A Federation cruiser returning home from long patrol is abruptly recalled from interstellar duty after an unprecedented order from its solar system. The captain learns that a gigantic, dead, dark star—far larger than any normal sun—is hurtling toward the Galaxy along a strange, curving course. Although initial studies suggested the dark star would harmlessly skim the Galactic edge, new calculations indicate it will pass the sun at a dangerously close distance, putting the solar system at risk of being gravitationally snatched away. Investigations reveal that the dark star’s altered path is no accident. A race of bizarre, nonhuman beings—black, tentacled creatures inhabiting a luminous, dead-star world—has installed a massive gravity-condenser in their pyramid-like cities. Their civilization, sustained on a dark planet with cold, phosphorescent light from radioactive minerals, has long struggled to combat the cooling of its dying sun. To stave off extinction, these aliens deliberately curve their dark star’s path to intercept a bright star from another Galaxy, planning to steal it to rejuvenate their world. Ordered back from the fleet, the captain is assigned to lead an expedition of fifty light-fast cruisers specially modified for the mission. As the force races beyond the Galaxy’s familiar boundaries, they encounter extreme phenomena such as whirlpools of ether-currents and unpredictable deep-space forces that cause catastrophic collisions among several allied ships. The harrowing voyage is marked by a sense of mounting dread as the dark star, visible only as a faint, cold luminescence, draws ever nearer. Upon nearing the dark star’s domain, the expedition engages in fierce combat with the alien forces. The dark-star world is revealed in detail: a vast, glowing sphere with an eerie, cold light; cities built in pyramidal forms where strange, tentacled beings swarm in vast numbers, all under the constant threat posed by hovering, cone-shaped alien craft armed with etheric bombs and deadly de-cohesion rays. The human fleet suffers heavy losses in brutal space battles, and the survivors are forced to abandon their cruiser for a hazardous on-foot incursion into one of the alien cities. In a daring and desperate mission, the captain and his few remaining officers slip away from their damaged ship to infiltrate the glowing metropolis. They navigate eerie, light-filled streets and shadowy complexes, dodging alien patrols and engaging in close-quarters combat. Amid the chaos of collapsing corridors and deadly encounters—set against a backdrop of alien horn-signals and telepathic, image-based communications—they discover that the alien gravity-condenser is the key to altering the dark star’s trajectory. A climactic struggle ensues when the humans, nearly captured and injured in desperate escape attempts that include a precarious descent along a suspended metal chain outside a towering pyramid, manage to board a cruiser for one final assault. With the threat of total annihilation imminent as the dark star nears the solar system’s critical danger-line, the captain orders a suicidal maneuver: ramming the cruiser into the gravity-condenser’s switch mechanism. The collision disables the condenser just as the dark star is about to pull the sun from its orbit. In the final moments of battle, as Federation reinforcements arrive and the combined might of the fleet counterattacks the alien swarming crafts, the dark star’s path is forced to reverse away from the sun. The stolen momentum dissipates; the sun remains in place within the Galaxy, and the alien plan is foiled. Following a fierce confrontation in which both sacrifice and valor are inescapable, the surviving crew are hailed as heroes. Although the cost is grievous and lingering questions remain about the alien civilization’s methods and motivations, the human commitment to duty and the survival of its familiar world have prevailed. The narrative, interweaving high-stakes interstellar warfare with ponderings on cosmic fate and the ethics of manipulation of gravitational forces, is a story of a last, desperate stand against seemingly insurmountable odds—a testament to human courage in the face of the vast, indifferent universe.
By Edmond Hamilton · First published 1935 · Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure · 6 chapters