C-Chute is a sci-fi story that explores the human reactions to being captured by an alien race, the Kloros, during an interstellar war. The Kloros are chlorine-breathing beings who are skilled in chemistry but lack engineering prowess. They hijack a human transport ship and leave two guards to watch over six civilian prisoners. The prisoners have different backgrounds and personalities, and they argue about how to deal with their situation. Some want to fight back, some want to cooperate, and some want to give up. The only one who decides to act is Mullen, a timid and homesick bookkeeper who has not seen Earth for 17 years. He uses the C-Chute, a device for ejecting corpses into space, to sneak into the control room and kill the Kloros with oxygen. He then returns to the other prisoners and tells them that he did it not out of courage or patriotism, but out of a desperate longing for his home planet.