Review: Science Fiction: "The Judas Valley" by Gerald Vance

Tweet

Captain Peter Wayne call his girlfriend, the lovely Sherri James to let her know he’ll have to break her date. He’s received orders to ship out. Sherrie was about to call. She’s received orders, too. She’ll be shipping about theLord Nelson. Well, whadday know. That’s the ship Peter Wayne will be on. Looks like they’ll be seeing a lot of each other. At the briefing, General Scarborough introduces one Lieutenant Jervis, recently from the scout ship Mavis and its mission around Fomalhaut V. The ship had located a massive deposit of the prized double-nucleus beryllium. Jervis and another crewmember, Lee Bellows investigated the deposit. They returned to the ship to find the remaining crewmembers dead without sign of a struggle. It was as if they died where they stood. Jervis went inside to see what shape ship was in. It was unharmed. When he emerged, he found Bellows also dead. He panicked, locked himself in the ship, and returned to earth. This is an old-fashioned space opera adventure. Is Jervis telling the truth—or all of it? The Lord Nelson meets no trouble when it lands. The sight of the crew of remains of the Mavis crew, dead only two months, as skeletons strikes the Medical Team as odd. With his mountaineering abilities, Wayne scales the mountain where the D-N beryllium is buried. Here, something with rows of razor-sharp teeth protrudes from the sand and grabs at his feet. If he hadn’t been wearing his reinforced boots, all would be lost. He kills it. More teeth protrude from the sand. Boggs pushes him. He slugs Boggs— And in following conversation with the general, Boggs—along with three other enlisted eyewitnesses—say the captain beat him with no warning and for no reason. They saw no alien, no teeth in the sand… Could the three enlisted men be in a conspiracy, or could Wayne be losing it? This story is available through Project Gutenberg: ______ Title: “The Judas Valley” Author: Gerald Vance (pseudonym for Randall Garrett (1927-1987) and Robert Silverberg (b. 1935)) First published: Amazing Stories, October 1956 Source: ISFDB