CHILD OF THE SUN
by Leigh Brackett
ERIC FALKEN stood utterly still, staring down at his leashed and. helpless hands on the controls of the spaceship
Falcon.
The red lights on his indicator panel showed Hiltonist ships in a three-dimentional half-moon, above, behind, and below him. Pincer jaws, closing fast.
The animal instinct of escape prodded him, but he couldn’t obey. He had fuel enough for one last burst of speed. But there was no way through that ring of ships. Tractor-beams, criss-crossing between them, would net the
Falcon like a fish.
There was no way out ahead, either. Mercury was there, harsh and bitter in the naked blaze of the sun. The ships of Gantry Hilton, President of the Federation of Worlds, inventor of the Psycho-Adjuster, and ruler of men’s souls, were herding him down to a landing at the lonely Spaceguard outpost.
A landing he couldn’t dodge. And then …
. . .