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13 - Message From Mars · Famous Sci-Fi Stories Collection

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Speaker 1: Message from Mars by Clifford D. Siemac. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings or in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Message from Mars by Clifford D. Siemac. Fifty five pioneers
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Speaker 1: had died on the Bridge of Bones that spanned the
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Speaker 1: Void to the rusty plains of Mars. Now the fifty
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Speaker 1: sixth stood on the red planet. He's only ship a
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Speaker 1: total wreck, and knew that Earth was doomed unless he
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Speaker 1: could send a warning within hours. You're crazy, man, snapped
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Speaker 1: Stephen Alexander. You can't take off for Mars alone. Scott
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Speaker 1: Nixon thumped the desk in sudden irritation. Why not, he shouted,
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Speaker 1: One man can run a rocket. Jack Riley's sick, and
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Speaker 1: there are no other pilots here. The rocket blasts in
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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, and we can't wait. This is the last chance,
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Speaker 1: the only chance we'll have for months. Jerry Palmer, sitting
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Speaker 1: in front of the mass of radio, reached for a
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Speaker 1: bottle of Scotch and slopped a drink into the tumbler
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Speaker 1: at his elbow. Hell, doc, he said, let him go.
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Speaker 1: It won't make any difference. He won't reach Mars. He's
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Speaker 1: just going out in space to die like the rest
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Speaker 1: of them. Alexander snapped savagely at him. You don't know
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Speaker 1: what you're saying. You drink too much. Forget it, Doc,
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Speaker 1: said Scott. He's telling the truth. I won't get to Mars.
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Speaker 1: Of course. You know what they're saying down in the
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Speaker 1: base camp. Don't you about the bridge of bones? Walking
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Speaker 1: to Mars? Over a bridge of bones? The old man
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Speaker 1: stared at him. You've lost faith. You don't think you'll
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Speaker 1: go to Mars. Scott shook his head. I haven't lost
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Speaker 1: my faith. Someone will get there sometime, but it's too
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Speaker 1: soon yet. Look at that tablet, will you. He waved
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Speaker 1: his hand at a bronze plate set into the wall,
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Speaker 1: the roll of honor, said Scott bitterly. Look at the names.
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Speaker 1: You'll have to buy another soon. There won't be room enough.
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Speaker 1: One Nixon already was on that scroll of bronze, Hugh Nixon,
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Speaker 1: fifty fourth from the top, and under that the name
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Speaker 1: of Harry Decker, the man who had gone out with him.
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Speaker 1: The radio blurted suddenly at them, jabbering, squealing, howling and anguish.
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Speaker 1: Scott stiffened, ears tensed as the code sputtered across millions
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Speaker 1: of miles. But it was the same old routine, the
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Speaker 1: same old message, repeated over and over again, the same
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Speaker 1: old warning hurled out from the ruddy planet. No no, No,
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Speaker 1: come danger. Scott turned toward the window, stared up into
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Speaker 1: the sky at the crimson eye of Mars. What was
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Speaker 1: the use of keeping hope alive? Hoped that Hugh might
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Speaker 1: have reached Mars, that someday the Martian code bring some
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Speaker 1: word of him. Hugh had died, like all the rest
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Speaker 1: of them, like those whose names were graven in the
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Speaker 1: bronze there on the wall. The maw of space had
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Speaker 1: swallowed him, had flown into the face of silence, and
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Speaker 1: the silence was unbroken. The door of the office creaked open,
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Speaker 1: letting in a gust of chilly air. Jimmy Baldwin shut
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Speaker 1: the door behind him and looked at them vacantly. Nice
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Speaker 1: Ni to go to Mars, he said. You shouldn't be
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Speaker 1: up you, Jimmy said Alexander gently, You should be down
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Speaker 1: the base, tending to your flowers. There are lots of flowers,
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Speaker 1: and Mars, said Jimmy, maybe some day I'll go to
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Speaker 1: Mars and see wait till somebody else goes their foist,
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Speaker 1: said Palmer bitterly. Jimmy turned about hesitantly, like a man
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Speaker 1: who had a purpose but had forgotten what it was.
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Speaker 1: He moved slowly towards the door and opened it. He said.
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Speaker 1: The door closed heavily, but the chill did not vanish
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Speaker 1: from the room, for it wasn't the chill of the
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Speaker 1: mountain's peak, but another kind of chill, a chill that
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Speaker 1: had walked in with Jimmy Baldwin and now refused to leave.
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Speaker 1: Palmer took the bottle, slushed the whisky in the glass.
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Speaker 1: The greatest pile had ever lived, he said, Now look
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Speaker 1: at him, He's the Lord's the record, Alexandra reminded the
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Speaker 1: radio operator. Eight times to the moon and still alive.
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Speaker 1: The accident had happened as Jimmy's ship was approaching Earth
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Speaker 1: on that eighth return trip. A tiny metea had struck
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Speaker 1: the hull, drilling a sharp cut hole. It had struck
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Speaker 1: Andy Mason, Jimmy's best friend, squarely between the eyes. The
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Speaker 1: cabin had been filled with the scream of escaping air
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Speaker 1: had turned cold, with a deadly breath of space, and
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Speaker 1: frost crystals had danced in front of Jimmy's eyes. Somehow,
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Speaker 1: Jimmy had patched the hole in the hull, had reached
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Speaker 1: Earth in a smashing rocket try. I've knowing he had
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Speaker 1: little air, that every minute was a borrowed eternity. Most
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Speaker 1: pilots would have killed themselves or blown up their ships
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Speaker 1: in that reckless race for Earth. But Jimmy, ace of
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Speaker 1: all the spacemen of his day, had made it. But
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Speaker 1: he had walked from the ship with a blank face
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Speaker 1: and babbling lips. He still lived at the rocket camp
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Speaker 1: because it was home to him. He putted among his flowers.
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Speaker 1: He watched the rockets come and go without a flutter
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Speaker 1: of expression, and every one was kind to him, for
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Speaker 1: in his face they read a fate that might be theirs.
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Speaker 1: All of us are crazy, said Scott, every one of us,
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Speaker 1: myself included. That's why I'm blasting off alone. I refuse
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Speaker 1: to let you go, said Alexander firmly. Scott rested his
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Speaker 1: knuckles on the desk. You can't stop me. I have
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Speaker 1: my orders to go make the trip. Whether I go
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Speaker 1: alone or with an assistant pilot, makes no difference. The
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Speaker 1: rocket blasts some time, and I'm in it when it goes.
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Speaker 1: But it's foolishness, protested Alexander. You'll go space mad. Think
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Speaker 1: of the loneliness, Think of the co ordinates, snapped Scott.
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Speaker 1: Delay the blast off and you'll have to work out
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Speaker 1: a set anya once days of work, and then it'll
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Speaker 1: be too late. Mars will be too far away. Alexander
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Speaker 1: spread his hands. All right, then, I hope you make it.
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Speaker 1: Scott turned away, but Alexander called them back. You show
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Speaker 1: of the routine. Scott nodded. He knew the routine by heart.
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Speaker 1: So many hours out to the moon, landing on the
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Speaker 1: moon to take on extra fuel, taking off for Mars
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Speaker 1: at an exact angle, at a certain minute. I'll come
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Speaker 1: out and see you off, said Alexander. He heaved himself
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Speaker 1: up and slid into a heavy coat. Palmer shouted out
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Speaker 1: to Scott, so long, big boy, it was nice now
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Speaker 1: when yer Scott shrugged, Palmer was a little drunk and
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Speaker 1: very bitter. He'd watch them go too long. His nerves
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Speaker 1: were wearing out. Stars shone like hard bright jewels in
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Speaker 1: the African sky. A sharp wind blew over the summit
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Speaker 1: of Mount Kenya. A wind that wind among the ice
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Speaker 1: bound rocks and bit deep into the flesh. Far below
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Speaker 1: blaze the lights of the base camp, hundreds of feet
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Speaker 1: down the slope from the main rocket camp. Here atop
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Speaker 1: the mountain sets squarely on Earth's equator. The rasping voice
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Speaker 1: of a radio newscaster came from the open door of
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Speaker 1: the machine shop.
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Speaker 2: New York. Shrieked the announcer, Aarston Garden, famous African explorer,
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Speaker 2: announce this afternoon he will leave soon for the Congo Valley,
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Speaker 2: where he will investigate reports of a strange metallic city
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Speaker 2: deep in the interior. Natives bring reports of the discovery
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Speaker 2: out of the jungle, claimed the city is inhabited by
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Speaker 2: strange metallic insects.
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Speaker 1: Some one slammed the door and the voice was cut off.
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Speaker 1: Scott hudged into the wind to light a cigarette. The
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Speaker 1: explosed cars are going crazy too, he said. Probably later
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Speaker 1: on in the program, the announcer would have mentioned Scott
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Speaker 1: Nixon and Jack Riley would blast off in a few
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Speaker 1: minutes in another attempt to reach Mars, but it would
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Speaker 1: be well along in the program and it wouldn't make
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Speaker 1: much time. Ten years ago, Mars had been big news today.
