The Door Through Space

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Overview

... _across half a Galaxy, the Terran Empire maintains its sovereignty
with the consent of the governed. It is a peaceful reign, held by
compact and not by conquest. Again and again, when rebellion threatens
the Terran Peace, the natives of the rebellious world have turned
against their own people and sided with the men of Terra; not from fear,
but from a sense of dedication._

_There has never been open war. The battle for these worlds is fought in
the minds of a few men who stand between worlds; bound to one world by
interest, loyalties and allegiance; bound to the other by love._

_Such a world is Wolf. Such a man was Race Cargill of the Terran Secret
Service._


* * * * *

RENDEZVOUS ON A LOST WORLD
Copyright (c), 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.

Printed in U.S.A.

* * * * *


=Author's Note:--=

I've always wanted to write. But not until I discovered the old pulp
science-fantasy magazines, at the age of sixteen, did this general
desire become a specific urge to write science-fantasy adventures.

I took a lot of detours on the way. I discovered s-f in its golden age:
the age of Kuttner, C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Ed Hamilton and Jack
Vance. But while I was still collecting rejection slips for my early
efforts, the fashion changed. Adventures on faraway worlds and strange
dimensions went out of fashion, and the new look in
science-fiction--emphasis on the _science_--came in.

So my first stories were straight science-fiction, and I'm not trying to
put down that kind of story. It has its place. By and large, the kind of
science-fiction which makes tomorrow's headlines as near as this
morning's coffee, has enlarged popular awareness of the modern,
miraculous world of science we live in. It has helped generations of
young people feel at ease with a rapidly changing world.

But fashions change, old loves return, and now that Sputniks clutter up
the sky with new and unfamiliar moons, the readers of science-fiction
are willing to wait for tomorrow to read tomorrow's headlines. Once
again, I think, there is a place, a wish, a need and hunger for the
wonder and color of the world way out. The world beyond the stars. The
world we _won't_ live to see. That is why I wrote THE DOOR THROUGH
SPACE.

--MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY

* * * * *




CHAPTER ONE


Beyond the spaceport gates, the men of the Kharsa were hunting down a
thief. I heard the shrill cries, the pad-padding of feet in strides just
a little too long and loping to be human, raising echoes all down the
dark and dusty streets leading up to the main square.

But the square itself lay empty in the crimson noon of Wolf. Overhead
the dim red ember of Phi Coronis, Wolf's old and dying sun, gave out a
pale and heatless light. The pair of Spaceforce guards at the gates,
wearing the black leathers of the Terran Empire, shockers holstered at
their belts, were drowsing under the arched gateway where the
star-and-rocket emblem proclaimed the domain of Terra. One of them, a
snub-nosed youngster only a few weeks out from Earth, cocked an
inquisitive ear at the cries and scuffling feet, then jerked his head at
me.

"Hey, Cargill, you can talk their lingo. What's going on out there?"

I stepped out past the gateway to listen. There was still no one to be
seen in the square. It lay white and windswept, a barricade of
emptiness; to one side the spaceport and the white skyscraper of the
Terran Headquarters, and at the other side, the clutter of low
buildings, the street-shrine, the little spaceport cafe smelling of
coffee and _jaco_, and the dark opening mouths of streets that rambled
down into the Kharsa--the old town, the native quarter. But I was alone
in the square with the shrill cries--closer now, raising echoes from the
enclosing walls--and the loping of many feet down one of the dirty
streets.

Then I saw him running, dodging, a hail of stones flying round his head;
someone or something small and cloaked and agile. Behind him the
still-faceless mob howled and threw stones. I could not yet understand
the cries; but they were out for blood, and I knew it.

I said briefly, "Trouble coming," just before the mob spilled out into
the square. The fleeing dwarf stared about wildly for an instant, his
head jerking from side to side so rapidly that it was impossible to get
even a fleeting impression of his face--human or nonhuman, familiar or
bizarre. Then, like a pellet loosed from its sling, he made straight for
the gateway and safety.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014094481
Publisher:	SAP
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	118 KB

About the Author

Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999) was an American author of fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels. She is best known for the Darkover series and for The Mists of Avalon, the first book in her Avalon series. Hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "[A] monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legends," The Mists of Avalon was made into a popular television miniseries in 2001.

Date of Birth:

June 30, 1930

Date of Death:

September 25, 1999

Place of Birth:

Albany, New York

Place of Death:

Berkeley, California

Education:

B.A., Hardin-Simmons College, 1964; additional study at University of California, Berkeley, 1965-1967