by Jimmy Guieu
“It’s going to land!”
The captivated astronauts watched the movements of the weird, disc-shaped machine. It landed gently less than 500 feet from their base. Almost 200 feet in diameter it was perfectly circular. An 80-foot high, 30-foot wide tower surmounted it, whose top was rounded into a dome. The spacecraft landed flat, its whole bottom side touching the lunar soil and leaving no free space between it and the Selenites crushed under its colossal weight.
The Earthlings stood agape. No one moved an inch.
“Don’t just stand there like statues!” Kariven shouted with joy. “It won’t eat you! Professor Harrington, you can turn off the reflectors for a while.”
Gladly making the first move Kariven was about to rush through the zone usually swept by the heat rays but he stopped short and hesitated.
In the flying saucer’s tower a retractable panel, 15 by 30 feet, was slowly sliding open. The huge doorway opened onto the inside of the craft. Kariven’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. An uncontrollable fear choked him. Through the rectangular opening five men in spacesuits had just appeared.
“Get down!” Kariven yelled and he jumped to the closest missile ramp that he maneuvered with surprising skill. “Everyone on the ground, goddamn it!” he roared, aiming the four remaining missiles at the round spaceship.
He pressed the trigger button and in a giant bound fell to the ground 15 feet away. Seeing him do this everyone else, not trying to understand why, did the same, but a layer of dust was already rising up to meet them. A quadruple explosion, terrifying even though silent, had just jolted the lunar surface.
A rain of metal fell upon the base, lifting gusts of chalky ash, digging craters, tearing off rocks and destroying some of the equipment that was still standing after the moonquakes. When the deluge of metal had let up, the astronauts, half-buried under the ash, risked a glance, at first timidly, then more confidently. The disaster was over. Nothing remained of the flying saucer but a formless mass of metal plates and lumps of machinery among which they could see hundreds of corpses in spacesuits horribly mangled.
When Commander Taylor regained his ability to talk he stammered, “Well, Kariven, you, uh… Come on, what got into you to go and blow up the Polarians, the friends of Earthlings?”
No doubt fearing a sudden fit of insanity by Kariven due to edgy nerves after that last 48 hours, he stayed a respectable distance away, his hand on the butt of his Colt, ready to draw and fire at… the madman.
“I didn’t have time to explain before acting, Commander,” he shook his head. “No, my friends, I’m not crazy. The Space Fever has nothing to do with my apparently disturbing behavior. First of all this flying saucer did not, as I initially thought, have Polarian passengers, those spacemen identical to us. Look, see for yourselves… Come on… Jump over to the wreckage… The Selenites won’t attack…”
With the exception of three men staying at the base in case of any mishap, the American and Russian astronauts followed Kariven who started searching through the spaceship debris and dismembered corpses until he found a victim whose suit appeared intact except for a metal shard that had pierced it leaving a one and a half inch hole in the belly.
Kariven squatted down and using a sharp piece of metal split the thick, rubbery material from neck to groin. He ripped it open, tore off the metal helmet that had only a thin horizontal slit at eye level, and in a trembling, angry voice said, “Here’s what I mistook for the Polarians!”
The astronauts recoiled in horror on seeing the disgusting corpse: a body with green skin, covered in horny scales like a lizard! The green head of the frightening creature had pointy ears and its eyes, opened to death, were red with yellow streaks. Its skull had greenish, fleshy lumps that were glistening like the skin of a toad.
“What is that abomination?”
“It’s a Denebian, Commander, an inhabitant of the solar system of the star Deneb, otherwise called Alpha Cygni. These creatures are the staunch enemies of the Men from Space who are constantly hunting them down in our solar system.”
“So, that’s the monster that the Polarian described to us telepathically when we stumbled upon his base in the Aristarchus crater,” Streiler said with a dry throat.
“The Moon,” Kariven continued, “is now the site of an interplanetary war… while on Earth men are completely unaware of the danger threatening them and continue their petty quarrelling.”
