Speaker 1: Second landing by Floyd Wallace. Earth was so far away
that it wasn't visible. Even the sun was only a twinkle.
But this vast distance did not mean that isolation could
endure forever. Instruments within the ship intercepted radio broadcasts, and
within the hour early TV signals. Machines compiled dictionaries and
grammars and began translating the major languages. The history of
the planet was tabulated as facts became available. The course
of the ship changed slightly, it was not much out
of the way to swing nearer Earth for days. The
two within the ship listened and watched with little comment.
They added, decide soon, we've got to make or break,
said the first alien. You know what I'm in favor of,
said the second. I can guess, said Nathaniel, who had
spoken first. The place is a complete mess. They've never
done anything except fight each other and invent better weapons.
It's not what they've done, said Ball, the second alien.
It's what they're going to do with that big bomb.
The more reason for stopping, said Nathaniel. The big bomb
can destroy them without our help. They may do just that.
I may remind you that in two months twenty nine days.
We're due in villevors, said Ball. Without looking at the charts,
I can tell you we still have more than one
hundred light years to go a week, said Nathaniel. We
can spare a week and still get there on time.
A week, said Ball. To settled their problems, they've had
two World wars in one generation, and that the third
and final one is coming up. You can't help feeling
in everything they do. It won't take much, said Aathaniel.
The wrong diplomatic move or a trigger soldier could set
it off, and it wouldn't have to be deliberate. A
meteor shower could pass over, and their clumsy instruments could
interpret it as an all out enemy attack. Too bad,
said Ball. We'll just have to forget there ever was
such a planet as Earth. Could you forget so many people?
I'm doing it, said Ball. Just give them a little
time and they won't be here to remind me that
I have a conscience. My memory isn't convenient, Saidn'thaniel. I
ask you to look at them, Paul rustled, flicking the
screen intently. Very much like ourselves, he said, at last,
a bit shorter, perhaps, and most certainly incomplete, except for
the one thing they lack, and that's quite odd. They
seem exactly like us. Is that what you wanted me
to say? It is the fact that they are an
incomplete version of ourselves touches me. They actually seem defenseless,
though I suppose they're not tough, said Paul. Nothing we
can do about it, there is. We can give them
a week. In a week, we can't negate their entire history.
We can't begin to undo the effect of a big bomb.
You can't tell, said Nathaniel. We can look things over,
and then what how much authority do we have? Very little,
conceded Ethaniel. Two minor officials on the way to Bulleforce,
and we run directly into a problem no one knew existed.
And when we get to Willefores we'll be busy. It
will be a long time before anyone comes his way again,
a very long time. There's nothing in this region of
space our people want, said Ethaniel. And how long can
earth last? Ten years? Even ten months? The tension is
building by the hour. What can I say? Said Paul.
I suppose we can stop and look them over. We're
not committing ourselves by looking They went much closer to Earth.
Not intending to commit themselves. For a day, they circled
the planet, avoiding radar detection, which for them was not difficult.
Testing and sampling. Finally, Nathaniel looked up from the monitor's screen.
Any conclusions. What's there to think? It's worse than I imagined
in what way? Well, we knew they had the big bomb.
Atmospheric analysis showed that as far away as we were,
I know, we also knew they could deliver the big bomb,
presumably by some sort of aircraft. That was almost a certainty.
They'd have no use for the big bomb without aircraft.
What's worse is that I now find they also have
missiles range one thousand miles and upward. They either had
or are near a primitive form of space travel. Bad,
said Nathaniel, sitting there wondering when it's going to hit them.
Nervousness could set it off. It could, and the missiles
make it worse, said Bab. What did you find out
at your end? Nothing worth? While I was looking at
the people while you were investigating their weapons, you must
think something. I wish I knew what to think. There's
so little time, Nathaniel said. The language isn't the difficulty.
Our machines translate their languages easily, and I've taken a
cram course in two or three of them. But that's
not enough. Looking at a few plays, listening to advertisements,
music and news bulletins. I should go down and live
among them, read books, talk to scholars, work with them, play.
You could do that, and you'd really get to know them.
But that takes time, and we don't have it. I
realized that a flat yes or no, said Ball. No,
we can't help them, said Itathaniel. There is nothing we
can do for them, but we have to try. Sure.
I knew it before we started, said Ball. It's happened before.
We take the trouble to find out what a people
are like, and when we can't help them, we feel bad.
It's going to be that way again, he arose and stretched, Well,
give me an hour to think of some way of
going at it. It was longer than that before they
met again. In the meantime, the ship moved much closer
to Earth. They no longer needed instruments to see it.
The planet revolved outside the vision ports. The southern plains
were green, coursed with rivers. The oceans were blue and
much of the northern hemisphere was glistening white. Ragged clouds
covered the pole, and a dirty pall spread over the
mid regions of the North. I have thought of anything brilliant,
said Eathaniel, nor I, said Ball. We're going to have
to go down there cold, and it will be cold. Yes,
it's their winter. I did have an idea, said Paul,
What about going down as supernatural beings? Hardly, said Itathaniel.
A hundred years ago, it might have worked today. They
have satellites. They are not primitives. I suppose you're right,
said Baul. I did think we ought to take advantage
of our physical differences if we could, I'd be all
for it. But these people are rough and desperate. They
wouldn't be fooled by anything that crude. Well, you're calling it,
said Ball. All right, said Eathaniel. You take one side
and I the other. We'll tell them bluntly what they'll
have to do if they are going to survive, how
they can keep their planet in one piece so they
can live on it. That'll go over big. Advice is
always popular. Can't help it, that's all. We have time
for special instructions. None. We leave the ship here and
go down in separate landing craft. You can talk to
me any time you want to through our communications, but
don't unless you have to. They can't understn the beings
we use. They can't, and even if they did, they
wouldn't know what to do with our language. I want
them to think that we don't need to talk things over.
