FORGOTTEN WORLD
By EDMOND HAMILTON
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories Winter 1946.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
CHAPTER I
Stranger from the Stars
Carlin was the only one of the four hundred passengers on the "Larkoom"who hated the star-ship and everything about it.
He was bored with the vessel and everyone aboard. A pack of chatteringidiots! For the hundredth time since leaving Canopus, he told himselfthat he was a monumental fool to let that psychotherapist talk him intothis crazy trip.
A blond girl from Altair Four came tripping along the deck and favoredLaird Carlin with the bright smile that all the younger femininetourists had practised on the tall, dark, dour-looking young man.
The blonde from Altair Four favored the tall dour-looking young man with a bright smile.
"Oh, Mr, Carlin, the annunciators just said that we're only eighthours from Sol. By night, we'll be on Earth! Isn't it thrilling?"
"Just what is thrilling about it?" Carlin asked sourly.
The girl was a little dumfounded. "Why, I mean, Earth! All the ancienthistory we study in schools, about how men first came from there twothousand years ago. Or was it twenty-one hundred?"
She prattled on, voicing all the appropriate clichés.
"Just think, all of us in this ship came from different stars andworlds, yet long ago all our ancestors lived on that one little worldEarth. And they say it's still much the same as it was then. Isn't itwonderful?"
Carlin could not see anything wonderful about it, and a little wearilyhe said so.
The girl flushed in exasperation. "Then why are you going to Earth atall?"
Why indeed, Carlin wondered savagely? Why the devil wasn't he backon the other side of the galaxy where he belonged, supervisingestablishment of the new star-ship line to Algol Six, spending hisleaves in Sun City with Nila?
Nila—he yearned for her, for her gay, mocking humor, her cool beauty,her quick, clever mind. What was he doing here with a bunch ofbird-brained tourists who were conscientiously tripping for local colorto an old, forgotten world?
This whole part of the galaxy was a stagnant, half-dead area. This sideof Vega there weren't a score of suns with worlds of any importance.And the old "Larkoom," a second-rate star-ship that couldn't make morethan eighty light-speeds, was plodding determinedly and monotonously oninto it.
Curse that psychotherapist anyway! Why had he been crazy enough tolisten to the fellow? That smug, pink, blinking Arcturian had smiled asgently as a well-bred pussy-cat as he told Carlin what his trouble was.
"Star-sick?" Carlin had flared. "What do you mean, star-sick? I've madethe trip to Algol ten times in the last three months."
The psychotherapist had nodded. "Yes. And that was nine times too many.You've been overdoing it for a long time, Mr. Carlin."
Before Carlin could protest, the other man had referred to the dossieron his desk.
"I have your record here. Born at Aldebaran four thirty years ago.Graduated at twenty-two from Canopus University with the degree