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Speaker 1: It rated small heads in the press, slight mention on
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Speaker 1: the air. But the newscaster would have been wrong about
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Speaker 1: Jack Riley. Jack Riley lay in the base camp hospital
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Speaker 1: with an attack of potomain. Only an hour before. Jack
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Speaker 1: had clasped Scott's hand and grinned at him and wished
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Speaker 1: him luck. He needed luck, for in this business a
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Speaker 1: man didn't even have an inside chance. Scott walked toward
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Speaker 1: the tilted rocket. He could hear the crunch of Alexander's
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Speaker 1: feet as the man moved with him. It won't be
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Speaker 1: new to you, Alexander was saying. You've been to the
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Speaker 1: moon before. Yes, he had been to the moon three times,
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Speaker 1: and he was still alive. But then he had been lucky.
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Speaker 1: Your luck simply didn't hold forever. There was too much
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Speaker 1: pride to gamble on in space fuel, for one thing.
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Speaker 1: Men had experimented with fuel for ten years now, and
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Speaker 1: still the only thing they had was a combination of
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Speaker 1: liquid oxygen and gasoline. They had tried hydrogen, but that
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Speaker 1: had proved too cold, too difficult to confine, treacherous to handle,
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Speaker 1: too bulky. Because of its low density, liquid oxygen could
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Speaker 1: be put under pressure condensed into little space. It was
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Speaker 1: safe to handle, safe until it combined with gasoline, and
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Speaker 1: then it was sheer death to anything that got within
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Speaker 1: its reach. Of course, there had been some improvements better
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Speaker 1: handling of the fuel. For instance, combustion chambers stood up
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Speaker 1: better now because they were designed better. Feed lines didn't
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Speaker 1: freeze so readily now as when the first coffins took
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Speaker 1: to space. Rocket motors were more efficient, but still cranky.
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Speaker 1: But there were other things. Meteors, for one, and you
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Speaker 1: couldn't do much about them, not until some one designed
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Speaker 1: a screen, and no one had. Radiations were another. Space
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Speaker 1: was full of radiations, and despite the insulating jacket of ozone,
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Speaker 1: some of them seeped through. Scott climbed through the rocket
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Speaker 1: valve and turned to close it. He hesitated for a moment,
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Speaker 1: drinking in the smell and sight of Earth. There wasn't
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Speaker 1: much that one could see, the anxious face of Alexander,
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Speaker 1: the huddled shadows that were watching men, the twinkling bass
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Speaker 1: camp lights. With a curse at his own weakness, Scott
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Speaker 1: slammed the valve lock twirled at home, fitting himself into
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Speaker 1: the shock absorbent chair. He fastened the straps that held him.
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Speaker 1: His right foot reached out and found the trip that
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Speaker 1: would fire the rockets. Then he lifted his wrist in
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Speaker 1: front of his eyes and watched the second hand of
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Speaker 1: the watch. Ten seconds eight, now five. The hand was
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Speaker 1: creeping up, ticking off the time it rested on the
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Speaker 1: zero mark, and he slammed down his foot. Cruel weight
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Speaker 1: smashed down upon him, driving his body back into the
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Speaker 1: paddered chair. His lungs were flattened the air driven from them.
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Speaker 1: His heart thumped, Nausea seized him, and black mists swam
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Speaker 1: before his eyes. He seemed to be slipping into a
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Speaker 1: midnight chasm, and he cried out weakly. His body went limp,
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Speaker 1: sagging in the chair. Twin streams of blood trickled from
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Speaker 1: his nose and down his lip. He was far out
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Speaker 1: in space when he struggled back to consciousness. For a time,
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Speaker 1: he did not stir, lying in the chair. It took
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Speaker 1: long minutes to realize where he was. Gradually, his brain
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Speaker 1: cleared and his eyes focussed. His ears registered the silence
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Speaker 1: that steeped the ship, the weird, deathly silence of outer space. Weakly,
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Speaker 1: he stirred and sat upright. His eyes automatically studying the panel.
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Speaker 1: The fuel pressure was all right, atmospheric pressure was holding,
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Speaker 1: speed was satisfactory. He leaned back in the chair and waited, resting,
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Speaker 1: storing his strength. Automatically, his hand reached up and wiped
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Speaker 1: the blood from his lips and chin. He was in space,
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Speaker 1: headed for the Moon, and from there for Mars. But
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Speaker 1: even the realization of this failed to rouse him from
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Speaker 1: the lethargy of battered body and tortured brain. Taking often
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Speaker 1: a rocket was punishment, severe, terrible punishment. Only men who
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Speaker 1: were perfect physical specimens could attempt it. Some day rockets
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Speaker 1: would be perfected. Some day rockets would rise gently from
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Speaker 1: the Earth, shaking off Earth's gravity by gradual application of power,
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Speaker 1: rather than by tremendous thrusts that kicked steel and glass
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Speaker 1: and men out into space. But not yet, not for
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Speaker 1: many years, perhaps not for many generations. For many years,
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Speaker 1: men would risk their lives in blasting projectiles that ripped
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Speaker 1: loose from the Earth by the sheer savagery of exploding
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Speaker 1: oxygen and gasoline. A moan came from the rear of
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Speaker 1: the ship, a stifled, pitiful moan that brought Scott upright
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Speaker 1: in his chair. Tearing with nervous hands the buckles of
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Speaker 1: his belt. With belt loosened, body tensed, he waited for
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Speaker 1: a second, hardly believing he had heard the sound. It
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Speaker 1: came again, a piteous human cry. Scott leaped to his feet,
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Speaker 1: staggered under the lack of gravitation. The rock was coasting
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Speaker 1: on momentum now, and while its forward motion gave it
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Speaker 1: a simulation of gravity enough so a man could orient himself,
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Speaker 1: there was in actuality no positive gravity center in the shell.
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Speaker 1: A bundle of heavy blankets lay in the corner, formed
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Speaker 1: by a lash down pile of boxes, and the bundle
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Speaker 1: was moving feebly. With a cry in his throat. Scott
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Speaker 1: leaped forward and tore the blankets aside. Under them lay
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Speaker 1: a battered man, crumpled with a pool of blood soaking
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Speaker 1: into a blanket that lay beneath him. Scott lifted the body,
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Speaker 1: the head flocked over, and he stared down into the vacant,
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Speaker 1: blood streaked face of Jimmy Baldwin. Jimmy's eyes fluttered open,
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Speaker 1: then closed again. Scott squatted on his heels, wild thoughts
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Speaker 1: hammering in his head. Jimmy's eyes opened again and regarded
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Speaker 1: the pilot He raised a feeble hand in greeting. The
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Speaker 1: lips moved, but Jimmy's voice was faint. Oh Scott, what
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Speaker 1: are you doing here? Scott demanded fiercely. I don't know,
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Speaker 1: said Jimmy weakly. I I don't know. I meant do something,
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Speaker 1: but I forgot. Scott rose and took a bottle of
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Speaker 1: water from a case. Wetting his handkerchief, he bathed the
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Speaker 1: bloodied face. His hands ran over Jimmy's body, but found
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Speaker 1: no broken bones. It was a wonder the man hadn't
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Speaker 1: been killed outright, some more baldwined luck. Where where are we, Scott?
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Speaker 1: Jimmy asked? Or in space? Said Scott. We're going out
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Speaker 1: to Mars. No use of telling him anything but the
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Speaker 1: truth space, said Jimmy. I used to go out in space.
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Speaker 1: Then sudden happened. He shook his head wearily, mercifully, the
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Speaker 1: memory of that something had been wiped from his brain.
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Speaker 1: Half dragging, half carrying, Scott got him to the assistant
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Speaker 1: pilot's seat, strapped him in, and gave him a drink
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Speaker 1: of water. Jimmy's eyes closed and he sank back into
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Speaker 1: the cushions. Scott resumed his chair, leaned forward to look
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Speaker 1: out into space. There was little to see. Space viewed
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Speaker 1: from any angle unless one was near a large body
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Speaker 1: looked pretty much the same. The moon was still out
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Speaker 1: of his range of vision. It would be hours before
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Speaker 1: it would move upward to intersect the path of the
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Speaker 1: rocket's flight. Scott leaned back and looked at Jimmy. Apparently
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Speaker 1: the man had sneaked aboard just before the take off.
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Speaker 1: No one paid much attention to him. Everyone was kind
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Speaker 1: to him, and he was allowed to do as he pleased,
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Speaker 1: for he was not insane. The tragedy of those few
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Speaker 1: minutes years before had merely wiped out his memory, given
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Speaker 1: him the outlook of a child. Perhaps when he had
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Speaker 1: gotten into the ship, he had held some reason for
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Speaker 1: his action, but now even that purpose had escaped him
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Speaker 1: once again. Im Baldwin was a bewildered child's brain in
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Speaker 1: the body of a man. Anyway, said Scott, half speaking
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Speaker 1: to himself, half to the silent form, you're the first
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Speaker 1: rocket stowaway. They would miss Jimmy back at the camp,
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Speaker 1: would wonder what had happened to him. Perhaps they would
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Speaker 1: organize a posse and search for him. The possibility was
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Speaker 1: they would never know what happened, for there was slight chance.
