Project Gutenberg 2009-09-12 Public domain in the USA. 135 Schachner, Nathan 1895 1955 Schachner, Nathaniel Schachner, Nat Slaves of Mercury Produced from Astounding Stories September 1932. Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Slaves of Mercury" by Nathan Schachner is a science fiction novelette written in the early 20th century. The narrative follows Hilary Grendon, a space explorer who returns to Earth after a long journey only to find it under the oppressive rule of alien invaders known as Mercutians. The story explores themes of resilience, rebellion, and the longing for freedom as Hilary discovers the grave fate of his fellow Earthmen and the plight of his beloved, Joan. The opening of "Slaves of Mercury" introduces Hilary Grendon as he returns home after five years in space, filled with nostalgia and hope to reunite with Joan and present his adventures to President Amos Peabody. However, his reunion is marred by the shock of discovering humans living in fear, as he witnesses a blind man bound to a seat and the unresponsive demeanor of those around him. As he attempts to help the victim, the local population reacts with fright, highlighting the merciless power the Mercutians hold over Earth. The tension escalates further with the introduction of a giant Mercutian guard, revealing a disturbing state of affairs on the planet and setting the stage for Hilary's fight against the alien oppression, including a personal mission to rescue Joan from the clutches of the Mercutians. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 77.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction PS Text Science Fiction Astounding Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 228341 2025-07-12T09:56:28.299982 text/html 224384 2009-09-12T10:03:56 text/html 276764 2025-07-12T09:56:34.905928 application/epub+zip 281300 2025-07-12T09:56:31.076965 application/epub+zip 142809 2025-07-12T09:56:29.936960 application/epub+zip 438700 2025-07-12T09:56:37.801449 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 415947 2025-07-12T09:56:34.188944 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 268817 2022-09-14T03:48:26.178783 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 206613 2025-07-12T09:56:27.720976 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 206528 2009-09-12T10:03:56 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 206519 2009-09-12T10:03:56 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 21189 2025-07-12T09:56:37.932412 application/rdf+xml 14065 2025-07-12T09:56:30.435944 image/jpeg 3624 2025-07-12T09:56:30.182948 image/jpeg 78998 2009-09-12T10:03:56 application/octet-stream application/zip 182320 2009-09-12T10:03:56 application/octet-stream application/zip 78977 2009-09-12T10:03:56 application/octet-stream application/zip 274384 2025-07-12T09:56:28.355974 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia