Escape From Pluto

In Short

William Oberfield's science fiction short story "Escape From Pluto" follows Marcius Kemble, a power-mad tyrant banished to the distant, frozen dwarf planet after his attempted conquest of the solar system is crushed by Earth. While stranded on Pluto, Kemble makes telepathic contact with the planet's subterranean inhabitants, a race whose bodies and machinery are composed of elements that remain solid only at extreme sub-zero temperatures. Tricked by a rebellious Plutonian official and manipulated by an infallible future machine, Kemble is given a ship and launched back toward Earth to fulfill his doom, ending in a chilling meditation on hubris, cold logic, and inescapable fate.

The Story

Marcius Kemble stands upon the frozen surface of Pluto, cursing Earth and the Planetary Combine that defeated his interplanetary empire. Exiled as an example to anyone who would strive to rule the solar system, he laughs into his helmet until the echoes sound like mocking voices. These thoughts are picked up by the inhabitants of Pluto, strange beings with triangular heads whose bodies are composed of elements solid only at very low temperatures. Two Plutonians, Gor and Bakar, discuss the newcomer over their equipment. Bakar despairs over his people's endless civil strife, but Gor reminds him that they must follow the path laid down by The Four and their infallible future machine. Nel, one of The Four, announces that the carbon-class man from the inner worlds must be disposed of by being sent back into space. Desperate to prove the future machine can be wrong, Bakar dispatches two small ships for Kemble, hoping the tyrant will wander into the soft, dangerous bogs of the plain. Instead, Kemble eagerly accepts the craft. Mentally instructed in its controls, he blasts off toward Earth, consumed by fanatical dreams of ultimate revenge and conquest. As he speeds inward and attempts to decelerate, his ship begins to shake and fall apart. The vessel, made of materials like mercury that require Pluto's extreme cold to remain hard like steel, liquefies in the warmth of the inner solar system. Reduced to a sphere of liquid mercury and floating debris, Kemble realizes the Plutonians knew it all along and simply used him to clear their world. Hurled past Earth at unretarded speed toward the expanding disk of the sun, Kemble tries to remove his helmet to end his life quickly, only to find the internal air pressure binds the threads fast against the vacuum of space, leaving him to face the scorching heat of the solar descent.

How It Unfolds

• The voyage begins: Marcius Kemble stands upon the bleak, frozen surface of Pluto, cursing Earth and the victorious Planetary Combine that exiled him for his tyranny.
• The subterranean discovery: Unknown to the solar system, triangular-headed Plutonians monitor Kemble's alien thoughts while debating the gloomy history of their hidden civilization.
• The machine's decree: One of the ruling Four named Nel analyzes Kemble and commands that the human be given a ship and sent away from their world immediately.
• The rebellious act: Hoping to prove the infallible future machine wrong, a dissenting Plutonian named Bakar rushes the dispatch of two small ships to the plain.
• The fatal launch: Mentally trained in the controls by the Plutonians, Kemble boards a craft and soars away toward Earth, dreaming of absolute power.
• The structural collapse: As the ship approaches the inner solar system, the low-melting-point materials of its hull liquefy, reducing the vessel to a sphere of mercury.
• The final descent: Trapped inside his space suit with a helmet he cannot remove due to internal air pressure, Kemble falls helplessly toward the boiling sun.

The People

• Marcius Kemble: An ambitious, power-mad former dictator of Mars who wants to rule the entire solar system. His unyielding arrogance and thirst for revenge blind him to reality, and he ends up destroyed by his own inability to adapt to alien science.
• Bakar: A frustrated Plutonian citizen who hates the endless cycles of his society and wants to prove that the ruling future machine is fallible. He rebels by releasing Kemble, but his defiance ultimately validates the machine's prediction.
• Gor: A loyal Plutonian who operates the thought receivers and trusts blindly in the natural law and the future machine. He remains steady and obedient, watching Bakar's plan unfold with ironic detachment.
• Nel: One of The Four who leads Pluto's remaining nations, possessing immense wisdom and analytical power. Nel sees through Kemble's deceptions immediately and coolly arranges his disposal.

In Its Own Voice

Marcius Kemble stood upon the frozen surface of Pluto and swore aloud.

Opening the narrative, this line establishes the protagonist's bitter isolation and immediate hostility toward his desolate place of exile.

The two remaining great nations hide, one from the other, beneath the mountains, and neither can break the defenses of the other, but still we try.

Bakar reveals the tragic, cyclical stagnation of Plutonian society during a quiet conversation about his people's history.

Receding from him, was a perfect sphere of liquid mercury, once the hard hull of a space ship, covered with a thin layer of water that had once been windows...

Kemble observes the horrifying moment his transport dissolves, exposing the fatal flaw in Plutonian engineering.

What It's Really About

The story explores the perils of unbridled ambition and the blind faith placed in deterministic systems. Kemble represents the archetype of the tyrant whose psychological rigidity mirrors the physical limitations of his environment; his mind refuses to yield, just as his space helmet's pressure refuses to release him. Beneath the pulp adventure plot lies a meditation on perspective and adaptation. The Plutonians, adapted to absolute cold, view inner-system life as fundamentally incompatible with their own, treating the human invader with clinical detachment. The narrative questions whether humanity's drive for expansion is merely a destructive force that crashes helplessly against the cold, indifferent laws of a broader universe.

Why Read It Today

Readers who love classic mid-century science fiction with a sharp, ironic twist will find much to admire in this swift tale. It feels old-school and breathless, capturing the stark, pulp atmosphere of planetary romance where strange alien biologies dictate the terms of survival. Reading it offers a crisp, imaginative look at cosmic irony, where human hubris is dismantled not by superior weapons, but by the sheer, unyielding chemistry of an outer planet. While modern readers may note the brisk pacing typical of 1940s magazine fiction and the broad strokes of its villainous protagonist, the story's inventive premise—spaceships fashioned from mercury and ice—remains wonderfully distinct. What stays with you is the chilling final image of a tyrant trapped inside his own pressurized suit, helpless against the sun he once hoped to conquer.

What other classic science fiction themes from the mid-century pulp era do you enjoy exploring?