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Speaker 1: Scott told himself that he, or Jimmy or the ship
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Speaker 1: would ever get back to Earth again. Someone else would
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Speaker 1: have to tend Jimmy's flowers now, but probably no one
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Speaker 1: would for his flowers with the Martian lilies, and Martian
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Speaker 1: lilies no longer were a novelty. It had been the
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Speaker 1: lilies that started the whole thing, this crazy parade of
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Speaker 1: men who went into space and died. Slightly over twelve
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Speaker 1: years ago, doctor Stephen Alexander reported that from his observatory
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Speaker 1: on Mount Kenya, he had communicated with Mars by ultra
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Speaker 1: short wave radio. It had been a long and arduous process. First,
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Speaker 1: the signals from Earth repeated in definite series at definite intervals,
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Speaker 1: and then, finally the answer from the Red planet, after
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Speaker 1: months of labor, slow understanding came. We send you, signaled
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Speaker 1: the Martians, we send you, over and over again, a
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Speaker 1: meaningless phrase. What were they sending? Slowly Alexander untangled the
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Speaker 1: simple skein of thought. Mars finally messaged, we send you token.
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Speaker 1: That word token had been hard. It represented thought, an
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Speaker 1: abstract thought. The world waited breathlessly for the token. Finally
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Speaker 1: it came a rocket winging its way across space, A
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Speaker 1: rocket that flashed and glinted in the depths of space
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Speaker 1: as it neared Earth, kept informed of its location by
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Speaker 1: the Martians, Earth's telescopes watched it come. It landed near
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Speaker 1: Mount Kenya, a roaring, screaming streak of light that flashed
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Speaker 1: across the midnight sky. Dug up, it yielded an inner container,
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Speaker 1: well insulated against heat and cold, against radiation and shock. Opened,
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Speaker 1: it was found to contain seeds planted jealously guarded, carefully tended.
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Speaker 1: The seeds grew with the Martian lilies. They multiplied rapidly,
19:43
Speaker 1: spread quickly over the Earth. Back on Earth to day,
19:48
Speaker 1: the Martian lilies grew in every hamlet, clogged the fence
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Speaker 1: rows of every farm. Relieved whatever natural enemies and checks
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Speaker 1: they might have had on their native planet, they flourished
19:58
Speaker 1: and spread, became a weed that every farmer cursed wholeheartedly.
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Speaker 1: Their root structure broke deep into the soil. Drought could
20:08
Speaker 1: not kill them. They grew rapidly, springing to full growth
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Speaker 1: almost overnight. They went to unkillable seed, which was what
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Speaker 1: might have been expected of any plant nurtured on the
20:20
Speaker 1: stubborn soil of Mars. Earth to the Martian lilies was
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Speaker 1: a paradise of air and water and sunlight. And as
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Speaker 1: if that first token load had not been enough, the
20:34
Speaker 1: Martians kept on sending rocket loads of seeds at each opposition.
20:39
Speaker 1: The rockets came, each announced by the message from the
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Speaker 1: Martian transmitter, and each of them landed almost precisely on
20:47
Speaker 1: the spot where the first had landed. That took mathematics,
20:51
Speaker 1: mathematics and a superb knowledge of rocketry. The rockets apparently
20:57
Speaker 1: were automatic. There was no intelligence to go eyed them.
21:00
Speaker 1: Once they were shot into space. Their courses must have
21:03
Speaker 1: been plotted to the finest detail, with every factor determined
21:07
Speaker 1: in advance. For the Martian rockets were not aimed at
21:11
Speaker 1: Earth as one broad target, but at a certain spot
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Speaker 1: on Earth, and so far every one of them had
21:19
Speaker 1: hit that mark. At the rocket camp, each Martian rocket
21:24
Speaker 1: was waited anxiously with the hope it would bring some
21:27
Speaker 1: new payload. But the rockets never brought anything but seeds,
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Speaker 1: more Martian lily seeds. Jimmy stirred restlessly opened his eyes
21:39
Speaker 1: and looked out the vision plate, but there was no
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Speaker 1: terror in his eyes, no surprise, nor regret space, he asked.
21:49
Speaker 1: Scott nodded. We're going to the Moon. To the moon first,
21:55
Speaker 1: said Scott. From there we go to Mars. Jimmy lapsed
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Speaker 1: into silence. There was no change upon his face. There
22:05
Speaker 1: never was any change upon his face. I hope he
22:10
Speaker 1: doesn't make any trouble. Scott told himself. It was bad
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Speaker 1: enough just to have him along, bad enough to have
22:17
Speaker 1: this added responsibility. For space flight was a dangerous job.
22:22
Speaker 1: Ever since the International Mars Communication Center had been formed
22:26
Speaker 1: with Alexander in charge, space had flung men aside ship
22:31
Speaker 1: after ship, pilot after pilot. The task alone of reaching
22:35
Speaker 1: the Moon had taken terrible toll. Men had died. Some
22:40
Speaker 1: had died before they reached the Moon, some had died
22:43
Speaker 1: on the Moon, but mostly they had died heading back
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Speaker 1: for Earth. For landing on Earth, jocking a rocket through
22:52
Speaker 1: Earth's dense atmosphere is a tricky job. Others had died
22:56
Speaker 1: on route to Mars. Ships flaring in space was simply disappearing,
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Speaker 1: going on and on, never coming back. That was the
23:05
Speaker 1: way it had been with Hugh, and now his brother
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Speaker 1: Scott was following the trail that Hugh had blazed. The
23:14
Speaker 1: trail to the Moon and out beyond, following in a
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Speaker 1: bomb of potential death, with a blank faced stowaway in
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Speaker 1: the chair beside him. Halfway to Mars, and the ship
23:26
Speaker 1: was still intact, running true to course, running on schedule,
23:30
Speaker 1: flashing through space under the thrust of momentum built up
23:34
Speaker 1: during the blast out from the Moon, halfway to Mars,
23:37
Speaker 1: and stood alive. But too early yet for hope. Perhaps
23:42
Speaker 1: other men had gotten as far as this, and then
23:44
Speaker 1: something had happened. Scott watched the depths of space, the leering,
23:48
Speaker 1: jeering emptiness of the star studded velvet that stretched on
23:52
Speaker 1: and on. There had been days of waiting and watching,
23:57
Speaker 1: more days of waiting and watching loomed ahead, waiting for
24:01
Speaker 1: that warning flicker on the instrument panel that split second
24:04
Speaker 1: before red ruins struck as cranky fuel went haywire, Waiting
24:10
Speaker 1: for the tick of a tiny metia against the ship's
24:13
Speaker 1: steel wall, the tiny ringing sound that would be the
24:17
Speaker 1: prelude to disaster. Waiting for something else, for that unknown
24:25
Speaker 1: factor of accident that would spatter the ship and the
24:28
Speaker 1: two men threw it many empty miles, endless hours of
24:32
Speaker 1: watching and waiting, hastily snatched cat naps in the chair,
24:37
Speaker 1: hastily snatched meals, listening to the babbling Jimmy Baldwin, who
24:41
Speaker 1: wondered how his flowers were getting on, speculated on what
24:44
Speaker 1: the boys were doing back in the rocket camp on Earth.
24:48
Speaker 1: One thing hammered at Scott Nixon's brain the message of
24:52
Speaker 1: the Martian radio, the message that had been coming now
24:56
Speaker 1: for many years.
24:59
Speaker 2: No no, no come, danger.
25:04
Speaker 1: Always that and little else. No explanation of what the
25:08
Speaker 1: danger was, No suggestion for circumventing or correcting that danger,
25:12
Speaker 1: no helpfulness In Earthmen struggled to cross the miles of
25:15
Speaker 1: space between two neighboring planets, almost as if the Martians
25:20
Speaker 1: didn't want earth Men to come, almost as if they
25:24
Speaker 1: were trying to discourage space travel. But that would hardly
25:28
Speaker 1: be the case, for the Martians had readily cooperated in
25:31
Speaker 1: establishing communications, had exhibited real intelligence and earnestness in working
25:37
Speaker 1: out the code that flashed words and thoughts across millions
25:40
Speaker 1: of miles without a doubt had they wished the Martians
25:45
Speaker 1: could have helped, For it was with seemingly little effort
25:49
Speaker 1: that they sent their own rockets to Earth. And why
25:53
Speaker 1: had each Martian rocket carried the same load each time.
