I USED TO KNOW HIM

PROLOGUE

     He left the mother ship and headed for Terra; he smiled at the

instrument panel and watched the operation of the big scout ship as it

rocketed toward the light ribbon of atmosphere that enveloped the

planet. It was a joke, in a way. In a manner of speaking, he was the

first Terran to fly an alien space ship, but he wasn't thinking of that.

He was thinking of the woman, Margret Danson of Everett, Pennsylvania.

She was waiting.

And he could see the warmth of her body, sheathed in the web-like gown

that seemed spun over her turgid breasts and curved hips by an army of

artistic spiders. It would not be a hard thing to love a woman like

that.

     His fingers curled about the controls, his feet working the rudder

pedals of the screaming ship as he headed for the strange darkness of

the Atlantic Ocean. The space ship was operating well and the Earth

lifted her curved bosom to meet his rush.

     Trouble came early. The danger lights flickered in his eyes and the fear

welled up within him like a flood. Fifteen hundred miles an hour and the

scout ship was out of control! The behaviour of the craft was erratic, as

though a giant hand was slapping the silver belly as he plummeted toward

the ball of the earth.

     Desperately he tried to reduce the speed of the hurtling ship, his

fingers working the buttons and levers in a frenzy of determination. The

craft refused to respond. She whipped into a cloud bank, headed for the

sea lifted suddenly and whirled back toward space.

In an agony of fear he realized that he no longer was the master of the

space ship - he was a prisoner in a violent, uncontrollable meteor that

would finally slam him into infinity against the very earth that was to

be home...

* * * * *

     In the early hours of morning, Jean Renault of Nova Scotia fingered the

wheel of his fifty-foot boat through the grey ground swells of the Grand

Banks, almost to the place where he would cast his nets into the water.

The overcast sky was refusing to emit the sunlight and a light mist hung

over the sea like a disjointed ghost. When Jean heard the whirring roar

of the ship, it was too late. The silver streak whipped over his fishing

boat with all the furies of the gods, and nearly tore his steadying sail

away. Muttering a string of French curses, Jean picked up his radio

telephone and reported in violent tones the presence of the jet to the

Coast Guard.

* * * * *

     In the half-light of early dawn, the United States and Canada whirled

with reports upon the strange craft. The CQ of the National Defense

system began systematically pinpointing the track of the strange craft

as it raked across the adumbral sky.

Then, it was gone!

The rocketing ship had appeared over one observation station near Lake

Ontario. It had been spotted by a CD worker near Auburn, N.Y., then it

was gone. The last observation of the craft showed it flying an erratic

track toward the mountain country of Pennsylvania.

At CQ operations office, in Washington D.C., Lt. Colonel Martin Griswold

tossed the last report on his desk and pinched his lower lip

thoughtfully. Colonel Delbert, sitting across from him, looked serious.

"It's out of control," he mused. "And it isn't one of ours. Russian?"

"Might be." He looked at the rugged country along the Pennsylvania, New

York map for a moment, then he picked up the phone on his desk. "This is

Colonel Griswold. Get me the Pentagon."

     At 0930 a special plane left Washington, bound for the town in northern

Pennsylvania that had been chosen as a base of operations. On board the

plane were the Secret Service men who were to track down the crashed

ship.

      They were several hours too late...