To his companions listening nervously he added, “You Russians and Americans, didn’t you just fight side by side, brothers in arms, against a common enemy, the Selenites? In the not too distant future all people of Earth will have to unite, once and for all, to fight against another common enemy, whose corpse you see here all covered with blood… green blood that is not human!”
“Watch out!” Clark shouted into his mic. “Another flying saucer!”
A glowing green disc was coming down on the Earthlings at unimaginable speed.
“Get back to camp! It’s our only chance!” Kariven shrieked as he bounded forward.
But he stopped right away, imitated by the others who were shaking in the suits, stumbling in the dust. In their heads a strange voice was resounding.
Do not fear, Earthling friends! This is a Polarian talking to you.
Stupefied, all the astronauts listened to this mysterious telepathic voice that just popped up in their minds.
Go back calmly to your camp and I will land.
Without being totally convinced the astronauts obeyed. In spite of the mental reassurance they all wondered if they were not about to fall into clever trap set by the monstrous Denebians. Kariven, however, looked calm and confident.
The flying saucer set down gently on its landing gear made of three metal spheres that rolled around in their electro-magnetic housing.
“You see,” Kariven explained to his friends, “that landing gear of three spheres is clearly visible, even when the disc is landed. It was, first of all, the absence of this that led me to believe that the other saucer was an enemy. In fact, all the Polarian ships that we saw in the Aristarchus crater had landing gear like this. Secondly, when that other saucer landed no telepathic message come through to us, which was surprising since Clark, Streiler and I got a message right away welcoming us to the base when we went to explore that crater. So, I was surprised not hearing the Polarian thoughts when the disc showed up. And after seeing the ship I knew right away we were in trouble. If I hadn’t destroyed that spaceship, the gruesome passengers would certainly have captured us!”
While Kariven explained himself, a platform supported on four telescopic columns descended from the flying saucer. In the middle of the chrome platform stood a Polarian, his legs slightly apart, his thumbs stuck casually in the huge belt of his light green spacesuit fitted with a round, transparent helmet.
With his herculean build the Polarian stood almost six and half feet tall. A lock of his short, brown hair fell over his forehead. His lively face was bronzed, much like the skin of North American Indians. From his belt, on each hip, hung a holster with a kind of big pistol that looked from afar just like a terrestrial gun.
On the shiny platform, at his feet, was a big, cylindrical device, about four feet tall and 15 inches in diameter. Its sides were perforated with countless holes arranged like a checkerboard and it was topped by a kind of control panel with buttons, dials, little screens and blinking lights.
The Man from Outer Space smiled cheerfully, making him look even friendlier. He raised his right hand up to his shoulder as a salute and turned on his tiny, wrist-mounted transmitter.
“I’m glad to meet you, Earthling friends,” he spoke in good English. “I bring to you the fraternal greeting of the Polarians. You have proved admirable in fighting against the Selenites. Despite being completely surrounded you didn’t give up the fight. Moreover, you Americans open-heartedly saved the Russians from certain death. I followed the event on a televiewer and I congratulate you.”
After a brief pause during whic
h he surveyed the monstrous corpses he continued:
“By destroying the Denebian spaceship you showed that you remembered what our enemies look like. What’s more, the glowing orb that Kariven, Clark and Streiler saw during their patrol of the dark side was a giant Denebian flying saucer, an enemy astrobase that we had just disintegrated. Its death glow was very interesting to you. But this episode is nothing compared to the epic battle that will break out in your solar system from Mercury to Pluto. So, we need good-hearted Earthlings to fight beside us. But right now, for you, the most important thing is to create an advance guard on Earth… secretly so as not to cause panic among the population. With your help this advance guard or Earth-Polarian Alliance will slowly bring the Earthlings around to admitting the existence of supra-evolved beings from another planet who will defend against the other beings, also more evolved but devoured by their thirst for power. I already know that we can count on you, Kariven…”
Commander Taylor hesitated a moment before speaking. He looked at each of his men, seeing the same determination on their faces. Then he told the Man from Outer Space, “You’ve got your new allies in us.”