25:57
Speaker 1: Could there be some significance in those Martian lips, some
26:01
Speaker 1: hidden meaning the Earth had failed to grasp, some meaning
26:05
Speaker 1: that the things from Mars hoped would be read with
26:08
Speaker 1: each new rocket load. Why hadn't the Martians come themselves?
26:13
Speaker 1: If they could shoot automatic rockets across the miles of space,
26:17
Speaker 1: certainly they could navigate rockets carrying themselves. The Martian rockets
26:23
Speaker 1: had been closely studied back on Earth, but had yielded
26:26
Speaker 1: no secrets. The fuel always was exhausted. More than likely
26:32
Speaker 1: the martiansnew to the last drop how much was needed.
26:37
Speaker 1: The construction was not unlike Earth rockets, but fashioned of
26:40
Speaker 1: a steel that was hardened and toughened beyond anything Earth
26:45
Speaker 1: could produce. So for ten years, earthmen had worked unaided
26:51
Speaker 1: to cross the bridge of space, launching ships from the
26:55
Speaker 1: Earth's most favored take off point from the top of
26:57
Speaker 1: Mount Kenya, heading out eastward into space, taking advantage of
27:02
Speaker 1: the mountain's three mile height the Earth's rotation speed of
27:06
Speaker 1: five hundred yards per second at the equator. Scott reviewed
27:10
Speaker 1: his flight, checked the clocklike routine he had followed blast
27:14
Speaker 1: off from Earth, Landing in the drear, desolate Mare, set
27:17
Speaker 1: anitatis on the Moon, refueling the ship from the buried
27:21
Speaker 1: storage tanks, using the caterpillar tractor from the underground garage
27:24
Speaker 1: to haul the rocket on to the great turntable cradle,
27:28
Speaker 1: setting the cradle at the correct angle and direction, blasting
27:31
Speaker 1: off again at the precise second, carrying a full load
27:34
Speaker 1: of fuel, something impossible to do, and still take off
27:38
Speaker 1: from Earth, taking advantage of the Moon's lower gravity, its
27:41
Speaker 1: lack of atmosphere, using the Moon as a stepping stone
27:46
Speaker 1: to outer space. Now he was headed for Mars. If
27:50
Speaker 1: he landed there safely, he could spend two days, no more,
27:53
Speaker 1: no less before he blasted off Earth again. But probably
27:57
Speaker 1: he wouldn't reach Mars. Probably he and Jimmy Baldwin in
28:02
Speaker 1: the end would be just a few more bones to
28:05
Speaker 1: pave the road to Mars. A gigantic building, rising to
28:09
Speaker 1: several hundred feet in height, domed with out door or window,
28:13
Speaker 1: stood lonely in the vastness of the red plain that
28:16
Speaker 1: stretched off to the far off black horizon. The building
28:21
Speaker 1: nothing more, no other single sign of habitation, no other
28:26
Speaker 1: evidence of intelligent life. The Martian lilies were everywhere, great
28:32
Speaker 1: fields of them, bright scarlet against the redness of the sand,
28:36
Speaker 1: but in its native soil, the Martian lily was a
28:39
Speaker 1: sorry thing, a poor apology for the kind of flower
28:42
Speaker 1: that grew on Earth, stunted, low, growing with smaller and
28:47
Speaker 1: less brilliant flowers. The sand gritted under Scot's boots as
28:52
Speaker 1: he took a slow step forward. So this was mars
28:57
Speaker 1: here at the north pole, the single building, the only
29:01
Speaker 1: evidence of intelligence on the entire planet. As the ship
29:05
Speaker 1: had circled the planet, cutting down its tremendous speed, he
29:09
Speaker 1: had studied the surface in the telescopic glass, and this
29:12
Speaker 1: building had been the only habitation he had seen. It
29:16
Speaker 1: stood there, made of shimmering metal, glinting in the pale sunlight. Bugs,
29:23
Speaker 1: said Jimmy at Scott's elbow. What do you mean, bugs,
29:28
Speaker 1: asked Scott. Bugs in the air, said Jimmy, Flying bugs.
29:35
Speaker 1: Scott saw them, then, things that looked like streaks of
29:39
Speaker 1: light in the feeble sunshine. Swarms of them hovered about
29:44
Speaker 1: the great building, and others darted busily about. Bees, suggested Jimmy.
29:52
Speaker 1: But Scott shook his head. They weren't bees. They glinted
29:56
Speaker 1: and flashed when the sun's light struck them, and they
29:58
Speaker 1: seemed more mechanical than lifelike. Where are the Martians, Jimmy demanded.
30:06
Speaker 1: I don't know, Jimmy, declared Scott, damned if I do.
30:11
Speaker 1: He had envisioned the first earth Men reaching mars As,
30:14
Speaker 1: receiving thunderous servation, a mighty welcome from the Martians. But
30:19
Speaker 1: there weren't any Martians. Nothing stirred except the shining bugs
30:23
Speaker 1: and the lilies that nodded in a thin, cold breeze.
30:28
Speaker 1: There was no sound, no movement, like a quiet summer
30:32
Speaker 1: afternoon back on Earth. With a veil of quietness drawn
30:35
Speaker 1: over the flaming desert and the shimmering building, he took
30:39
Speaker 1: another step, walking toward the Great Building. The sand grated
30:44
Speaker 1: protestingly beneath his boot heels. Slowly he approached the building, alert, watching,
30:51
Speaker 1: ready for some evidence that he and Jimmy had been seen.
30:54
Speaker 1: But no sign came. The bugs droned overhead, the lilies
30:59
Speaker 1: nodded sleepy. That was all. Scott looked at the thermometer
31:05
Speaker 1: strapped to the wrist of his oxygen suit. The needle
31:08
Speaker 1: registered ten above centigrade. Warm enough, but the suits were
31:12
Speaker 1: necessary for the air was far too thin for human consumption.
31:17
Speaker 1: Deep shadow lay at the base of the building, and
31:20
Speaker 1: as he neared it, Scott made out something that gleamed
31:23
Speaker 1: whitely in the shadow, something that struck a cord of
31:26
Speaker 1: remembrance in his brain, something he had seen back on Earth.
31:31
Speaker 1: As he hurried forward, he saw it was a cross,
31:35
Speaker 1: a white cross, thrust into the sand. With a cry,
31:40
Speaker 1: he broke into a run. Before the cross, he dropped
31:43
Speaker 1: to his knees and read the crudely carved inscription on
31:46
Speaker 1: the wood, just two words, the name of a man
31:51
Speaker 1: carven with a jackknife. Harry Decker, Harry Decker. Scott fell,
32:00
Speaker 1: his brain swimming crazily. Harry Decker. Here, Harry Decker, under
32:05
Speaker 1: the red sand of Mars. But that couldn't be Harry
32:09
Speaker 1: Decker's name couldn't be here. It was back on Earth,
32:11
Speaker 1: graven on that scroll of bronze graven, there, directly beneath
32:16
Speaker 1: the name of Hugh Nixon. He staggered to his feet
32:21
Speaker 1: and stood swaying for a moment. From somewhere far away,
32:25
Speaker 1: he heard a shout, and, swinging around, ran toward the
32:29
Speaker 1: corner of the building. Rounding it, he stopped in amazement.
32:34
Speaker 1: There in the shelter of the building lay a rusted spaceship,
32:39
Speaker 1: and running across the sand toward him was a space
32:42
Speaker 1: suited figure, a figure that yelled as it ran and
32:46
Speaker 1: carried a bag over its shoulder, a bag bouncing at
32:49
Speaker 1: every leap. Hugh yelled Scott, and the grotesque figure bellowed back, Scott,
32:56
Speaker 1: you old devil.
32:58
Speaker 2: I knew you would do it. I knew you the
33:00
Speaker 2: moment I heard the rocket laugh.
33:04
Speaker 1: It's nice and warm here now, said Hugh. But you
33:08
Speaker 1: ought to spend a winter here. An Arctic blizzard is
33:10
Speaker 1: a gentle breeze compared with the Martian Pole. In winter time,
33:14
Speaker 1: you don't see the sun for almost ten months, and
33:16
Speaker 1: the mercury goes down to one hundred below centegrade. Hoar
33:20
Speaker 1: frost piles up three four feet thick, and a man
33:23
Speaker 1: can't stir out of the ship. He gestured at the bag.
33:28
Speaker 1: I was getting ready for another winter, which just like
33:30
Speaker 1: a squirrel. My supplies got low before the spring, and
33:34
Speaker 1: I had to find something to store up against another season.
33:37
Speaker 1: I found half dozen different kinds of bulbs and roots
33:40
Speaker 1: and some berries. I've been gathering them all summer, starring
33:43
Speaker 1: them away. But the Martians protested Scott wouldn't the Martians
33:48
Speaker 1: help you. His brother looked at him curiously. Martians, he asked, Yes,
33:56
Speaker 1: the Martians, Scott Hugh said, I haven't found any Martians.
