The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Judas Valley, by Gerald Vance

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Judas Valley

Author: Gerald Vance

Release Date: June 7, 2008 [EBook #25713]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUDAS VALLEY ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: He had lost all sense of right or wrong. Justice and
injustice were the same, and his only thought was, kill--kill--kill!]

THE JUDAS VALLEY

By GERALD VANCE

_Why did everybody step off the ship in this strange valley
and promptly drop dead? How could a well-equipped corps of
tough spacemen become a field of rotting skeletons in this
quiet world of peace and contentment? It was a mystery Peter
and Sherri had to solve. If they could live long enough!_

Peter Wayne took the letter out of the machine, broke the seal, and
examined it curiously. It was an official communication from the
Interstellar Exploration Service. It read:

FROM: Lieutenant General Martin Scarborough, I.E.S.
TO: Captain Peter Wayne, Preliminary Survey Corps

Report immediately to this office for assignment to I.E.S. _Lord
Nelson_. Full briefing will be held at 2200 hours, 14 April 2103.

By order of the Fleet Commandant.

It was short, brief, and to the point. And it gave no information
whatsoever. Peter Wayne shrugged resignedly, put the letter down on his
bed, walked over to the phone, and dialed a number.

A moment later, a girl's face appeared--blonde-haired, with high
cheekbones, deep blue-green eyes, and an expression of the lips that
intriguingly combined desirability and crisp military bearing.

"Lieutenant James speaking," she said formally. Then, as Wayne's image
appeared on her screen, she grinned. "Hi, Pete. What's up?"

"Listen, Sherri," Wayne said quickly. "I'm going to have to cancel that
date we had for tomorrow night. I just got my orders."

The girl laughed. "I was just going to call _you_, I got a fac-sheet
too. Looks