The Red Peri

This is a science fiction novella that tells the story of Frank Keene, an American radiation engineer, and spaceship pilot. Keene and Solomon Nestor, an astrophysicist, are aboard the Limbo, surveying cosmic radiation in the Solar System's outer reaches for the Smithsonian Institution. When one of the Limbo's stern jets melts, the crew is compelled to land on Pluto in the hopes of finding some refractory metal with which to build a new jet. They are quickly apprehended and taken to the pirates' secret lair. They come across the Red Peri herself, a nineteen-year-old redhead whose late father built the Red Peri and set up the base sixteen years ago. The Red Peri says she can't let Keene and Nestor go, but she's hesitant to kill them cold-bloodedly.