34:04
Speaker 1: Scott stad at him. Let's get this straight now. You
34:07
Speaker 1: mean you don't know who the Martians are. Hugh nodded.
34:12
Speaker 1: That's exactly it. I try to find them hard enough.
34:15
Speaker 1: I did all sorts of screwy things to contact that
34:18
Speaker 1: intelligence which talked with the Earth and sent the rockets
34:21
Speaker 1: full of seed. But I've gotten exactly nowhere. I've finally
34:26
Speaker 1: given up that those bugs, suggested Scott, the shining bugs.
34:32
Speaker 1: He shook his head, No soap. I got the same
34:36
Speaker 1: idea and managed to bat down a couple of them.
34:39
Speaker 1: But they're mechanical, that's all, just machines operated by radium.
34:46
Speaker 1: It almost drove me nuts at first, those bugs flying around,
34:50
Speaker 1: and the buildings standing there, and the Martian lilies all round,
34:54
Speaker 1: but no signs of any intelligence. I try to get
34:57
Speaker 1: into the building, but there aren't any doors or windows,
35:00
Speaker 1: just little holes the bugs fly in and out of.
35:03
Speaker 1: I couldn't understand a thing. Nothing seemed bright, no purpose
35:07
Speaker 1: to any of it, no apparent reason. Only one thing
35:11
Speaker 1: I could understand, over on the other side of the building.
35:14
Speaker 1: I found the cradle that's used to shoot the rockets
35:16
Speaker 1: to Earth. I watched that done. But what happened, asked Scott,
35:22
Speaker 1: Why didn't you come back? What happened to the ship?
35:24
Speaker 1: We had no fuel, said Hugh. Scott nodded his head.
35:29
Speaker 1: A meteor in space, Not that, Hugh told him. Harry
35:35
Speaker 1: simply turned the pet cocks and let our gasoline run
35:37
Speaker 1: into the sand. Good lord, was he crazy? It's exactly
35:42
Speaker 1: what he was, Hugh declared. Baddie is a bedbug touch
35:46
Speaker 1: a space madness. I felt sorry for him. He cowered
35:50
Speaker 1: like a mad animal, beaten by the sense of loneliness
35:53
Speaker 1: and space. He was afraid of shadows he got so
35:57
Speaker 1: he didn't act like a man. I was glad from
35:59
Speaker 1: when he died. But even a crazy man would want
36:02
Speaker 1: to get back to Earth, protested Scott. It wasn't Harry,
36:06
Speaker 1: he explained, it was the Martians. I am sure, whatever
36:12
Speaker 1: or wherever they are, they probably have intelligences greater than ours.
36:17
Speaker 1: It would be no feat for them, perhaps to gain
36:20
Speaker 1: control of the brain of a demented man. They might
36:23
Speaker 1: not be able to dominate us, but a man whose
36:25
Speaker 1: thought processes were all tangled up by space madness. Would
36:29
Speaker 1: be an easy mark for them. They can make him
36:32
Speaker 1: do and think whatever they wanted him to think or do.
36:36
Speaker 1: It wasn't Harry opened those petcocks, Scott, it was the Martians.
36:42
Speaker 1: He leaned against the pitted side of the ship and
36:45
Speaker 1: stared up at the massive building. I was plenty sore
36:49
Speaker 1: at him when I caught him at it, he said.
36:52
Speaker 1: I gave him one hell of a beating. I've always
36:55
Speaker 1: been sorry for that. What finally happened to him? Asked Scott.
37:05
Speaker 1: Took me half an hour to run him down and
37:06
Speaker 1: bring him back. Exposure to the Martian atmosphere plays hell
37:13
Speaker 1: with a man's lung tissues. You can breathe it all right,
37:17
Speaker 1: might even be able to live in it for a
37:19
Speaker 1: few hours, but it's deadly just the same. Well it's
37:23
Speaker 1: all over now, declared Scott. We'll get my ships squared
37:26
Speaker 1: around and we'll blast off for Earth. We made it
37:29
Speaker 1: here and we can make it back, and you'll be
37:30
Speaker 1: the first man whoever SITI's foot on Mars. Hugh grinned.
37:36
Speaker 1: That will be something, won't at Scott, But somehow I'm
37:39
Speaker 1: not satisfied. I haven't accomplished a thing. I haven't even
37:43
Speaker 1: found the Martians. I know that here an intelligence that's
37:48
Speaker 1: at least capable of thinking along parallel lines with us,
37:52
Speaker 1: although it's thought processes may not be parallel with ours.
37:56
Speaker 1: We'll talk over it later, said Scott, after we get
37:58
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee into you. I bet you haven't
38:01
Speaker 1: had one in weeks. Weeks, jeered hughes Man. It's been
38:06
Speaker 1: ten months. Okay, then said Scott. Let's round up Jimmy.
38:11
Speaker 1: He must be round here somewhere, and I'd like to
38:13
Speaker 1: let him get out of my sight too much. The
38:17
Speaker 1: silence of the dreaming red deserts was shattered by a
38:20
Speaker 1: smashing report that drummed with a mighty clap against the
38:23
Speaker 1: sky above. A gash of red flame spouted over the
38:27
Speaker 1: dome top of the mighty building, and metal shards hammered
38:30
Speaker 1: spitefully against the side, settling up a metallic undertone to
38:34
Speaker 1: the ear shattering explosion. Sick with dread, Scott plunged to
38:39
Speaker 1: the corner of the building and felt the sick dread
38:42
Speaker 1: deepen ere he spaceship had lain A mighty hull was
38:47
Speaker 1: blasted in the sand. The ship was gone. No part
38:51
Speaker 1: of it was left. It had been torn into tiny
38:53
Speaker 1: fragments and hurled across the desert. Wisps of smoke crept
38:58
Speaker 1: slowly from the pit in the sand, twisting in the
39:01
Speaker 1: air currents that still swirled from the blast. Scott knew
39:05
Speaker 1: what had happened. There was no need to guess. Only
39:09
Speaker 1: one thing could have happened. The liquid oxygen had united
39:13
Speaker 1: with the gasoline, making an explosive that was sheer death itself.
39:17
Speaker 1: A single tremor, a thrown stone, a vibration, anything would
39:22
Speaker 1: set it off. Across the space between himself and the
39:26
Speaker 1: ship came the tattered figure of a man, A man
39:30
Speaker 1: whose clothes were torn, a man covered with blood, weaving,
39:34
Speaker 1: head down, feet dragging. Jimmy yelled Scott. He sprinted forward,
39:41
Speaker 1: but before he could reach his side, Jimmy had collapsed.
39:45
Speaker 1: Kneeling beside him. Scott lifted the man's head. The eyes
39:49
Speaker 1: rolled open and the lips twitched. Slow, tortured words oozed out.
39:56
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Scott, I I don't know why. The eyes
40:03
Speaker 1: closed but opened again a faint flutter, and more words
40:08
Speaker 1: bubbled from the bloody lips.
40:10
Speaker 2: I wonder.
40:13
Speaker 1: Why I did it. Scott looked up and saw his
40:17
Speaker 1: brother standing in front of him. Hugh nodded the Martians again, Scott,
40:23
Speaker 1: they could use Jimmy's mind. They could get a hold
40:26
Speaker 1: of him, blasted brain of his Scott looked down at
40:30
Speaker 1: the man in his arms. The head had fallen back,
40:33
Speaker 1: the eyes were staring. Blood was dripping on the sand. Hugh,
40:39
Speaker 1: he whispered, Jimmy's dead. Hugh stared across the sand at
40:47
Speaker 1: the little glimmer of white in the shadow of the building.
40:50
Speaker 1: We'll make another cross. The Martians hadn't wanted them to come.
40:55
Speaker 1: That much, at least was clear. But having gotten here,
40:59
Speaker 1: the Martians had no intention of letting them return to
41:01
Speaker 1: Earth again. They didn't want them to carry back the
41:04
Speaker 1: word that it was possible to navigate across space to
41:07
Speaker 1: the outer planet. Maybe the Martians were committed to a
41:11
Speaker 1: policy of isolation. Maybe there was a hands off sign
41:15
Speaker 1: set up on Mars, maybe a no trespassing sign. But
41:18
Speaker 1: if that had been the case, why had the Martians
41:21
Speaker 1: answered the radio calls from Earth. Why had they cooperated
41:25
Speaker 1: with doctor Alexander in working out the code that made
41:27
Speaker 1: communication possible, and why did they continue sending messages and
41:32
Speaker 1: rockets to Earth? Why didn't they sever diplomatic relationships entirely
41:38
Speaker 1: retire into their isolation if they didn't want earth Men
41:42
Speaker 1: to come to Mars, Why hadn't they trained guns on
41:46
Speaker 1: the two ships as they came down to the scarlet
41:48
Speaker 1: sand wiped them out without compunction? Why did they resort
41:52
Speaker 1: to the expedient of forcing Earthmen to bring about their
41:55
Speaker 1: own destruction? And why, now that Harry Decker and Jimmy
41:59
Speaker 1: Baldwin were dead, didn't the Martians wipe out the remaining
42:02
Speaker 1: two of the unwonted race. Perhaps the Martians were merely efficient,
42:07
Speaker 1: not vindictive. Maybe they realized that the remaining two earth
42:11
Speaker 1: Men constituted no menace. And maybe, on the other hand,
42:15
Speaker 1: the Martians had no weapons. Perhaps they never had held
42:19
Speaker 1: a need for weapons. It might be that they never
42:23
Speaker 1: had to fight for self preservation. And above and beyond all,
42:29
Speaker 1: what and where were the Martians in that huge building
42:34
Speaker 1: invisible in caverns beneath the surface, at some point far away?
