The Big Night by Henry Kuttner
The tramp hyper-ship La Cucaracha limps out of the Solar System toward Fria, her hull scarred, her drunken skipper Sam Danvers railing against the Interplanetary Trade Commission, which has declared the old ship unsafe. Mate Logger Hilton, a lifelong deep-space man, has decided this will be his last voyage; he intends to leave hyper-ships for Transmat, the matter-transmission company that is putting ships like Danvers's out of business. Piloting is Ts'ss, an aged Selenite from the vanished Lunar Empire, who works the ship's controls with inhuman precision through his audio-converter mask. During the run a shanghaied Transmat engineer, Luther Saxon, breaks his leg making repairs and is drafted as assistant pilot once he recovers. Reaching Fria, La Cucaracha crash-lands hard, losing a jet and a Selenite limb. The trader Christie reveals he can no longer sell his fungus crop to Danvers: Transmat is undercutting them, planning to build a transmitter station on Fria to ship out newly discovered ores. Danvers, humiliated, disappears into the settlement of Twilight to drink. Hilton, having secretly arranged for Saxon to smooth over the shanghaiing with Transmat to avoid a lawsuit, tries to collect the captain for departure but is drugged by Danvers with a Mickey. Hilton wakes in hyperspace under guard by Dzann, a Canopian "cabin-boy" Danvers has secretly hired, and learns the captain has diverted the ship toward an unnamed, unlisted planet near a lethal double star, chasing a rumor of wild paraine (a valuable drug) that Dzann remembers from a prior wreck. Hilton judges the course suicidal but cannot mutiny; instead he and Saxon spend the two-hundred-hour transit reinforcing the ship's structure, sacrificing and flooding her after section as a crash cushion. Ts'ss, reflecting on his dying Selenite race and its legendary Emperor Chyra, tells Hilton that men like Danvers are fated to serve a dying cause to the end, comparing him to Chyra and to Arthur. La Cucaracha survives a brutal emergency landing on the planet, and the crew harvests a full cargo of paraine. Facing an impossible course to Danvers's next intended port, Silenus, Hilton secretly drugs the captain with paraine fumes and diverts the ship to a Transmat station on a Rigel asteroid, trading part of the cargo for passage and forcing eventual disclosure of the new planet's location to Transmat. The ship is towed to the Lunar Refitting Station and restored to full repair. Overlooking the refitted ship, Hilton confronts Danvers, who plans to sail again — evasively hinting at Arcturus and, Hilton guesses, an illegal slave run to Canis, or selling the new paraine cargo to the Silenus drug ring rather than Medical Center. Hilton warns him off the dishonest course and then walks away toward his Transmat appointment with Saxon. Ts'ss, drinking with Saxon, explains he will not ship again — he has less than a thousand hours to live and means to die in the sacred Selenite caverns — and predicts that Hilton, though not a believer in Danvers's cause, will return to the ship anyway, out of friendship, as the Selenite Jailyra stayed with Chyra and Lancelot with Arthur. Watching through the window, Saxon and Ts'ss see Hilton pause on the ramp in visible indecision, then turn and walk back toward La Cucaracha and Danvers, choosing the ship over Transmat.
By Henry Kuttner · First published 1949 · Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure · 13,947 words
First lines
She came lumbering up out of the ecliptic plane of the planets like a wallowing space-beast, her jet tubes scarred and stained, a molten streak across her middle where Venus's turgid atmosphere had scarred her, and every ancient spot-weld in her fat body threatened to rip apart the moment she hit stress again.
The skipper was drunk in his cabin, his maudlin voice echoing through the compartments as he bewailed the unsympathetic harshness of the Interplanetary Trade Commission.
What this Textopian page supports
The Big Night is listed on Textopian as a novel by Henry Kuttner, dated 1949 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novel
- Author: Henry Kuttner
- Date: 1949 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Satire
- Length: 13,947 words
- Structure: 1 section, 412 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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Discussion starters
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Similar titles
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Genres
- Science Fiction — The plot involves speculative elements and futuristic concepts.
- Fantasy — Themes of imagination and alternate realities are prevalent.
- Adventure — The narrative includes elements of exploration and excitement.
- Drama — Character development and emotional depth are significant.
Tags
Science Fiction · Fantasy · Adventure · Romance · Mystery · Thriller · Supernatural · Paranormal · Alternate Reality · Parallel Universe · Time Travel · Interdimensional