [SER]
Seetee Shock [N]
Seetee Ship [N]
Seetee Ship/Seetee Shock [O]
Starchild
The Reefs of Space (Part One) [SER]
The Reefs of Space (Part Two) [SER]
The Reefs of Space (Conclusion) [SER]
The Reefs of Space [N]
Starchild (Part One) [SER]
Starchild (Part Two) [SER]
Starchild (Conclusion) [SER]
Starchild [N]
Rogue Star (Part One) [SER]
Rogue Star (Part One) [SER]
Rogue Star (Conclusion) [SER]
Rogue Star [N]
The Starchild Trilogy [O]
Terraforming Earth
Agents of the Moon [SF]
The Ultimate Earth [SF]
Terraforming Earth [N]
The Power of Blackness
The Power of Blackness [SF]
The Eternity Engine [SF]
Counterkill [SF]
The Power of Blackness [N]
The Dark Destroyer [SF]
The Machines That Ate Too Much [SF]
Life would have been absolutely
empty without imagination.
JACK WILLIAMSON
1928
The Metal Man
NOT since we published “The Moon Pool” has such a story as this been published by us.
“The Metal Man” contains an abundant matter of mystery, adventure, and for a short story, a surprising amount of true science.
Unless we are very much mistaken, this story will be hailed with delight by every scientifiction fan. We hope Mr. Williamson can be induced to write a number of stories in a similar vein.
THE Metal Man stands in a dark, dusty corner of the Tyburn College Museum. Just who is responsible for the figure being moved there, or why it was done, I do not know. To the casual eye it looks to be merely an ordinary life-size statue. The visitor who gives it a closer view marvels at the minute perfection of the detail of hair and skin; at the silent tragedy in the set, determined expression and poise; and at the remarkable greenish cast of the metal of which it is composed, but, most of all, at the peculiar mark upon the chest. It is a six-sided blot, of a deep crimson hue, with the surface oddly granular and strange wavering lines radiating from it—lines of a lighter shade of red.
Of course it is generally known that the Metal Man was once Professor Thomas Kelvin of the Geology Department. There are current many garbled and inaccurate accounts of the weird disaster that befell him. I believe I am the only one to whom he entrusted his story. It is to put these fantastic tales at rest that I have decided to publish the narrative that Kelvin sent me.
For some years he had been spending his summer vacations along the Pacific coast of Mexico, prospecting for radium. It was three months since he had returned from his last expedition. Evidently he had been successful beyond his wildest dreams. He did not come to Tyburn, but we heard stories of his selling millions of dollars worth of salts of radium, and giving as much more to institutions employing radium treatment. And it was said that he was sick of a strange disorder that defied the world’s best specialists, and that he was pouring out his millions in the establishment of scholarships and endowments as if he expected to die soon.
One cold, stormy day, when the sea was running high on the unprotected coast which the cottage overlooks, I saw a sail out to the north. It rapidly drew nearer until I could tell that it was a small sailing schooner with auxiliary power. She was running with the wind, but a half mile offshore she came up into it and the sails were lowered. Soon a boat had put off in the direction of the shore. The sea was not so rough as to make the landing hazardous, but the proceeding was rather unusual, and, as I had nothing better to do, I went out in the yard before my modest house, which stands perhaps two hundred yards above the beach, in order to have a better view.
When the boat touched, four men sprang out and rushed it up higher on the sand. As a fifth tall man arose in the stern, the four picked up a great chest and started up in my direction. The fifth person followed leisurely. Silently, and without invitation, the men brought the chest up the beach, and into my yard, and set it down in front of the door.
The fifth man, whom I now knew to be a hard-faced Yankee skipper, walked up to me and said gruffly, “I am Captain McAndrews.”
“I’m glad to meet you, Captain,” I said, wondering. “There must be some mistake. I was not expecting—”
“Not at all,” he said abruptly. “The man in that chest was transferred to my ship from the liner Plutonia three days ago. He has paid me for my services, and I believe his instructions have been carried out. Good day, sir.”
He turned on his heel and started away.
“A man in the chest!” I exclaimed.
He walked on unheeding, and the seamen followed. I stood and watched them as they walked down to the boat, and rowed back to the schooner. I gazed at its sails until they were lost against the dull blue of the clouds. Frankly, I feared to open the chest.
At last I nerved myself to do it. It was unlocked. I threw back the lid. With a shock of uncontrollable horror that left me half sick for hours, I saw in it, stark naked, with the strange crimson mark standing lividly out from the pale green of the breast, the Metal Man, just as you may see him in the Museum.