42:40
Speaker 1: Maybe perhaps why? Speculation and wonderment, but there was no answer,
42:50
Speaker 1: not even the slightest hint. Just the building shimmering in
42:54
Speaker 1: the unsetting sun, the metallic bugs buzzing in the air,
42:59
Speaker 1: the lilies, nodding in the breeze that blew across the desert.
43:05
Speaker 1: Scott Nixon reached the room of the plateau and lowered
43:08
Speaker 1: the bag of roots from his shoulder, resting and waiting
43:11
Speaker 1: for Hugh to toil up the remaining few yards of
43:14
Speaker 1: the slope before him. Slightly over four miles across the
43:19
Speaker 1: plain loomed the Martian Building. Squatting at its base was
43:23
Speaker 1: the battered, pitted spaceship. There was too much ozone in
43:27
Speaker 1: the atmosphere here for the steel in the ship to
43:30
Speaker 1: stand up. Before many years had passed, it would fall
43:34
Speaker 1: to pieces, would rust away, But that made little difference,
43:38
Speaker 1: for by that time they probably wouldn't need it. By
43:41
Speaker 1: that time another ship would have arrived, or they would
43:45
Speaker 1: be dead. Scott grinned grimly. A hard way to look
43:49
Speaker 1: at things, but the only way one had to be
43:52
Speaker 1: realistic here, hard headed planning was the only thing that
43:56
Speaker 1: would carry them through. The food supply was short, and
43:59
Speaker 1: while they'll probably be able to gather enough for their
44:02
Speaker 1: coming winter, there was always the possibility that the next
44:05
Speaker 1: season would find them short. But there was hope to
44:09
Speaker 1: cling to, always hope, hope that the summer would bring
44:13
Speaker 1: another ship winging out of space that this time, armed
44:17
Speaker 1: by past experience, they could prevent its destruction. Hugh came
44:22
Speaker 1: up with Scott, slid the bag of roots to the
44:25
Speaker 1: ground and sat on it. He nodded at the building
44:28
Speaker 1: across the desert. That's the nerve center of the whole business,
44:32
Speaker 1: he declared. If we could get into it, his voice
44:36
Speaker 1: trailed away. But we can, Scott prominded him. We've tried
44:41
Speaker 1: and we can't. There are no doors, no openings, just
44:44
Speaker 1: those little holes the bugs fly in and out of.
44:47
Speaker 1: There's the door somewhere, said Hugh, a hidden door. The
44:52
Speaker 1: bugs use it to bring out machines to do the
44:54
Speaker 1: work when they shoot a rocket out for Earth. I've
44:57
Speaker 1: seen the machines, screwy looking things, work units, pure and simple,
45:01
Speaker 1: but so efficient you'd swear they possessed intelligence. I've tried
45:06
Speaker 1: to find the door, but I never could, and the
45:08
Speaker 1: bugs always waited till I wasn't around before they moved
45:11
Speaker 1: the machines in or out of the building. He chuckled,
45:16
Speaker 1: scrubbing his bearded face with a horny hand. That rocket
45:21
Speaker 1: business saved my life, he said. If the power lead
45:24
Speaker 1: running out of the building to the cradle hadn't been there,
45:28
Speaker 1: I had been sunk. But there it was full of
45:31
Speaker 1: good old electricity. So I just tapped the thing and
45:36
Speaker 1: that gave me plenty of power, powerful heat free electrolysis
45:40
Speaker 1: for atmospheric condensation. Scott sank down heavily on his sack.
45:46
Speaker 1: It's enough to drive a man nuts, he declared. We
45:50
Speaker 1: can reach out and touch the building with our hand,
45:53
Speaker 1: just a few feet away from the explanation of all
45:55
Speaker 1: the screwiness inside that building, we'd find things we'd be
45:59
Speaker 1: able to use, machines, tools, Hugh hummed under his breath. Maybe,
46:08
Speaker 1: he said, maybe not, Maybe we couldn't recognize the machines,
46:15
Speaker 1: fathom the tools. Mechanical and technical development here probably wasn't
46:20
Speaker 1: any more parallel to ours than intelligence development. There's the
46:25
Speaker 1: rocket cradle, retorted Scott, same principle as we use on Earth.
46:29
Speaker 1: And they must have a radio in there and a telescope.
46:33
Speaker 1: We wouldn't be able to figure them out, even be
46:36
Speaker 1: able to send Doc Alexander a message. Yeah, agreed, Hugh.
46:42
Speaker 1: I thought of that too. But we can't get in
46:45
Speaker 1: the building, and that settles it. The bugs get under
46:49
Speaker 1: my skin, Scott complained. Always buzzing around, always busy, but
46:55
Speaker 1: busy at what like a bunch of hornets. They're the
47:00
Speaker 1: straw bosses of the outfit, declared Hugh, carrying out the
47:04
Speaker 1: orders of the Martians. The Martians hands and eyes, you
47:07
Speaker 1: might say, he dug at the sand with the toe
47:10
Speaker 1: of his space boot. Another swarm of them took off
47:14
Speaker 1: just before we started out on this trip. But you
47:17
Speaker 1: were here in the ship. I watched them until they disappeared,
47:21
Speaker 1: straight up and out, until you couldn't see them, just
47:25
Speaker 1: like they were taken off a space He kicked savagely
47:28
Speaker 1: at the sand. I sure as hell would like to
47:30
Speaker 1: know where they go, he said. There have been quite
47:33
Speaker 1: a few of them leaving lately, said Scott, as if
47:36
Speaker 1: the building were hive and they were new swarms of bees.
47:40
Speaker 1: Maybe they're going out to start new living centers. Maybe
47:43
Speaker 1: they're going to build more buildings. He stopped and stared
47:47
Speaker 1: straight ahead of him, his eyes unseeing going out to
47:51
Speaker 1: start new living centers, going out to build new buildings,
47:56
Speaker 1: shining metallic buildings Like a cold wind from the past.
48:01
Speaker 1: It came to him a picture of that last night
48:03
Speaker 1: on Earth. He heard the winding wind on Mount Kenya,
48:07
Speaker 1: once again, the blaring of the radio from the machine
48:10
Speaker 1: shop door, the voice of the newscaster Austen Gordon.
48:16
Speaker 2: Congo Valley, metallic city, Strange, metallic insects.
48:21
Speaker 1: The memory shook him from head to foot, left him
48:24
Speaker 1: cold and shivery. Without his knowledge, hw He crooked, you,
48:30
Speaker 1: I know what it's all about. His brother stared at him.
48:34
Speaker 1: Take it easy, kid, don't let it get you. Stick
48:38
Speaker 1: with me, kid, We're gonna make it all right. But you,
48:41
Speaker 1: Scott yelled, there's nothing wrong with me. Don't you see
48:45
Speaker 1: I know the answer to all this Martian business. Now?
48:48
Speaker 1: The lilies are the Martians. Those bugs are migrating to
48:54
Speaker 1: Earth their machines. Don't you see They could cross space
48:58
Speaker 1: and the lilies would be there to direct them. He
49:02
Speaker 1: jumped to his feet. They were ready building cities in
49:05
Speaker 1: the Congo, he yelled, Lord knows how many other places
49:09
Speaker 1: they're taking over the Earth. The Martians are invading the Earth,
49:13
Speaker 1: but the Earth doesn't know it. Hold on, Hugh yelled
49:16
Speaker 1: back at him. How could flowers build cities? They can't,
49:20
Speaker 1: said Scott breathlessly, But the bugs can. Back on Earth.
49:24
Speaker 1: They are wondering why the Martians don't use their rockets
49:27
Speaker 1: to come to Earth. That's exactly what the Martians are doing.
49:32
Speaker 1: Those rockets full of seeds aren't tokens at all. They're
49:35
Speaker 1: colonizing parties. Wait a minute, slow down, Hugh pleaded. Tell
49:42
Speaker 1: me this. If the lilies are the Martians and they
49:46
Speaker 1: sent seeds to Earth twelve years ago, why hadn't they
49:51
Speaker 1: sent them before? Because before that it would have been useless.
49:55
Speaker 1: They may have sent rockets of seeds before, but if
49:58
Speaker 1: they did, nothing came of it, For the seeds would
50:01
Speaker 1: have been useless if they weren't taken from the rocket.