I get it makes us seem better than we are.
They think we know exactly what we're doing, even though
we don't. If we're lucky, they'll think that. Paul looked
out of the port at the planet below. It's going
to be cold where I'm going. You too, sure? We
don't want to change our plans and land in the
southern hemisphere. It's summer there, I'm afraid not. The great
powers are in the north. They are the ones we
have to reach to do the job. Yeah, but I
was thinking at that holiday you mentioned, we'll be running
straight into it. That won't help us any I know
they don't like their holidays interrupted. It can't be helped.
We can't wait until it's over. I'm aware of that,
said Paul. Fill me in on that holiday. Anything I
ought to know probably religious in origin. That's so it
was religious A long time ago, said Nathaniel. I didn't
learn anything exact from radio and TV. Now it seems
to be chiefly a time for eating, office parties and
selling merchandise. I see it has become a business holiday.
That's a good description. I didn't get as much of
it as I ought to have. I was busy studying
the people, and they're hard to bend down. I see.
I was thinking there might be some way we could
tie ourselves in with this holiday, make it work for us.
If there is, I haven't thought of it. You ought
to know you're running this one. Boal looked down at
the planet. Clouds were beginning to form at the twilight edge.
I hate to go down and lead the ship up
here with no one in it. They can't touch it.
No matter how they developed in the next hundred years,
they still won't be able to get in or damage
it in any way. It's myself I'm thinking about down
there alone. I'll be with you on the other side
of the Earth that's not very close. I'd like it
better if there were someone in the ship to bring
it down in a hurry. If things get rough. They
don't think much of each other. I don't imagine they'll
like aliens any better. They may be unfriendly Ifaniel acknowledged now.
He switched a monitor screen until he looked at the
slope of a mountain. It was snowing and men were
cutting small green trees in the snow. I've thought of
a trick. If it saves my neck, I'm for it.
I don't guarantee anything, said Nathaniel. This is what I
was thinking of. Instead of hiding the ship against the
sun where there's little chance it will be seen, we'll
make sure that they do see it. Let's take it
around to the night side of the planet and light
it up. Say pretty good, said Ball. They can't imagine
that we'd light up an unmanned ship, said Nathaniel. Even
if the thought should occur to them, they'll have no
way of checking it. Also, they won't be eager to
harm us with our ship shining down on them. That's thinking,
said Ball, moving to the controls, I'll move the ship
over where they can see it best, and then I'll
light it up. I'll really light it up. Don't spare power.
Don't worry about that. They'll see it. Everybody on Earth
will see it. Later, with the ship in position, glowing
against the darkness of space, pulsating with light outside. You know,
I feel better about this. We may pull it off.
Lighting the ship may be just the help we need.
It's not we who need help, but the people of Earth,
said Nathaniel. See you in five days. With that, he
entered a small landing craft, which left a faintly luminescent
trail as it plunged toward Earth. As soon as it
was safe to do so, Bob left in another craft,
heading for the other side of the planet, and the
spaceship circled Earth unmanned, blazing and pulsing with light. No
star in the winter skies of the planet below could
equal it. In Brilliancy, once a man made satellite came near,
but it was dim and was lost sight of by
the people below. During the day, the ship was visible
as a bright spot of light. At evening, it seemed
to burn through the sunset colors, and the ship circled
on bright, shining, seeming to be a little piece clipped
from the center of a star and brought near Earth
to illuminate it. Never, or seldom had Earth seen anything
like it. In five days, the two small landing craft
that had left, It arched up from Earth and joined
the orbit of the large ship. The two small craft
slid inside the large one, and doors closed behind them.
In a short time, the aliens met again. We did it,
said Ball exultantly as he came in. I don't know
how we did it, and I thought we were going
to fail, but at the last minute they came through.
Nathaniel smiled. I'm tired, he said, rustling me too, but
mostly I'm cold, said Ball, shivering. Snow, nothing but snow
wherever I went. Miserable climate. And yet you had me
go out walking after that first day. From my own experience,
it seemed to be a good idea, said Nathaniel. If
I went out walking one day, I noticed that the
next day the officials were very much more co operative.
If it worked for me, I thought it might help you.
It did. I don't know why, but it did, said Ball. Anyway,
this agreement they made isn't the best, but I think
it will keep them from destroying themselves. It's as much
as we can expect, said Nathaniel. They may have small
wars after this, but never the big one. In fifty
or a hundred years, we can come back and see
how much they've learned. I'm not sure I want to,
said Ball. Say what's an angel? Why? When I went
out walking, people stopped to look. Some knelt in the
snow and called me an angel. Something like that happened
to me, said Nathaniel. I didn't get it, but I
didn't let it upset me, said Ball. I smiled at
them and went about my business. He shivered again. It
was always cold. I walked out, but sometimes I flew back.
I hope that was all right. In the cabin, Ball
spread his great wings. Renaissance painters had never seen his luck,
but knew exactly how he looked in their paintings. They
had pictured him innumerable times. I don't think it hurt
us that you flew, said Nathaniel. I did sell myself occasionally,
But you don't know what an angel lives. No, I
didn't have time to find out some creature of their folklore.
I suppose you know, except for our wings, they're very
much like ourselves. Their legends are bound to resemble ours, sure,
said Ball. Anyway, Peace on Earth. End of Second Landing
by Floyd Wallace