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Outpost on Io
Pendleton's quiet voice was grave. "Mars is old and tired and torn with famine. Venus is young, but her courage is undisciplined. Her barbarians aren't suited to mechanized warfare. And Earth . . . ." He sighed. "Perhaps if we hadn't fought so much among ourselves . . . ."
Excerpt
MacVickers stopped at the brink of the dark round shaft.
It was cold, and he was stark naked except for the silver collar welded around his neck. But it was more than cold that made him shiver and clamp his long bony jaw.
He didn't know what the shaft was for, or where it led. But he had a sudden feeling that once he went down he was down for good.
The small, round metal platform rocked uneasily under his feet. Beyond the railing, as far as MacVickers could see to the short curve of Io's horizon, there was mud. Thin, slimy blue-green mud.
The shaft went down under the mud. MacVickers looked at it. He licked dry lips, and his grey-green eyes, narrow and hot in his gaunt dark face, flashed a desperate look at the small flyer from which he had just been taken.
It bobbed on the heaving mud, mocking him. The eight-foot Europan guard standing between it and MacVickers made a slow weaving motion with his tentacles.
MacVickers studied the Europan with the hating eyes of a wolf in a trap. His smooth black body had a dull sheen of red under the Jupiter-light. There was no back nor front to him, no face. Only the four long rubbery legs, the roundish body, and the tentacles in a waving crown above.
MacVickers bared white, uneven teeth. His big bony fists clenched. He took one step toward the Europan.
A tentacle flicked out, daintily, and touched the silver collar at the Earthman's throat. Raw electric current, generated in the Europan's body, struck into him, a shuddering, blinding agony surging down his spine.
He stumbled backward, and his foot went off into emptiness. He twisted blindly, catching the opposite side of the shaft, and hung there, groping with his foot for the ladder rungs, cursing in a harsh, toneless voice.
The tentacle struck out again, with swift, exquisite skill. Three times like a red-hot lash across his face, and twice, harder, across his hands. Then it touched the collar again.
MacVickers retched and let go. He fell jarringly down the ladder, managed to break his fall onto the metal floor below, and crouched there, sick and furious and afraid.
The hatch cover clanged down over him like the falling hammer of doom.
Excerpt
MacVickers stopped at the brink of the dark round shaft.
It was cold, and he was stark naked except for the silver collar welded around his neck. But it was more than cold that made him shiver and clamp his long bony jaw.
He didn't know what the shaft was for, or where it led. But he had a sudden feeling that once he went down he was down for good.
The small, round metal platform rocked uneasily under his feet. Beyond the railing, as far as MacVickers could see to the short curve of Io's horizon, there was mud. Thin, slimy blue-green mud.
The shaft went down under the mud. MacVickers looked at it. He licked dry lips, and his grey-green eyes, narrow and hot in his gaunt dark face, flashed a desperate look at the small flyer from which he had just been taken.
It bobbed on the heaving mud, mocking him. The eight-foot Europan guard standing between it and MacVickers made a slow weaving motion with his tentacles.
MacVickers studied the Europan with the hating eyes of a wolf in a trap. His smooth black body had a dull sheen of red under the Jupiter-light. There was no back nor front to him, no face. Only the four long rubbery legs, the roundish body, and the tentacles in a waving crown above.
MacVickers bared white, uneven teeth. His big bony fists clenched. He took one step toward the Europan.
A tentacle flicked out, daintily, and touched the silver collar at the Earthman's throat. Raw electric current, generated in the Europan's body, struck into him, a shuddering, blinding agony surging down his spine.
He stumbled backward, and his foot went off into emptiness. He twisted blindly, catching the opposite side of the shaft, and hung there, groping with his foot for the ladder rungs, cursing in a harsh, toneless voice.
The tentacle struck out again, with swift, exquisite skill. Three times like a red-hot lash across his face, and twice, harder, across his hands. Then it touched the collar again.
MacVickers retched and let go. He fell jarringly down the ladder, managed to break his fall onto the metal floor below, and crouched there, sick and furious and afraid.
The hatch cover clanged down over him like the falling hammer of doom.
35 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 30, 2011
4 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Leigh Brackett
412 books235 followersLeigh Brackett was born on December 7, 1915 in Los Angeles, and raised near Santa Monica. Having spent her youth as an athletic tom-boy - playing volleyball and reading stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H Rider Haggard - she began writing fantastic adventures of her own. Several of these early efforts were read by Henry Kuttner, who critiqued her stories and introduced her to the SF personalities then living in California, including Robert Heinlein, Julius Schwartz, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton - and another aspiring writer, Ray Bradbury.
In 1944, based on the hard-boiled dialogue in her first novel, No Good From a Corpse, producer/director Howard Hawks hired Brackett to collaborate with William Faulkner on the screenplay of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.
Brackett maintained an on-again/off-again relationship with Hollywood for the remainder of her life. Between writing screenplays for such films as Rio Bravo, El Dorado, Hatari!, and The Long Goodbye, she produced novels such as the classic The Long Tomorrow (1955) and the Spur Award-winning Western, Follow the Free Wind (1963).
