By LEIGH BRACKETTIn a crystalline death lay the only
release for those prisoners of that
Ionian hell-outpost. Yet MacVickers
and the men had to escape—for to
remain meant the conquering of the
Solar System by the inhuman Europans.
MacVickers stopped at the brink of the dark round shaft.
It was cold, and he was stark n***d except for the silver collar welded around his neck. But it was more than cold that made him shiver and clamp his long bony jaw.
He didn't know what the shaft was for, or where it led. But he had a sudden feeling that once he went down he was down for good.
The small, round metal platform rocked uneasily under his feet. Beyond the railing, as far as MacVickers could see to the short curve of Io's horizon, there was mud. Thin, slimy blue-green mud.
The shaft went
