Castaways of Space: A Year Before The Volcano

Lieutenant McDermott is big, bruised, and far past anyone’s idea of a spotless hero. When a diplomat’s daughter vanishes, the Galaxy Patrol sends the one man they can spare—and the last man you’d bet on. The trail leads to Breckmyer IV, a wet, blistering world where the jungle swallows metal and strangers don’t stay strangers for long.

McDermott reaches the crash site and finds something worse than wreckage: a living trap. The kidnapper isn’t running anymore—he’s thriving, sheltered by alien loyalty and backed by quiet weapons McDermott can’t outrun. Every step toward rescue tightens the net, and the “civilized” rules of the Patrol mean nothing in a village that has its own calendar, its own gods, and its own way of thanking a king.

Robert Silverberg wrote “Castaways Of Space” during his early burst of magazine science fiction, originally appearing in Super-Science Fiction (October 1958) under the byline Dan Malcolm. Silverberg would go on to become one of the field’s most decorated voices, with major awards and Grand Master recognition—yet stories like this show the raw engine of his early work: speed, pressure, and a final turn of the screw delivered with a grin you don’t trust.