Rex Dexter Goes Through

by Nathaniel Nitkin [as N. N. Nathaniel]

Originally appearing in Rex Dexter of Mars issue #1 in 1940.

Among the people the slave ships from Mercury kidnapped was Cynde. Indeed, there was no wonder that Rex Dexter of Mars was the very first to volunteer to rescue the people before the combined Earth and Martian Fleets would attack the Mercurian stronghold.

"Dexter, your mission is delicate," General Walton said, blowing smoke rings as he regarded the tall but husky Rex Dexter. "If you fail, nothing can help the poor people. They kill all of them as soon as they hear of the rescue mission."

"In other words, the slaves are also hostages?" Rex asked, his voice betraying agony.

"Exactly. The Mercurians are cold-blooded creatures without any sense of human kindness. I may also add it is better to commit suicide than suffer their fiendish tortures should you fall into their hands."

"I will succeed," Rex said decisively.

"Good. When you free the people, take them to Mt. Ulthor: on the dark side of Mercury. The Mercurians cannot stand the cold. Then flash your cosmic flares toward Venus, and we'll attack."

"Excellent, sir."

General Walton extended his hand. Rex gripped it.

"Wish you all the luck," General Walton said.

As Rex walked out of the room, General Walton shook his head sadly as he stared at the young man's retreating form.

Rex entered his rocket flivver and steered toward the spaceport. A massive interplanetary transport awaited him. Returning the respectful salutes of the soldiers, Rex boarded the ship. He pressed a few levers. Hissing sounds of radiant energy told him that all was well. Then he waved his arm.

The colossal transport rose in the air as Rex applied the gravitation nullifiers. Higher and higher, she floated out of the stratosphere into the intense blackness of space.

Two weeks later, the transport landed behind Mt. Ulthor. Rex disembarked, shivering despite his spacesuit. After he crossed a thousand yards of Mercury's dark side, he came to the planet's sunlit side, so hot that all the cooling units of his spacesuit could not keep him from sweating. At least he was not being baked alive.

The Mercurian headquarters of Salos was but a mile away. Disregarding the extremely torrid heat, Rex made it. Silently he slipped past the sentries, who felt the passive effects of the sun despite their protective baskos suits. Before venturing into the streets, Rex was stopped by the realization that he would be recognized as an Earthling in his spacesuit.

Rex backtracked, stalking toward the unsuspecting sentry. Before he knew it, two Mercurians fell on him, battering his spacesuit with their axes. Desperately, Rex drew his atomic gun and fired two shots. The Mercurians dissolved into thin air as the atomic disintegrators stabbed through them.

The sentry rushed at him with a leveled plastic spear. A flash of Rex's gun collapsed the thin form of the Mercurian into dust and air.

Hue and cry arose among the sentries and the guards.

"Escaped slave!"

Rex's heart beat rapidly. He knew he was mistaken for an escaped slave, and his mission was safe for the moment, but he was in a dangerous position. The Mercurian axes had punctured several holes in his helmet, and the terrifyingly hot atmosphere of Mercury filtered through, numbing his senses. He resolved to reach the city proper without any regard to the consequences.

Now, a Mercurian city was built underground to permit the inhabitants to move without the cumbersome baskos suits. The streets on the surface were mainly for military purposes. Strange as it might seem, the Mercurians were not native to the tiny sun-baked planet. No one knew who they were and where they came from at that time, although it is well known nowadays that they were descendants of criminals banished from Venus two centuries before these events took place.

Disregarding the startled exclamations of the soldiers, Rex invaded an inter-surface car. Those Mercurians who happened to be in the car never lived to see Rex, who mercilessly blasted them with his atomic gun.

Rex took over the controls and plunged the car into the depths, illuminated indirectly by reflected sunlight. He was not too soon, for he felt nausea, the inevitable result of admission of Mercurian air into his spacesuit, which he took off with some difficulty. The cool air soothed his nerves. A glass of mahel, the bitter Mercurian antidote for the intense sunlight, removed the effects.

As the car slid silently down the tunnel to the inner city, Rex took a bearing of the situation. His original plan was worthless. Something caught his eye. It was a spare baskos suit. Quickly he put it on.

The car stopped at the ramp. Mercurian guards boarded it.

"What's the rumpus about the escaped slave?" the leader asked.

"I heard it over the cosmic radio," Rex replied blandly, hoping that his Mercurian dialect sounded valid. "He hasn't a chance to live, though. They broke his spacesuit."

The guard leader nodded. "At least it saves us a trip to the surface."

"Awfully hot there," Rex declared.

He got out of his car and walked to the guard building in his baskos suit. It was nothing unusual for a sentry from the surface to do so. Once he reached the guard room, he whirled around and leveled his atomic gun at the startled guards.

"Hands up and make it snappy!" he snapped.

The guards obeyed reluctantly. Rex fired a shot that demolished a table without a sound. The guards raised their hands higher with alacrity.

"Now march to the slave house!"

Knowing the deadly intent behind Rex's voice, the guards obeyed the command.

Hundreds of slaves, Earthling and Martian, blinked as they emerged from the dungeons. Rex perceived Cynde.

"Cynde, take my other gun," he said softly.

Cynde's head shot up as though struck by Rex's voice. She quickly swallowed her sobs and pulled Rex's spare atomic gun out of its holster.

Rex forced the guards into the dungeon that the slaves vacated. The people, after locking the dungeon, put on baskos suits. Then they entered the intersurface car.

The sentries on the surface were surprised by the appearance of a large army.

"The Emperor ordered us to hunt the escaped slave," Rex explained.

Rex led the army of former slaves to Mt. Ulthor. As the last man entered the spaceship, Rex fired an atomic flare and gave the transport the gun.

An hour later, Cynde sitting at his side, Rex passed Mercury's gravitation limits, but not before he heard the detonation of demolition bombs that the Earth and Martian fleets dropped on the Mercurian city of Salos. Cynde's hand brushed against Rex's. He gripped it warmly. It was like living in heaven with Cynde at his side.

END