Pointing to the survivors of his crew Colonel Zavkom said, “We’re also ready to receive orders, Polarian.”
“Bravo, friends! I’m proud that I never doubted the Earthlings’ open mind. From now on you belong to the Earth-Polarian Alliance that will save your planet. The battle will certainly not take place tomorrow but it is inevitable. And when the Denebians invade your solar system, we’ll have organized a huge defense plan.”
The Man from Outer Space casually picked up the big cylinder, put it on his shoulder and walked to the center of the American camp, saying, “Just wait a few minutes.”
Intrigued, the astronauts watched him bound away and then stop in front of Daisy and Mickey surrounded by the six parabolic reflectors. The Polarian put the cylinder delicately on the ground, pushed some buttons on the control panel mounted on top of it and after examining the screens pulled down a lever. Satisfied, he glanced one last time at the cylinder before walking calmly back to the Earthlings.
The men suddenly felt their legs tingling, then gradually their entire body. It was not painful, just unpleasant; like pins and needles vibrating inside them, almost like an electric shock but lasting a long time.
“What’s that machine do?” Kariven asked. “It’s making our bodies tingle.”
“Oh that?” the Polarian smiled. “That’s a high-frequency ‘Radiator’ specially designed to work on stars with radical variations in temperature and the total absence of atmosphere magnifies its effect. The waves it constantly emits will kill the Selenites within a half-mile radius. It’s not a very powerful one. Our base is equipped with a Radiator that reaches over 60 miles.”
The astronauts stood open-mouthed.
“So, all we had to do was simply emit high-frequency waves to keep the Selenites at bay?”
“That’s all. Your base is now protected. No Selenite will attack the metal of your spaceships or reflectors. Look around.”
Indeed, within half a mile around the camp the brown and purple shells had stopped moving. Beyond this range the monsters were retreating, slowly at first, then faster and faster, leaving pinkish drool between them and the corpses.
But a new phenomenon suddenly captured everyone’s attention. Little by little the blinding light of the lunar sun was waning.
“What’s going on?” Taylor was astonished to see this weird darkening of the lunar day.
“What do you mean?” the Polarian replied. “Don’t you remember that according to your measurement of time May 24, 1956 from 12:55 to 18:27 there’s an eclipse of the Moon? At 15:31 it will be total.”
“Good grief, that’s right!” Professor Harrington exclaimed. “Our astronomical calendars calculated it precisely. The event was put on the back burner in our minds because of all the devastating adventures we just lived through.”
“The Selenites didn’t forget,” the Polarian declared. “They know—through some kind of atavistic memory, I suppose—that in a very short time the Moon will be plunged into total darkness. I won’t go so far as to say that they understand this phenomenon of the Moon entering the Earth’s shadow, but they were waiting impatiently for your reflectors to lose the sunrays and stop working so they could enter your camp. Under cover of darkness it wouldn’t have taken them long to destroy you. Your spaceships and all your equipment would be at their mercy to reduce to metallic dust in a few hours.”
At this news the astronauts could not hold back a nervous shiver. Once again they had barely escaped death. Without the arrival of the Polarian, Operation Aphrodite would have seen its last.
“It’s time to leave, friends,” the Man from Outer Space watched the gradual darkening of the gloomy moonscape. “I’ll offer you to stay temporarily in our permanent base. Tomorrow you can come back here to finish your selenographic studies and make your repairs. When you’re done you can go back to Earth on board your rockets… carrying Selenites full of platinum! Since the Russian Earthlings have lost their spaceship we’ll bring them back home ourselves and then come back to Woonka, our lunar base. But, my Earthling Friends, we won’t be separated for long.”
A few minutes later, as Earth’s shadow eclipsed the Moon, the flying saucer took off. Glowing with a strange green light it headed straight for the Aristarchus crater, the mysterious bowl where astronomers on Earth sometimes see inexplicable flashes of light37.
