In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

Paul Ernst

Here’s a story from the grand old days of the sf pulp magazines. The story’s protagonist was the only one manning an emergency station on the Moon, and was bored out of his skull, wishing something would happen to ease the ennui. Be careful what you wish for . . .

(Incidentally, Ernst was obviously trying to get his facts right about the Moon—John W. Campbell was now the editor of Astounding Science-Fiction, after all—at least the facts which were known in 1939, but he made a few scientific mistakes. I’ll leave spotting them as an exercise for the reader.)

Paul Ernst (1899-1985, though there is some doubt about these dates) was a prolific writer for the pulp magazines, and is best remembered for writing most of the 24 novels detailing the exploits of the pulp hero, The Avenger, in the magazine with the same name. These were written under the Street & Smith house name of Kenneth Robeson (the name also used on Doc Savage magazine, though most of Doc’s adventures were written by Lester Dent). He also wrote the Doctor Satan series for Weird Tales in the 1930s. When the pulp magazines died in the 1950s, he began selling stories to the higher-paying (and supposedly more respectable) slick magazines, but in the heyday of the pulps he turned out stories in many categories: westerns, mysteries, science fiction, and horror. This one’s a twofer of those last two types.