The Sun-Death

"The Sun-Death" by Stanley Whiteside is a science fiction story that unfolds on a spaceship in the future, where a captain named Lodar is desperate to get back to Earth because he's facing death. The story is about big ideas like what's right and wrong, what people will do to survive, and how some beings are used unfairly. The crew of Lodar's ship, the Vulcan, gets so mad at him for killing alien-like Venus Mutes to avoid getting caught that they start a rebellion. A character named Ray Burk has to figure out how he feels about a tough missionary named Ellenor and the bad things the captain is doing. As things get worse on the Vulcan, Ray decides he has to do something about the cruelty, leading to a big fight about what's moral and a moment where everyone has to face the consequences of their actions, with Ray finding a reason to fight for what's right in world full of injustice.