Space Puppet

"Space Puppet" by John Rackham

This science-fiction story concerns Lieutenant Frank Fairless, a promising but persistently accident-prone pilot in the Space Service. Commodore Gale has grounded him after his nineteenth crash, this time landing a mail ferry manually following automatic proximity system failure. Though Fairless executed a technically impossible three-second recovery under nine G's—demonstrating superhuman reflexes—repeated accidents plague him without fault of his own.

Doctor Sven Norden, inventor of the Norden-Pile and old friend of Gale, intervenes before Fairless loses his pilot's wings. Norden requests the young man for a mysterious special assignment. Through observation and deduction, Norden begins identifying curious facts about Fairless: British, financially independent, naturally gifted at everything. His pattern of questioning suggests he has identified something unusual about the lieutenant, hinting at deeper mystery surrounding Fairless's inexplicable bad luck and extraordinary abilities.