50:04
Speaker 1: The rocket probably would have weathered away in time, releasing
50:07
Speaker 1: the seeds, but by that time the seeds would have
50:09
Speaker 1: lost their germinating power. Hugh shook his head. It seems impossible,
50:15
Speaker 1: he declared, impossible that plants could have real intelligence, that
50:20
Speaker 1: flowers could hold the mastery of a planet. I'm ready
50:23
Speaker 1: to accept almost any theory, but that one. Your mind
50:27
Speaker 1: sticks on parallel evolution, Scott argued, there's no premise for it.
50:32
Speaker 1: On Earth, animals took the spotlight, pushing the plants into
50:36
Speaker 1: a subordinate position. Animals got the head start, jumped the
50:39
Speaker 1: gun on the plants. But there's absolutely no reason why
50:42
Speaker 1: plants should not develop along precisely the same lines here
50:46
Speaker 1: that animals developed on Earth. But the Martian lily lives
50:50
Speaker 1: only one season ten months, and then it dies, Hugh protested,
50:56
Speaker 1: The next season's growth comes from seed. How could plants
50:59
Speaker 1: build untel leigence? Each new crop would have to start
51:02
Speaker 1: all over again. Not necessarily, declared Scott, animals are born
51:09
Speaker 1: with instinct, which is nothing more or less than inherited intelligence.
51:15
Speaker 1: In mankind, there are strange evidences of racial memory. Why
51:20
Speaker 1: couldn't the plans do the same thing with their seed progress?
51:24
Speaker 1: Even a step further? Why couldn't the seed carry along
51:28
Speaker 1: with its other attributes, all the intelligence and knowledge of
51:31
Speaker 1: the preceding generation. That way, the new plant would have
51:36
Speaker 1: to start from scratch, but would start with all the
51:39
Speaker 1: accumulated knowledge of its immediate ancestor, and would add to
51:43
Speaker 1: that knowledge and pass the sum total on to that
51:46
Speaker 1: generation that was to follow. Hugh kicked absent mindedly at
51:51
Speaker 1: the sand. There would be advantages in that sort of development,
51:56
Speaker 1: he agreed. It might even be the logical course survival
52:00
Speaker 1: on a planet like Mars. Some old Martian race, for
52:04
Speaker 1: all we know, might deliberately have shaped their development toward
52:07
Speaker 1: a planet existence when they realized the conditions toward which
52:11
Speaker 1: the planet was headed. A plant society will be a
52:14
Speaker 1: strange one, said Scott, a sort of totalitarian society, not
52:19
Speaker 1: the kind of a society animals would build. For an
52:21
Speaker 1: animal is an individual, and a plan is not. In
52:24
Speaker 1: a plant race individually would count for nothing. The race
52:28
Speaker 1: would count for everything. The driving force will be the
52:31
Speaker 1: preservation and the advancement of the race as a whole.
52:35
Speaker 1: That would make a difference. Hugh glanced up sharply. You're
52:40
Speaker 1: damn right, that would make a difference, he said. There
52:43
Speaker 1: would be a deadly race once they got started. Nothing
52:47
Speaker 1: could stop that singleness of purpose. His face seemed to
52:51
Speaker 1: blanche under the tan. Do you realize what's happening, he shouted.
52:56
Speaker 1: For millions of years, these plants have fought for bare
53:00
Speaker 1: existence on Mars. Every ounce of their effort has been
53:05
Speaker 1: toward race preservation. Every fall, the bugs carefully gather all
53:11
Speaker 1: the seeds and carry them inside the building, bring them out,
53:14
Speaker 1: and plant them in the spring. If it hadn't been
53:17
Speaker 1: for some arrangement like that, they probably would have died
53:20
Speaker 1: out years ago. Only a few scattered patches of them
53:24
Speaker 1: left now, But on Earth, said Scott, and the two
53:29
Speaker 1: of them, white faced, stared at one another. On Earth,
53:33
Speaker 1: the Martian lilies would not have to carry on a
53:36
Speaker 1: desperate fight for their very existence. On Earth. They had
53:41
Speaker 1: plenty of water, plenty of sunlight, plenty of good rich soil.
53:46
Speaker 1: On Earth, they grew larger and stronger and straighter under
53:51
Speaker 1: such conditions. What would be the limit of their alien powers?
53:56
Speaker 1: With the lilies multiplying each year, growing in every fence, row,
54:00
Speaker 1: every garden, crowding out the farmer's crops, lining every stream,
54:05
Speaker 1: clogging every forest, with swarm after swarm of the metallic bugs,
54:11
Speaker 1: driving out into space, heading for Earth, what would happen?
54:17
Speaker 1: How long would the lilies wait? How would they attack?
54:21
Speaker 1: Would they simply crowd out every other living thing, conquering
54:25
Speaker 1: by a sort of population pressure, or would they develop
54:29
Speaker 1: more fully those powers of forcing animal minds to do
54:33
Speaker 1: their bidding? Or did they have perhaps even stronger weapons.
54:39
Speaker 1: Hugh Scott rasped, we have to war on Earth somehow,
54:45
Speaker 1: We have to let them know. Yes, Hugh agreed. But
54:52
Speaker 1: how together limed against the harsh horizon, they stood, looking
55:00
Speaker 1: out across the desert toward the Martian building. Tiny figures,
55:06
Speaker 1: dimmed by distance scurried about the building. Scott squinted his
55:10
Speaker 1: eyes against the desert glare. What are those, he asked.
55:16
Speaker 1: Hugh seemed to jerk out of a trance. The machines again,
55:20
Speaker 1: he said, wearily. They're getting ready to shoot another rocket
55:23
Speaker 1: out to Earth. It'll be the last one of the season.
55:27
Speaker 1: Earth is drawn away again. More seeds, said Scott. Hugh nodded,
55:34
Speaker 1: More seeds and more bugs going out. And the worst
55:39
Speaker 1: of it is that Earth doesn't know. No man in
55:41
Speaker 1: his right mind on Earth could even dimly speculate upon
55:44
Speaker 1: the possibility of high intelligence and plant life. There's no reason,
55:49
Speaker 1: to no precedent upon which to base such a speculation.
55:54
Speaker 1: Earth plants have never had intelligence. A message is always need,
56:00
Speaker 1: declared Scott. Just get word to the Earth. They'd root
56:06
Speaker 1: up every plant on the face of the entire globe.
56:08
Speaker 1: They'd He stopped abruptly and stared out across the desert.
56:13
Speaker 1: The rocket, he whispered, The rocket is going to Earth.
56:19
Speaker 1: Hugh swung on him fiercely. What are you. We could
56:22
Speaker 1: send a message by the rocket, yelled Scott. They always
56:27
Speaker 1: watch for them, always hoping each one will carry something new,
56:31
Speaker 1: some new thing from Mars. It's the only way we
56:34
Speaker 1: can get a message back to Earth. But they won't
56:37
Speaker 1: let us near, protested Hugh. I've tried to get up
56:41
Speaker 1: close to the cradle when they were launching one, and
56:43
Speaker 1: those machines always drove me away, didn't hurt me, but threatened.
56:50
Speaker 1: We have guns, said Scott, Guns, said Hugh, wouldn't be
56:56
Speaker 1: worth a dam against them. The bullets would just glance off.
57:00
Speaker 1: Even explosive bullets wouldn't hurt them. Sledges, then, said Scott.
57:05
Speaker 1: We'll make junk out of the damned things. We've got
57:08
Speaker 1: a couple of sledges in the ship. Hugh looked at
57:12
Speaker 1: him levily. Okay, kid, let's get going. The machines paid
57:18
Speaker 1: them no attention, no higher than a man's waist. They
57:21
Speaker 1: curiously resembled grotesque spiders. Gangling rods and arms sprouted out
57:27
Speaker 1: all over them, and from their trunks sprouted waving steel
57:33
Speaker 1: and tenor. Overhead hung a swarm of metallic bugs, evidently
57:39
Speaker 1: directing the work of making the rocket ready. It just
57:43
Speaker 1: takes three minutes or thereabouts, from the time they finally
57:45
Speaker 1: have her ready until she blasts, said Hugh. Whatever we
57:50
Speaker 1: are going to do has to be done in those
57:52
Speaker 1: three minutes, and we've got to hold them off until
57:55
Speaker 1: the rocket blasts. They'll suspect there's something wrong and we'll
57:58
Speaker 1: try to stop it. But if we can hold them off,
58:01
Speaker 1: they must already have radioed Earth the rocket is coming,
58:04
Speaker 1: said Scott. We always got word in advance. Probably they
58:09
Speaker 1: won't follow up with their location messages, but Doc will
58:11
Speaker 1: be watching for it. Anyhow, they stood tensed, waiting, each
58:16
Speaker 1: grasping a heavy hammer. The space about the cradle was
58:20
Speaker 1: a scene of intense but efficient activity. Last minute adjustments
58:25
Speaker 1: were made, Readings and settings were checked. Each machine seemed
58:30
Speaker 1: to act by rote, while overhead hung the cloud of
58:33
Speaker 1: humming bugs. We know what we were to do, said Hugh.
