Lie on the Beam

by John Victor Peterson

There was a spatter of brilliance as it crashed into the hill. "Hurry with the warning," he called.

---

LIE ON THE BEAM

by John Victor Peterson

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Comet March 41.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

---

Sweeping from perihelion, the black destroyer curved toward the gibbous white ball of Venus, its jets stabbing mocking fingers at the majesty of the sun whose clutching gravity it had cheated. Within the heavily shielded control cabin, the hard skull-face of the commander split into a fleshless smile. From his fanged jaws a single word was spat into the spaceship's intercommunication system:

"Adrakolarn!"

Back on dead sea bottoms the word had been but the weak utterance of a dream of yesteryear's greatness. First a muted whisper in the thin air of a dying world; then a keening through the faint, dust-driving wind; at last a clamorous cry banding together the spiritually reborn remnants of a vanishing race.... Adrakolarn—moment of destiny—moment of reckoning!