Star-Matter

Interior artwork for "Cosmic Hotfoot".
A Magnus Ridolph story by Jack Vance.

The short Magnus Ridolph story "Cosmic Hotfoot" was first published in the September 1950 issue of Startling Stories. Down on his luck and low on funds, Ridolph is off to the lifeless mining planet Jexjeka to solve the mystery of disappearing workers.

The entire planet of Jexjeka is owned by Howard Thifter, a man who Ridolph knows by reputation as an "unscrupulous blackguard". Mineral-rich Jexjeka is the sole planet in a strange trinary star system out past the border of the Commonwealth. The three suns are called Rouge, Blanche and Noir, the later being a "dark star". Thifter employs alien Thalurians who, as anaerobic lifeforms, can survive on Jexjeka, a world with no atmosphere.

Hot feet in the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover by Earle Bergey

Mission of Gravity
The only attractive features of Jexjeka are the mineral deposits, including crystals of pure titanium the size of a house. There are also uranium deposits on Jexjeka and Thifter is ready to ship back to the Commonwealth worlds large amounts of centaurium and atomite.

The interior artwork for "Cosmic Hotfoot" is rather mysterious. Are there ghost-like residents of Jexjeka who spirit away the missing workers? You'll have to read the story and discover along with Ridolph the solution to the mystery of the disappearing workers.

A common theme in Magnus Ridolph adventures is blustering, short-sighted and impatient adversaries who Ridolph can out-smart with his calm, logical thought processes and vast knowledge of the galaxy. While busily working his mining operation, Thifter has never bothered to examine the orbital dynamics of Jexjeka's trinary star system. ∞

The mineral-rich planet Dar Sai.

At the end of the story, Ridolph has satisfied the terms of his agreement with Thifter, but the mean-spirited mining mogul refuses to provide interstellar transport and return Magnus to civilization. Thinking quickly, Ridolph maneuvers Thifter into creating the titular "cosmic hotfoot" and conditions that force Jexjeka to be quickly evacuated.

From the very beginning of the story, Ridolph and Thifter don't get along with each-other. However, in the end, Ridolph gets the last laugh; a cosmic joke similar in nature to the rather famous ending of Vance's 1979 novel The Face.

The typical ending of a Magnus Ridolph story features Ridolph's now humiliated adversary saying something like, "Just wait until the next time we meet... I'll get my revenge!"

in the Ekcolir Reality

At the beginning of "Cosmic Hotfoot", Ridolph is on the planet Azul, walking along Caffron Beach beside the Veridical Sea. Ridolph mentions the King of Maherleon's harem, but no details are forthcoming. 🙁

In an alternate Reality, Vance might have taken time to include a romantic entanglement for Ridolph in "Cosmic Hotfoot". We are told that Magnus once owned a zoo on Azul, but we learn nothing about his collaborators for that project. Was that zoo inspired by the King of Maherleon? Maybe the King buys rare metals such as atomite that are mined on the planet Jexjeka.

Related Reading: more Magnus Ridolph

Next: "The Kokod Warriors" by Jack Vance

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers