Project Gutenberg's The Terror from the Depths, by Sewell Peaslee Wright

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Title: The Terror from the Depths

Author: Sewell Peaslee Wright

Release Date: June 14, 2009 [EBook #29118]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Terror from the Depths

By Sewell Peaslee Wright

[Transcriber's note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories
November 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Commander John Hanson challenges an appalling denizen of
the watery world Hydrot.

[Illustration: _His head reared itself from the ground._]

"Good afternoon, sir," nodded Correy as I entered the navigating room.
He glanced down at the two glowing three-dimensional navigating charts,
and drummed restlessly on the heavy frames.

"Afternoon, Mr. Correy. Anything of interest to report?"

"Not a thing, sir!" growled my fire-eating first officer. "I'm about
ready to quit the Service and get a job on one of the passenger liners,
just on the off chance that something exciting might eventually happen."

"You were born a few centuries too late," I chuckled. Correy loved a
fight more than any man I ever knew. "The Universe has become pretty
well quieted down."

"Oh, it isn't that; it's just this infernal routine. Just one routine
patrol after another; they should call it the Routine Patrol Service.
That's what the silver-sleeves at the Base are making of it, sir."

At the moment, Correy meant every word he said. Even old-timers develop
cases of nerves, now and then, on long tours of duty in small ships like
the _Ertak_. Particularly men like Correy, whose bodies crave physical
action.

There wasn't much opportunity for physical activity on the _Ertak_; she
was primarily a fighting ship, small and fast, with every inch of space
devoted to some utilitarian use. I knew just how Correy felt, because
I'd felt the same way a great many times. I was young, then, one of the
youngest comman