Ordeal in Space

A Patrol lieutenant haunted by his brother's murder is ordered to escort the convicted killer to Earth for execution, forced to suppress a consuming urge for private vengeance while carrying the man in fetters through bureaucratic and interplanetary procedures. The captive is smug and accompanied by a mimic creature, provoking the escort’s rage and testing his discipline. As the lieutenant confronts taunts, fatigue, and the institutional demand to deliver the prisoner alive, the narrative follows his psychological struggle between duty, revenge, and professional survival, framed against short, tense scenes of detention, transport, and punitive command decisions.