The Five Hells of Orion
Herrell McCray, navigator aboard the Starship Jodrell Bank on the Long Jump from Earth to Betelgeuse Nine, vanishes from the bridge mid-flight while confirming a beacon-star sighting and awakens alone in a dark, cluttered, cell-like room littered with incongruous objects—among them a spacesuit, a copy of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, a child's rocking chair, a chemistry set, and a girl's bathing suit. He can hear something like a distant voice but cannot see until an eerie pinkish light appears, which vanishes the moment he notices he cannot see his own body within it. He is being observed by Hatcher, a non-human "prober" whose spherical, jellylike race directs unattached limb-organs to study him. Hatcher's people communicate and perceive through paranormal (telepathic/psionic) means and are conducting an urgent project: their planet-sized artificial world, hidden within the Orion Nebula, is threatened by ancient, powerful beings called the Old Ones from the galaxy's Central Masses, who once nearly destroyed them. The council overseeing the probe teams, alarmed that a Central Masses probe team has lost a member to the Old Ones, orders Hatcher to accelerate contact with his human specimen despite the risk to McCray's life. McCray uses his spacesuit's radio and discovers a massive time lag to the Jodrell Bank, implying he is hundreds of light-years away. When the room's air turns poisonous and overheated, he hacks through a door with a salvaged space-ax and finds a second chamber containing unfamiliar apparatus, including disassembled antique gun parts. Following a woman's radio voice, he finds Ann Mei-Ling of the ship Woomara, unconscious in a small work suit; he cares for her while contact with Jodrell Bank confirms his location matches the Orion Nebula (Messier's M-42), about a thousand light-years off—suggesting kidnap by unknown "super-beings." Hatcher, desperate, has his team levitate McCray and the reviving Mei-Ling to the surface, where a circle of Hatcher's people await. Mei-Ling, apparently more telepathically sensitive, translates their wishes: McCray must open his face mask. A tiny probe-organ enters his skull, causing agonizing pain that gives way to expanded, godlike consciousness—McCray finds his mind merged with Hatcher's people and freed into space itself, perceiving the nebula, the galaxy, and the universe beyond his body. Guided by Hatcher, McCray glimpses the terrifying, hostile presence of the Old Ones in the galaxy's dense Central Masses before recoiling. Back at the nebula, he discovers Mei-Ling's suit is empty—she has been seized by the Old Ones, sending Hatcher's people into panicked wailing. McCray then teleports his own body back to the Jodrell Bank, is fed and examined by the ship's surgeon, and struggles to explain his eight-day absence to Captain Tillinger and the crew, describing Hatcher's people, their telepathic senses, Mei-Ling's death (which he calls a blessing, since it prevents the Old Ones from extracting her secrets while she still lived), and the looming threat from the galactic core. Leaving his body again, McCray's mind travels first toward the Central Masses, sensing the Old Ones' contemptuous hatred and ancient, advanced worlds where both physical and mental "paranormal" forces are mastered—a power Man and Hatcher's people, combined, might one day rival. He then returns toward Hatcher's world in the nebula, only to find it gone: Hatcher's people, having secured an ally race to stand as a buffer against the Old Ones, have moved their artificial planet away to hide once more. McCray, now possessing vast newfound powers, reflects that perhaps this is for the best, and turns back toward his body and his own kind, intending to help humanity learn to wield its new god-like abilities before the showdown with the Old Ones arrives.
By Frederik Pohl · First published 1965 · Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Thriller · 5 chapters · 13,921 words
First lines
Out in the great gas cloud of the Orion Nebula McCray found an ally -- and a foe!
His name was Herrell McCray and he was scared.
What this Textopian page supports
The Five Hells of Orion is listed on Textopian as a novel by Frederik Pohl, dated 1965 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novel
- Author: Frederik Pohl
- Date: 1965 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure, Thriller, Space Opera, Speculative Fiction
- Length: 13,921 words
- Structure: 5 chapters, 297 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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Genres
- Science Fiction — The book is set in a futuristic universe with advanced technology and space exploration.
- Adventure — The narrative involves a journey and challenges faced by the protagonist in an unknown environment.
- Thriller — The plot includes suspenseful and tense situations that keep the reader engaged.
- Space Opera — The story features large-scale space battles and complex interstellar politics.
Tags
science fiction · space exploration · interstellar travel · alien civilizations · dystopian · adventure · futuristic technology · humanity · conflict · survival · mystery · sociopolitical themes