Wandl the Invader

Wandl the Invader, by Raymond
King Cummings

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Title: Wandl the Invader
Author: Raymond King Cummings
Release Date: March 20, 2007 [EBook #20859]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE INVADER ***

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Transcriber's Note:
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

WANDL THE INVADER
by RAY CUMMINGS

ACE BOOKS, INC. 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y.

Copyright ©, 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.
Magazine version serialized in Astounding Stories, Copyright, 1932, by
Clayton Publications, Inc.
* * * * *

1
"It's a planet," I said. "A little world."
"How little?" Venza demanded.
"One-fifth the mass of the Moon. That's what they've calculated now."
"And how far is it away?" Anita asked. "I heard a newscaster say
yesterday...."
"Newscasters!" Venza broke in scornfully. "Say, you can take what
they tell you about any danger or trouble and cut it in half; and even
then you'll be on the gloomy side. See here, Gregg Haljan."
"I'm not giving you newscasters' blare," I retorted. Venza's extravagant
vehemence was always refreshing. The Venus girl glared at me. I added:
"Anita mentioned newscasters; I didn't."
Anita was in no mood for smiling. "Tell us, Gregg." She sat upright and

tense, her chin cupped in her hands. "Tell us."
"For a fact, they don't know much about it yet. You can call it a planet,
a wanderer."
"I should say it was a wanderer!" Venza exclaimed. "Coming from
heaven knows where beyond the stars, swimming in here like a comet."
"They calculated its distance yesterday at some sixty-five million miles
from Earth," I said. "It isn't so far beyond the orbit of Mars, coming
diagonally and heading very nearly for the Sun. But it's not a comet."
The thing was indeed inexplicable; for many weeks now, astronomers
had been studying it. This was early summer of the year 2070 A.D. All
of us had recently returned from those extraordinary events I have
already recounted, when we came close to losing Johnny Grantline's
radiactum treasure on the Moon, and our lives as well. My ship, the
Planetara, in the astronomical seasons when the Earth, Mars, and
Venus were within comfortable traveling distances of each other, had
carried mail and passengers from Greater New York to Ferrok-Shahn,
of the Martian Union, and to Grebhar, of the Venus Free State. Now it
was wrecked on the Moon.[1]
[Footnote 1: See "Brigands of the Moon", Ace Book, D-324]
I had been under navigating officer of the Planetara. Upon her, I had
met Anita Prince, whose only living relative, her brother, was among
those killed in the struggle with the brigands; Anita and I were soon to
marry, we hoped.
I was waiting now in Greater New York upon the decision of the Line
officials regarding another spaceship. Perhaps I would have command
of it, since Captain Carter of the Planetara had been killed.
It was a month or so before that adventure, April, 2070, that this
mysterious visitor from interstellar space first appeared upon our
astronomical horizon. A little thing, at first, a mere unusual dot, a
pinpoint on a photo-electric star diagram which should not have been

there. It occasioned no comment at the time, save that some thought it
might be another planet beyond Pluto; but this was not taken seriously
enough to get into the newscasts. None of us had heard about it as late
as May, when the Planetara set out on what was to be her final voyage.
Presently, it was seen that the object could not be a planet of our solar
system; Coming in at tremendous speed, it daily changed its aspect,
gathering velocity until soon it was not a dot, but a streak on every
diagram-plate.
In a week or so the thing passed from an astronomical curiosity to an
item of public news. And now, early in June, when it had cut through
the orbit of Jupiter and was approaching that of Mars, fear was growing.
The visitor was a menace. No astronomical body could come among us,
with a mass as great as a fifth of the Moon, without causing trouble.
The newscasters, with a ready skill for lurid possibilities, were blaring
of all sorts of horrible events impending.
I told the girls all I knew of the