Who Goes There?

In Short

Charles H. Davis’s Who Goes There? is a 1950 science fiction story detailing an aquatic alien encounter. Wounded in an interstellar battle against the hostile Ru'ukon, two telepathic, squid-like commanders from the planet Alar—Ekrado and Ronaro—flee their destroyed warship and crash-land a lifeboat into Earth's Atlantic Ocean. Desperate to relay a warning back home, they seek intelligent life to help rebuild their communications array. Moving through deep-sea horrors and mistaken identity, the story endures as a suspenseful, ironic tale highlighting the tragic gap of understanding between alien visitors and human military force.

The Story

The narrative opens amidst a high-stakes space battle on the outer fringes of the solar system. An Alarian cruiser, badly battered by force beams and heat rays from a pursuing Ru'ukon warship, takes critical damage to its engines, water-purifying systems, and communications array. Realizing their ship cannot make it back to Alar to deliver a warning about an impending enemy fleet invasion, Captain Ekrado orders the crew to abandon ship. Alongside his trusted deputy Ronaro, Ekrado escapes in a small personal lifeboat, aiming for the third planet from the sun—a world mostly covered in water.

To ensure their survival against a cluster of pursuing atomic torpedoes, Ekrado makes the brutal decision to sacrifice another Alarian lifeboat, slicing it in half with a heat ray so its metal mass draws the tracking torpedoes away. The tactic succeeds, and the duo safely plunges through Earth's atmosphere, submerging deep into the Atlantic Ocean.

Although delighted by the abundance of water, they quickly discover that Earth's marine chemistry is chemically poisonous to them, leaving them entirely reliant on their lifeboat's temporary filtration system. Equipped with telepathic abilities and a deep expertise in communications, Ekrado and Ronaro begin systematically scanning the ocean for signs of intelligent life whose electrical or radio equipment they can modify to broadcast their distress signal.

Initial contacts yield only failure. They encounter simple mind-impulses from surface squids, which resemble them physically but possess only primitive desires for food and survival. Descending into the crushing darkness below 1,500 feet, they face real peril when a colossal, mind-deaf giant squid attacks their vessel. The leviathan wraps its massive tentacles around the hull, caving in the upper plates until Ronaro fights blind with a heat cannon, severing the monster's limbs and allowing the damaged craft to escape back toward the surface.

Ascending near the surface waters, their metal detectors suddenly register a massive, structured metallic object passing above them: a United States Navy destroyer navigating a World War II troop convoy. Overjoyed, Ronaro probes the minds aboard the ship, finding true, rational intelligence for the first time, though he is shocked to realize these beings are land-dwelling air-breathers. Before the two Alarians can breach the surface to establish contact, the Navy crew detects the submerged object on their equipment. Mistaking the alien vessel for a maritime hazard or enemy submarine, the ship's executive officer orders a depth charge attack. The resulting explosion shatters the lifeboat instantly, spilling its occupants into the sea and leaving the human crew completely unaware of the intergalactic crisis they have just silenced.

How It Unfolds

Escape from the void Fleeing a deadly Ru'ukon cruiser, Captain Ekrado and Ronaro abandon their crippled Alarian warship in a small lifeboat. Ekrado intentionally sacrifices a companion pod to decoy heat-seeking torpedoes, allowing their vessel to breach Earth's atmosphere and submerge into the Atlantic Ocean.

A toxic paradise Upon entry into the vast waters, the telepathic, tentacled officers celebrate finding an ocean world, only to learn the chemical composition of Earth's sea is lethal to them. They realize they must quickly locate an intelligent species to help adapt local technology before their ship's water purifier fails.

Monsters of the abyss Searching for civilization at extreme depths, the duo encounters a primitive giant squid that wraps its massive tentacles around their hull, crushing the metal. Ronaro blindly fires the craft's heat cannon to sever the creature's limbs, narrowly escaping back into higher water levels.

Tragic miscommunication Detecting a massive steel hull on their instruments, the Alarians make telepathic contact with the rational minds of a U.S. Navy destroyer crew. However, before the aquatic travelers can reveal themselves, the warship drops a lethal depth charge that destroys the lifeboat, leaving the humans to mistake the floating remains for simple sea life.

The People

• Ekrado: The hardened commander of the Alarian cruiser who prioritizes mission success above all else. Driven by a desperate duty to warn his home planet of a surprise invasion, he makes ruthless tactical decisions—including slicing a friendly lifeboat in half to divert enemy torpedoes—yet maintains a deep sense of responsibility toward his deputy and their goal.
• Ronaro: Ekrado's loyal second-in-command and fellow Communications Corps veteran. Sensitive and observant, he struggles briefly with the moral weight of sacrificing their comrades, but his technical proficiency with ship weapons and telepathic probing keeps the duo alive through deep-sea leviathan attacks and toxic environments.
• The Destroyer Captain and Executive Officer: Practical, relaxed American military officers overseeing a routine convoy screen. They are motivated by standard naval protocols and casual vigilance, entirely unaware of the cosmic drama unfolding beneath their hull, viewing the submerged Alarian ship merely as a navigational hazard to be destroyed.

In Its Own Voice

"Hurtling down from cold and hostile space, battle-worn Ekrado and Ronaro gazed with joy at the lovely watery world below."

The opening introduces the high expectations of the two alien refugees as they arrive at Earth.

"A great tentacle wrapped itself around the hull."

This moment marks the sudden attack by a mindless giant squid in the black depths of the Atlantic.

"A great explosion rocked the waters as the depth bomb went off."

The climax records the abrupt destruction of the alien lifeboat by an oblivious human military ship.

What It's Really About

Who Goes There? examines the fundamental tragedy of cosmic isolation and misinterpretation. At its core, the narrative contrasts the Alarians' desperate, peaceful intent to establish contact with the aggressive, protective instincts of human military force. Davis explores how physical and environmental differences—such as breathing air versus living in water—create insurmountable barriers to empathy and communication. The story argues that intelligence alone is insufficient to guarantee connection when two species perceive each other through rigid assumptions of danger, ultimately turning what should have been a transformative first contact into an unremembered, fatal accident.

Why Read It Today

Fans of mid-century pulp science fiction and dark twilight-zone twists will appreciate Who Goes There? for its economical pacing and vivid underwater action. The narrative moves swiftly from high-tech space dogfights to claustrophobic deep-sea survival, capturing a distinct period feel shaped by Post-WWII military technology, radar equipment, and naval convoy operations. Readers should be prepared for typical mid-20th-century pulp tropes, including straightforward melodrama, utilitarian prose, and vintage military jargon. What lingers long after reading is the bittersweet irony of the ending—a stark reminder of how close humanity can come to the extraordinary without ever knowing it.