58:39
Speaker 1: We've simply got to do it. Scott nodded Hugh shot
58:44
Speaker 1: a glance at him. Think you can hold them off, kid.
58:48
Speaker 1: It'll take a while to unscrew the inner and outer caps,
58:51
Speaker 1: and we've got to get that message inside the inner
58:53
Speaker 1: container or it'll burn when the rocket hits atmosphere. You
58:57
Speaker 1: just get that message in and the caps back on,
59:00
Speaker 1: said Scott. I'll hold them off for you. Suddenly the
59:03
Speaker 1: machine scurried back from the cradle, leaving a clear space
59:06
Speaker 1: of several yards around it. Now Hugh shouted and the
59:11
Speaker 1: two men charged. The attack was a surprise. Their rush
59:15
Speaker 1: carried the line of machines between them and the cradle.
59:19
Speaker 1: One machine barred Scott's way, and he smashed at it
59:22
Speaker 1: savagely with the heavy hammer. The blow flung it aside, crippled, dented,
59:27
Speaker 1: half smashed. Hugh was already at the cradle, clambering up
59:31
Speaker 1: the superstructure. A machine rushed at Scott, steel arms flailing,
59:37
Speaker 1: ducking a murderous swipe. The Earthman brought his sledge into play.
59:40
Speaker 1: It sheared through the arms, smashed into the body of
59:43
Speaker 1: the machine. The stricken mechanism seemed to reel, staggered erratically,
59:48
Speaker 1: then collapsed upon the sand in two leaps. Scott gained
59:53
Speaker 1: the superstructure, scaled it and straddled the cradle. His sledge
59:58
Speaker 1: smashed savagely upon on a climbing mechanism flung it to
1:00:02
Speaker 1: the ground, but others were swarming up the steel lattice work.
1:00:05
Speaker 1: Tentacles snaked out, seeking to entrap him. A wicked blow
1:00:09
Speaker 1: on the leg almost brought him down. His sledge worked
1:00:12
Speaker 1: steadily and at the foot of the cradle. Broken mechanisms
1:00:16
Speaker 1: brought testimony to its execution. Out of the corner of
1:00:20
Speaker 1: his eye, he saw that Hugh had inserted the envelope
1:00:23
Speaker 1: carrying the message in the inner container with the seeds,
1:00:26
Speaker 1: and was tightening the screw cap. All that remained was
1:00:29
Speaker 1: to screw on the larger, heavier, outer cap, but only
1:00:34
Speaker 1: seconds must remain, precious seconds before the rock had blasted,
1:00:38
Speaker 1: and before that happened, there had to be away from
1:00:40
Speaker 1: the cradle, for the backlash of flames would burn them
1:00:43
Speaker 1: to a cinder. Scott felt perspiration streaming over his body,
1:00:47
Speaker 1: running off his eyelids, blaring, his sight trickling down his nose.
1:00:52
Speaker 1: He heard the rasp of metal as Hugh drove home
1:00:55
Speaker 1: the cap with savage thrusts of the wrench. A machine
1:00:59
Speaker 1: rushed up the lad at him, and he smashed at
1:01:01
Speaker 1: it with unreasoning fury. The head of the sledge bit
1:01:04
Speaker 1: deep into the metal body. A tentacle wrapped about his
1:01:08
Speaker 1: leg and jerked. He felt himself losing balance, tumbling off
1:01:12
Speaker 1: the cradle into the melee of threshing metal beings beneath him.
1:01:16
Speaker 1: Then he was on the ground, buffeted and poundered by
1:01:19
Speaker 1: the maddening metal creatures. He fought savagely, blindingly, staggering forward.
1:01:25
Speaker 1: The shatter of glass in his vision plate had been broken,
1:01:28
Speaker 1: its texture smashed into a million tiny criss cross lines
1:01:31
Speaker 1: until it was like frosted glass. He heard the tough
1:01:35
Speaker 1: fabric of his suit rip with a screeching sound. The
1:01:38
Speaker 1: bugs still were hammering against him. The thin, acrid atmosphere
1:01:42
Speaker 1: of Mars burned into his nose, and his lungs labored unseeingly.
1:01:49
Speaker 1: He swung his sledge in swathlike circles, shrieking like a
1:01:53
Speaker 1: wild Indian. He felt it smash and slam into the
1:01:56
Speaker 1: bodies of his metallic opponents. Then the world was blotted
1:02:01
Speaker 1: out by a resounding roar, a niagara of sound that
1:02:05
Speaker 1: beat in waves against one body. That was the rocket
1:02:10
Speaker 1: leaving who He yelled insanely, Hugh, We did it. The
1:02:21
Speaker 1: attack had fallen away, and he stood unsteadily on his feet, panting,
1:02:26
Speaker 1: stiff from punishment, but filled with exultation. They had won.
1:02:31
Speaker 1: He and Hugh had sent the message. Earth would be
1:02:34
Speaker 1: warned and Mars would lose its hope of conquering a
1:02:38
Speaker 1: new and younger world. Whatever dreams of conquest this old
1:02:42
Speaker 1: red planet may have nurtured, would never come to be.
1:02:47
Speaker 1: He put his hands up and ripped the helmet from
1:02:49
Speaker 1: his head, flinging it on the ground. The metallic machines
1:02:53
Speaker 1: were ringed around him, motionless, almost as if they were
1:02:58
Speaker 1: looking at him, almost as if they were waiting for
1:03:01
Speaker 1: his next move. Wildly, he whooped at them, start something,
1:03:06
Speaker 1: damn you, just start something. But the line in front
1:03:11
Speaker 1: of him parted and he saw the blackened thing that
1:03:14
Speaker 1: lay upon the sand, the twisted, blasted, crumpled thing that
1:03:19
Speaker 1: huddled there. Scott dropped his sledge, and a sob rose
1:03:24
Speaker 1: in his throat. His hands clenched at his side, and
1:03:28
Speaker 1: he tottered slowly forward. He stood above the body of
1:03:32
Speaker 1: his brother, flung there on the sand by the searing
1:03:35
Speaker 1: backlash of the rocket blast. Hugh, He cried, Hugh, but
1:03:47
Speaker 1: the blackened bundle didn't stir. Hugh Nixon was dead, eyes bleared.
1:03:57
Speaker 1: Scott stared around at the machines. They were breaking up, scattering,
1:04:03
Speaker 1: moving away. Damn you, he screamed, don't you even care?
1:04:12
Speaker 1: But even as he spoke, he knew they didn't care.
1:04:17
Speaker 1: The plants civilization of Mars was an unemotional society. It
1:04:22
Speaker 1: knew no love, no triumph, no defeat, no revenge. It
1:04:28
Speaker 1: was mechanistic, cold logical. It did only those things which
1:04:35
Speaker 1: aimed at a definite end. So long as there was
1:04:38
Speaker 1: a chance of protecting the rocket, so long as there
1:04:42
Speaker 1: was hope of halting its flight after it had been
1:04:44
Speaker 1: tampered with, the sad civilization would act. But now that
1:04:49
Speaker 1: it was in space, now that it could not be recalled,
1:04:53
Speaker 1: the insitant was over. There would be no further action.
1:04:58
Speaker 1: Scott looked down at the man at his feet. Harry Dekker,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Baldwin, and now Hugh Nixon. Three men had
1:05:09
Speaker 1: died here on Mars. He was the only one left,
1:05:13
Speaker 1: and he probably would die too, for no man could
1:05:18
Speaker 1: for long breathe that Martian air and live. What was
1:05:24
Speaker 1: it Hew had said on the first day, Place hell
1:05:27
Speaker 1: with the tissues of your lungs. He stared around him,
1:05:32
Speaker 1: saw the interminable red deserts, and the scarlet patches of
1:05:36
Speaker 1: Martian lilies nodding in the breeze, Saw the humming bugs
1:05:40
Speaker 1: flashing in the pale sunlight. Saw the shimmer of the
1:05:44
Speaker 1: mighty building that had no doors or windows. His lungs
1:05:48
Speaker 1: were aching now, and his throat was raw. It was
1:05:52
Speaker 1: harder and harder to breathe. He knelt in the sand
1:05:58
Speaker 1: and lifted the blackened body, Cradling it in his arms.
1:06:02
Speaker 1: He staggered along. I have to make another cross, he said.
1:06:12
Speaker 1: Far overhead, in the depths of space, twinkled the blue planet,
1:06:17
Speaker 1: whose life would never know. The slavery of the emotionless
1:06:22
Speaker 1: race of a dying world. End of Message from Mars
1:06:29
Speaker 1: by Clifford D. Semac recording by Liam Greene