Proxy Planeteers

Doug Norris is operating a mining Proxy on Mercury when the machine suddenly blacks out deep in the planet's radioactive interior. Back on Earth, he discovers that seven Proxies have failed in two weeks, all in the same inexplicable way, and begins to suspect sabotage by a form of life no one expected could exist. He takes his theory to Martin Kincaid, the inventor overseeing the Proxy Project: Mercury may be inhabited by "Raddies," strange creatures made of radon and radium-based structures, living in the planet's deadly fissures. Kincaid is skeptical until armed Proxies are sent into the fissure and the glowing gas-cloud beings attack with eerie intelligence and alien beauty. The crisis soon deepens when the World Council moves to investigate and likely shut the project down, sending Norris and Kincaid into a drunken, desperate race to save Earth's uranium supply. In a reckless burst of inspiration, they replace uranium with bismuth in the atomic pile—and to their amazement, the reactor works. Only later does Norris realize the truth: the Raddies have been influencing them through the Proxy link, guiding human minds to alter the power system and leave them in peace. This tense science-fiction tale blends hard-edged invention, comic chaos, and first contact with a wholly alien intelligence. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.