In the cockpit with glowing walls, the brave American and Russian astronauts, united in the same battle, thought worriedly about the fantastic, sublime adventure that lay ahead. A future full of unknown dangers and terrifying risks but also of great hope: the total unification of the peoples of Earth and the expansion of Man into the infinite, inhabited worlds of our Universe.
Notes
1 Technicians and scientists specialized in rockets, guided missiles and other “specialized crafts.” (Author’s Note)
2 Rocketeers have the habit of calling rockets by a feminine first name. (Author’s Note)
3 True; see my comments in Les Soucoupes volantes viennent d’un autre monde [The Flying Saucers come from Another World] (1954) by the same author. (Author’s Note)
4 Not a bad prediction for a novel written in 1953, since Apollo 11 landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
5 Operation Aphrodite is one of the most mysterious “operations” conducted by the USA. In truth, we know nothing about its exact nature. (Author’s Note) Now we do. Aphrodite and Anvil were the World War II code names for US Air Force and Navy operations planning to use B-17 and PB4Y bombers as precision-guided munitions against bunkers and other hardened/reinforced enemy facilities, such as those targeted during Operation Crossbow. The plan called for B-17 aircraft that had been taken out of operational service (with nicknames such as “robot,” “baby,” “drone” or “Weary Willy”) to be loaded to capacity with explosives, and flown by radio control into bomb-resistant fortifications such as German U-boat pens and V-weapon sites, but it proved dangerous, expensive and unsuccessful. Of 14 missions flown, none resulted in the successful destruction of a target. Many aircraft lost control and crashed or were shot down by flak, and many pilots were killed. However, a handful of aircraft scored near misses. One notable pilot death was Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the elder brother of US President John F. Kennedy. Operation Aphrodite effectively ceased on January 27, 1945 when General Spaatz sent an urgent message to Major General James H. Doolittle: “Aphrodite babies must not be launched against the enemy until further orders.”
6 Laboratory trucks used as mobile observation stations. (Author’s Note)
7 Air Technical Intelligence Center, headquartered at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, specialized in the study of UFOs, otherwise called “flying saucers.” (Author’s Note)
8 The takeoff and landing of future spaceships will happen with the help of traditional jet propulsion. Ato
mic reactors, whose radioactive waste would pollute the atmosphere of Earth (or any other planet), won’t be used except in outer space. (Author’s Note)
9 California Institute of Technology. (Author’s Note)
10 See The Time Spiral. (Author’s Note)
11 Training base in Texas of future interplanetary rocket pilots. By the very existence of this base and the training which the pilots are put through, we can infer that astronautical voyages will be made before too long; see The Flying Saucers come from Another World, q.v. (Author’s Note)
12 The point in Mars’ orbit where it is closest the Earth. (Author’s Note)
13 Actually, more like 41 pounds.
14 The nitrogen in airtight bases as well as in spaceships will be replaced by helium that is less prone to cause embolisms. (Author’s Note)
15 The “night” taken here in the same sense as on Earth because on our satellite the lunar night (or day) lasts 14 earth days. (Author’s Note)
16 Farming without soil for many crops thanks to huge vats where the different vegetables and plants rest on a bed of gravel fed by a nutritive liquid. (Author’s Note)
17 True; observations reported on several occasions notably by Williams Herschel and Pickering. (Author’s Note)
18 True. This corporation was created at the beginning of 1953 by Richard de Touche-Skadding, a former Latvian diplomat turned archeologist and mineralogist. A similar company even required membership dues of $200! (Author’s Note) Baron Richard J. H. de Touche-Skadding was an eccentric mineralogist and the author of an entertaining book, Agni Mani: Magic Gem from the Moon (Ballantine, 1966; Mayflower 1968) about the fabled Javan tektites (Agni Mani is a Sanskrit term that translates as “Fire Pearls”). While the book purports to be a non-fiction account of his 30-year search for the stones, it is clearly highly embellished. Touche-Skadding was a true believer and presented specimens to then-Princess Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, and Lord Louis Mountbatten in the 1940s with the hope of blessing them with the legendary good luck of the Agni Mani.