Of course, I knew at once that it was Kelvin. For a long time I bent, trembling and staring at him. Then I saw an old canteen, purple-stained, lying by the head of the figure, and under it, a sheaf of manuscript. I got the latter out, walked with shaken steps to the easy chair in the house, and read the story that follows:
“DEAR Russell,
“You are my best—my only—intimate friend. I have arranged to have my body and this story brought to you. I just drank the last of the wonderful purple liquid that has kept me alive since I came back, and I have scant time to finish this necessarily brief account of my adventure. But my affairs are in order and I die in peace. I had myself transferred to the schooner to-day, in order to reach you as soon as could be and to avoid possible complications. I trust Captain McAndrews. When I left France, I hoped to see you before the end. But Fate ruled otherwise.
“You know that the goal of my expedition was the headwaters of El Rio de la Sangre, ‘The River of Blood.’ It is a small stream whose strangely red waters flow into the Pacific. On my trip last year I had discovered that its waters were powerfully radioactive. Water has the power of absorbing radium emanations and emitting them in turn, and I hoped to find radium-bearing minerals in the bed of the upper river. Twenty-five miles above the mouth the river emerges from the Cordilleras. There are a few miles of rapids and back of them the river plunges down a magnificent waterfall. No exploring party had ever been back of the falls. I had hired an Indian guide and made a mule-back journey to their foot. At once I saw the futility of attempting to climb the precipitous escarpment. But the water there was even more powerfully radioactive than at the mouth. There was nothing to do but return.
“This summer I bought a small monoplane. Though it was comparatively slow in speed and able to spend only six hours aloft, its light weight and the small area needed for landing, made it the only machine suitable for use in so rough a country. The steamer left me again on the dock at the little town of Vaca Morena, with my stack of crates and gasoline tins. After a visit to the Alcade I secured the use of an abandoned shed for a hangar. I set about assembling the plane and in a fortnight I had completed the task. It was a beautiful little machine, with a wing spread of only twenty-five feet.
“Then, one morning, I started the engine and made a trial flight. It flew smoothly and in the afternoon I refilled the tanks and set off for the Rio de la Sangre. The stream looked like a red snake crawling out to the sea—there was something serpentine in its aspect. Flying high, I followed it, above the falls and into a region of towering mountain peaks. The river disappeared beneath a mountain. For a moment I thought of landing, and then it occurred to me that it flowed subterraneously for only a few miles, and would reappear farther inland.
“I soared over the cliffs and came over the crater.
“A great pool of green fire it was, fully ten miles across to the black ramparts at the farther side. The surface of the green was so smooth that at first I thought it was a lake, and then I knew that it must be a pool of heavy gas. In the glory of the evening sun the snow-capped summits about were brilliant argent crowns, dyed with crimson, tinged with purple and gold, tinted with strange and incredibly beautiful hues. Amid this wild scenery, nature had placed her greatest treasure. I knew that in the crater I would find the radium I sought.
“I CIRCLED about the place, rapt in wonder. As the sun sank lower, a light silver mist gathered on the peaks, half veiling their wonders, and flowed toward the crater. It seemed drawn with a strange attraction. And then the center of the green lake rose up in a shining peak. It flowed up into a great hill of emerald fire. Something was rising in the green—carrying it up! Then the vapor flowed back, revealing a strange object, still veiled faintly by the green and silver clouds. It was a gigantic sphere of deep red, marked with four huge oval spots of dull back. Its surface was smooth, metallic, and thickly studded with great spikes that seemed of yellow fire. It was a machine, inconceivably great in size. It spun slowly as it rose, on a vertical axis, moving with a deliberate, purposeful motion.
“It came up to my own level, paused and seemed to spin faster. And the silver mist was drawn to the yellow points, condensing, curdling, until the whole globe was a ball of lambent argent. For a moment it hung, unbelievably glorious in the light of the setting sun, and then it sank—ever faster—until it dropped like a plummet into the sea of green.
“And with its fall a sinister darkness descended upon the desolate wilderness of the peaks, and I was seized by a fear that had been deadened by amazement, and realized that I had scant time to reach Vaca Morena before complete darkness fell. Immediately I put the plane about in the direction of the town. According to my recollections, I had, at the time, no very definite idea of what it was I had seen, or whether the weird exhibition had been caused by human or natural agencies. I remember thinking that in such enormous quantities as undoubtedly the crater contained it, radium might possess qualities unnoticed in small amounts, or, again, that there might be present radioactive minerals at present unknown. It occurred to me also that perhaps some other scientists had already discovered the deposits and that what I had witnessed had been the trial of an airship in which radium was utilized as a propellent. I was considerably shaken, but not much alarmed. What happened later would have seemed incredible to me then.
