OPERATION INTERSTELLAR
By
George O. Smith
CENTURY PUBLICATIONS
Chicago
Published by Century Publications, 139 N. Clark St., Chicago 2, Ill.
Printed in the United States of America
Characters and situations in this book are fictional and any
similarity to actual persons or places is purely coincidental.
Permission to use some of the refrains from the ballad:
THE CYCLOTRONIST'S NIGHTMARE
by Arthur Roberts
of
The State University of Iowa
was graciously granted, and is hereby acknowledged
with sincere appreciation.
Cover by Malcolm Smith
Copyright 1950, Century Publications
[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER 1 |
| CHAPTER 2 |
| CHAPTER 3 |
| CHAPTER 4 |
| CHAPTER 5 |
| CHAPTER 6 |
| CHAPTER 7 |
| CHAPTER 8 |
| CHAPTER 9 |
| CHAPTER 10 |
| CHAPTER 11 |
| CHAPTER 12 |
| CHAPTER 13 |
| CHAPTER 14 |
| CHAPTER 15 |
| CHAPTER 16 |
| CHAPTER 17 |
CHAPTER 1
Paul Grayson walked the city street slowly. He was sauntering towardsthe spaceport, but he was in no hurry. He had allowed himself plenty oftime to breathe the fresh spring air, to listen to the myriad of soundsmade by his fellow men, and to revel in the grand freedom that beingout in the open gave him. Soon enough he would be breathing canned air,pungent with the odor of compressor oil and the tang of the greeneryused to replenish the oxygen, unable to walk freely more than a fewdozen steps, and unable to see what lies beyond his viewports.
Occasionally his eyes looked along the low southern sky towards AlphaCentauri. Proxima, of course, could not be resolved by the naked eye,much less the stinking little overheated mote that rotated aboutProxima. Obviously unfit for human life and patently incapable ofspawning life of its own, it was Paul Grayson's destination, and would