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Fantasy Digest, v. 1, issue 6, August-September 1939
12
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12 FANTASY DIGEST THE METAL RAIDER by J. Harvey Haggard "Get the Robot Pirate!" That was the order, crackling out of the etherlines from the Earthon Barracks on Earth, where a scuttled [illegible] gutted of gold and strewn with charred bodies, had floated down out of the stratosphere, and of all the Earthguard patrol ships that could have been near, it was Corlin Morrit who picked up the call. He'd been sewing a button to the jacket of his metalline uniform when the call came through. I spanned the dock to the controls with one stride, glimpsing [illegible] in Morrit as his wrinkled face turned ashen. The robot pirate! Sweat popped out of his seamy forehead and he looked as old again as [illegible] sixty; his grey old eyes were haunted, as though by an invisible spectral presence. That legendary monster of metal, who like the Frankenstein monster, has slain his maker and now haunted the spacelanes in a stolen space cruiser seeking vengeance against the human race, had struck again! Old Captain Morrit's eyes shifted, met mine in a silent glance. I know what he was thinking; his wastrel son, John Merrit, has been among the missing since a mighty space liner had crashed on Titan ten years ago. And there were some who thought the Robot Pirate was hiding behind false colors -- was a man! "All right, Romy," he said, nodding to me. "They got two points on the pirate's trajectory of flight. Ought to be able to chart the curve! Get that!" I plotted the pursuit angle with rapidity born of long habit, lunged hard on the controls and sent the pursuit ship swerving. Triple axxerleration pinned us back against leathern supports, sucked the air from our lungs. We shot up like a bullett out of the black night of earth's shaded side, arching across the voidal cleft, hoping to contact the mythological buccaneer at last, and fearing too--for he was notorious for his acts of coldblooded murder. The etherphone clattered out of the strained stillness. Breathless, squirming like a living ghost, old Morrit stretched a gaunt finger forward, flipped the switch, and on the silver visor stood an image--the robot pirate! Tall and contemptous, a metal monstrosity peered at us from lensed eyes. A thick tentacle moved from the blocky metal frame. And a voice ground out, tinny, metallic--yet strangely familiar. It could have been a human voice in disguise. "So time Earthguard picked up my trail at last," came the crescendo of tones. "You won't catch the Robot Pirate! I'm heading into the sun! I can plunge down into the very flames, being of heat-resisting metal, and still live. So, my worth friends, adieu!" "Into the sun!" The thought ate its way deliberately into my mind. "Then we're headed the wrong direction!" I dragged my arm toward the controls. Corlin Merrit stayed my hand. His chalky visage was squinting past the gleaming robot shoulder, out through the tiny porte-disc and into the depths of space. "No," came his voice through gritting teeth. "The robot pirate is lying. See that faint misty gleam through his porte! It's the Zodiacal
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12 FANTASY DIGEST THE METAL RAIDER by J. Harvey Haggard "Get the Robot Pirate!" That was the order, crackling out of the etherlines from the Earthon Barracks on Earth, where a scuttled [illegible] gutted of gold and strewn with charred bodies, had floated down out of the stratosphere, and of all the Earthguard patrol ships that could have been near, it was Corlin Morrit who picked up the call. He'd been sewing a button to the jacket of his metalline uniform when the call came through. I spanned the dock to the controls with one stride, glimpsing [illegible] in Morrit as his wrinkled face turned ashen. The robot pirate! Sweat popped out of his seamy forehead and he looked as old again as [illegible] sixty; his grey old eyes were haunted, as though by an invisible spectral presence. That legendary monster of metal, who like the Frankenstein monster, has slain his maker and now haunted the spacelanes in a stolen space cruiser seeking vengeance against the human race, had struck again! Old Captain Morrit's eyes shifted, met mine in a silent glance. I know what he was thinking; his wastrel son, John Merrit, has been among the missing since a mighty space liner had crashed on Titan ten years ago. And there were some who thought the Robot Pirate was hiding behind false colors -- was a man! "All right, Romy," he said, nodding to me. "They got two points on the pirate's trajectory of flight. Ought to be able to chart the curve! Get that!" I plotted the pursuit angle with rapidity born of long habit, lunged hard on the controls and sent the pursuit ship swerving. Triple axxerleration pinned us back against leathern supports, sucked the air from our lungs. We shot up like a bullett out of the black night of earth's shaded side, arching across the voidal cleft, hoping to contact the mythological buccaneer at last, and fearing too--for he was notorious for his acts of coldblooded murder. The etherphone clattered out of the strained stillness. Breathless, squirming like a living ghost, old Morrit stretched a gaunt finger forward, flipped the switch, and on the silver visor stood an image--the robot pirate! Tall and contemptous, a metal monstrosity peered at us from lensed eyes. A thick tentacle moved from the blocky metal frame. And a voice ground out, tinny, metallic--yet strangely familiar. It could have been a human voice in disguise. "So time Earthguard picked up my trail at last," came the crescendo of tones. "You won't catch the Robot Pirate! I'm heading into the sun! I can plunge down into the very flames, being of heat-resisting metal, and still live. So, my worth friends, adieu!" "Into the sun!" The thought ate its way deliberately into my mind. "Then we're headed the wrong direction!" I dragged my arm toward the controls. Corlin Merrit stayed my hand. His chalky visage was squinting past the gleaming robot shoulder, out through the tiny porte-disc and into the depths of space. "No," came his voice through gritting teeth. "The robot pirate is lying. See that faint misty gleam through his porte! It's the Zodiacal
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