Brackett married Edmond Hamilton on New Year's Eve in 1946, and the couple maintained homes in the high-desert of California and the rural farmland of Kinsman, Ohio.
Just weeks before her death on March 17, 1978, she turned in the first draft screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back and the film was posthumously dedicated to her.
In 1944, based on the hard-boiled dialogue in her first novel, No Good From a Corpse, producer/director Howard Hawks hired Brackett to collaborate with William Faulkner on the screenplay of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.
Brackett maintained an on-again/off-again relationship with Hollywood for the remainder of her life. Between writing screenplays for such films as Rio Bravo, El Dorado, Hatari!, and The Long Goodbye, she produced novels such as the classic The Long Tomorrow (1955) and the Spur Award-winning Western, Follow the Free Wind (1963).
Brackett married Edmond Hamilton on New Year's Eve in 1946, and the couple maintained homes in the high-desert of California and the rural farmland of Kinsman, Ohio.
Just weeks before her death on March 17, 1978, she turned in the first draft screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back and the film was posthumously dedicated to her.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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September 6, 2024Rescue our soul
take free over hunting kneck
the coler go wildy tight
my wood thowgh went over many green mude
my soul was wonded
want to breath and fly like a doov
to rest from pain
hunger and alianis
the prison dark without any pins
where our sun rest
togather can be our freedom true
many paper killed with fear
many body turn to soulniss diamond
where sunrise was hide
there many reson to collect courge bouqie
i cant write like thee
when i love i fly
when i love my freedom more then come memory photo of peace front me
and the war end
when i miss all of that in dark prison
i then collect many olive
i cant imagin that i will draged to hunted grave
our life full by blind war
but now i miss what we own it
peace
the whole
all the beuty in tender our home
jusk break what the build in us as fear
togather we take the rest to burning earth
i cant imagin that without love
even thee steal our sleep body
we will breath our freedom forever
take free over hunting kneck
the coler go wildy tight
my wood thowgh went over many green mude
my soul was wonded
want to breath and fly like a doov
to rest from pain
hunger and alianis
the prison dark without any pins
where our sun rest
togather can be our freedom true
many paper killed with fear
many body turn to soulniss diamond
where sunrise was hide
there many reson to collect courge bouqie
i cant write like thee
when i love i fly
when i love my freedom more then come memory photo of peace front me
and the war end
when i miss all of that in dark prison
i then collect many olive
i cant imagin that i will draged to hunted grave
our life full by blind war
but now i miss what we own it
peace
the whole
all the beuty in tender our home
jusk break what the build in us as fear
togather we take the rest to burning earth
i cant imagin that without love
even thee steal our sleep body
we will breath our freedom forever
October 5, 2021
While the storyline of main character tossed into alien prison and gets all the other prisoners to rise up is your standard Tuesday on any given Star Trek show, it was fresh when Brackett put pen to paper. It doesn't age terribly well (where are the women?) but it was good for its time.
July 30, 2024
“Deep, deep, inside himself, MacVickers shivered. His nostrils wrinkled. There was fear in the room. The smell of it, the shudder of it in the air. Fear that was familiar and accustomed, lying in uneasy sleep, but ready to awake.”
“Outpost On Io” is a short story by Leigh Brackett. While there are certainly parts of this story that are well written and engaging, as one would expect of a Brackett story, overall this piece wasn’t my cup of tea. The characters felt a bit forced and caricatured and there just wasn’t enough to really make them seem true and real to me. There was also too much action without meaning, in my opinion. That stated, it wasn’t terrible, but I assure readers there are so many better pieces from this author…which is probably why I give it a lackluster 3 out of 5 prison fights.
“Outpost On Io” is a short story by Leigh Brackett. While there are certainly parts of this story that are well written and engaging, as one would expect of a Brackett story, overall this piece wasn’t my cup of tea. The characters felt a bit forced and caricatured and there just wasn’t enough to really make them seem true and real to me. There was also too much action without meaning, in my opinion. That stated, it wasn’t terrible, but I assure readers there are so many better pieces from this author…which is probably why I give it a lackluster 3 out of 5 prison fights.
August 15, 2020
The book is now a bit dated. An earth man captured by European (from the satellite Europa) who are fighting with Earth, is a prisoner together with martians, venusians and others. Simple story and it shows the age. There are better novels
February 13, 2024
There is a lot of story going on here. Another gem from LB that could have used an expansion. It moved a bit quick for a prison break story, but it made it's point and does a better job introducing multiple characters than a lot of much longer works.
July 11, 2020
Short work by a favorite author set on Jupiter's moon Io. Author of space operas and planetary romance. She was also a screen writer for several films including Star Wars' Empire Strikes Back
October 4, 2020
Keep close track of the characters, because before you know it, it'll be over.
March 24, 2023
Bracket seems really interesting, and this work is no doubt seminal and groundbreaking. The star rating is how enjoyable I found this simple, very dated story.
May 9, 2025
Great story by great author and great narration by a great narrator.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews