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Speaker 1: Second landing by Floyd Wallace. Earth was so far away

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that it wasn't visible. Even the sun was only a twinkle.

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But this vast distance did not mean that isolation could

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endure forever. Instruments within the ship intercepted radio broadcasts, and

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within the hour early TV signals. Machines compiled dictionaries and

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grammars and began translating the major languages. The history of

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the planet was tabulated as facts became available. The course

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of the ship changed slightly, it was not much out

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of the way to swing nearer Earth for days. The

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two within the ship listened and watched with little comment.

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They added, decide soon, we've got to make or break,

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said the first alien. You know what I'm in favor of,

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said the second. I can guess, said Nathaniel, who had

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spoken first. The place is a complete mess. They've never

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done anything except fight each other and invent better weapons.

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It's not what they've done, said Ball, the second alien.

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It's what they're going to do with that big bomb.

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The more reason for stopping, said Nathaniel. The big bomb

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can destroy them without our help. They may do just that.

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I may remind you that in two months twenty nine days.

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We're due in villevors, said Ball. Without looking at the charts,

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I can tell you we still have more than one

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hundred light years to go a week, said Nathaniel. We

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can spare a week and still get there on time.

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A week, said Ball. To settled their problems, they've had

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two World wars in one generation, and that the third

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and final one is coming up. You can't help feeling

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in everything they do. It won't take much, said Aathaniel.

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The wrong diplomatic move or a trigger soldier could set

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it off, and it wouldn't have to be deliberate. A

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meteor shower could pass over, and their clumsy instruments could

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interpret it as an all out enemy attack. Too bad,

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said Ball. We'll just have to forget there ever was

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such a planet as Earth. Could you forget so many people?

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I'm doing it, said Ball. Just give them a little

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time and they won't be here to remind me that

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I have a conscience. My memory isn't convenient, Saidn'thaniel. I

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ask you to look at them, Paul rustled, flicking the

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screen intently. Very much like ourselves, he said, at last,

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a bit shorter, perhaps, and most certainly incomplete, except for

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the one thing they lack, and that's quite odd. They

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seem exactly like us. Is that what you wanted me

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to say? It is the fact that they are an

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incomplete version of ourselves touches me. They actually seem defenseless,

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though I suppose they're not tough, said Paul. Nothing we

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can do about it, there is. We can give them

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a week. In a week, we can't negate their entire history.

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We can't begin to undo the effect of a big bomb.

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You can't tell, said Nathaniel. We can look things over,

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and then what how much authority do we have? Very little,

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conceded Ethaniel. Two minor officials on the way to Bulleforce,

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and we run directly into a problem no one knew existed.

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And when we get to Willefores we'll be busy. It

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will be a long time before anyone comes his way again,

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a very long time. There's nothing in this region of

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space our people want, said Ethaniel. And how long can

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earth last? Ten years? Even ten months? The tension is

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building by the hour. What can I say? Said Paul.

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I suppose we can stop and look them over. We're

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not committing ourselves by looking They went much closer to Earth.

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Not intending to commit themselves. For a day, they circled

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the planet, avoiding radar detection, which for them was not difficult.

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Testing and sampling. Finally, Nathaniel looked up from the monitor's screen.

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Any conclusions. What's there to think? It's worse than I imagined

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in what way? Well, we knew they had the big bomb.

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Atmospheric analysis showed that as far away as we were,

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I know, we also knew they could deliver the big bomb,

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presumably by some sort of aircraft. That was almost a certainty.

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They'd have no use for the big bomb without aircraft.

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What's worse is that I now find they also have

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missiles range one thousand miles and upward. They either had

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or are near a primitive form of space travel. Bad,

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said Nathaniel, sitting there wondering when it's going to hit them.

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Nervousness could set it off. It could, and the missiles

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make it worse, said Bab. What did you find out

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at your end? Nothing worth? While I was looking at

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the people while you were investigating their weapons, you must

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think something. I wish I knew what to think. There's

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so little time, Nathaniel said. The language isn't the difficulty.

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Our machines translate their languages easily, and I've taken a

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cram course in two or three of them. But that's

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not enough. Looking at a few plays, listening to advertisements,

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music and news bulletins. I should go down and live

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among them, read books, talk to scholars, work with them, play.

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You could do that, and you'd really get to know them.

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But that takes time, and we don't have it. I

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realized that a flat yes or no, said Ball. No,

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we can't help them, said Itathaniel. There is nothing we

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can do for them, but we have to try. Sure.

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I knew it before we started, said Ball. It's happened before.

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We take the trouble to find out what a people

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are like, and when we can't help them, we feel bad.

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It's going to be that way again, he arose and stretched, Well,

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give me an hour to think of some way of

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going at it. It was longer than that before they

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met again. In the meantime, the ship moved much closer

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to Earth. They no longer needed instruments to see it.

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The planet revolved outside the vision ports. The southern plains

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were green, coursed with rivers. The oceans were blue and

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much of the northern hemisphere was glistening white. Ragged clouds

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covered the pole, and a dirty pall spread over the

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mid regions of the North. I have thought of anything brilliant,

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said Eathaniel, nor I, said Ball. We're going to have

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to go down there cold, and it will be cold. Yes,

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it's their winter. I did have an idea, said Paul,

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What about going down as supernatural beings? Hardly, said Itathaniel.

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A hundred years ago, it might have worked today. They

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have satellites. They are not primitives. I suppose you're right,

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said Baul. I did think we ought to take advantage

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of our physical differences if we could, I'd be all

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for it. But these people are rough and desperate. They

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wouldn't be fooled by anything that crude. Well, you're calling it,

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said Ball. All right, said Eathaniel. You take one side

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and I the other. We'll tell them bluntly what they'll

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have to do if they are going to survive, how

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they can keep their planet in one piece so they

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can live on it. That'll go over big. Advice is

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always popular. Can't help it, that's all. We have time

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for special instructions. None. We leave the ship here and

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go down in separate landing craft. You can talk to

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me any time you want to through our communications, but

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don't unless you have to. They can't understn the beings

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we use. They can't, and even if they did, they

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wouldn't know what to do with our language. I want

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them to think that we don't need to talk things over.

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I get it makes us seem better than we are.

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They think we know exactly what we're doing, even though

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we don't. If we're lucky, they'll think that. Paul looked

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out of the port at the planet below. It's going

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to be cold where I'm going. You too, sure? We

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don't want to change our plans and land in the

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southern hemisphere. It's summer there, I'm afraid not. The great

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powers are in the north. They are the ones we

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have to reach to do the job. Yeah, but I

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was thinking at that holiday you mentioned, we'll be running

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straight into it. That won't help us any I know

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they don't like their holidays interrupted. It can't be helped.

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We can't wait until it's over. I'm aware of that,

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said Paul. Fill me in on that holiday. Anything I

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ought to know probably religious in origin. That's so it

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was religious A long time ago, said Nathaniel. I didn't

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learn anything exact from radio and TV. Now it seems

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to be chiefly a time for eating, office parties and

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selling merchandise. I see it has become a business holiday.

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That's a good description. I didn't get as much of

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it as I ought to have. I was busy studying

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the people, and they're hard to bend down. I see.

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I was thinking there might be some way we could

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tie ourselves in with this holiday, make it work for us.

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If there is, I haven't thought of it. You ought

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to know you're running this one. Boal looked down at

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the planet. Clouds were beginning to form at the twilight edge.

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I hate to go down and lead the ship up

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here with no one in it. They can't touch it.

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No matter how they developed in the next hundred years,

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they still won't be able to get in or damage

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it in any way. It's myself I'm thinking about down

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there alone. I'll be with you on the other side

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of the Earth that's not very close. I'd like it

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better if there were someone in the ship to bring

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it down in a hurry. If things get rough. They

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don't think much of each other. I don't imagine they'll

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like aliens any better. They may be unfriendly Ifaniel acknowledged now.

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He switched a monitor screen until he looked at the

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slope of a mountain. It was snowing and men were

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cutting small green trees in the snow. I've thought of

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a trick. If it saves my neck, I'm for it.

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I don't guarantee anything, said Nathaniel. This is what I

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was thinking of. Instead of hiding the ship against the

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sun where there's little chance it will be seen, we'll

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make sure that they do see it. Let's take it

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around to the night side of the planet and light

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it up. Say pretty good, said Ball. They can't imagine

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that we'd light up an unmanned ship, said Nathaniel. Even

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if the thought should occur to them, they'll have no

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way of checking it. Also, they won't be eager to

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harm us with our ship shining down on them. That's thinking,

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said Ball, moving to the controls, I'll move the ship

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over where they can see it best, and then I'll

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light it up. I'll really light it up. Don't spare power.

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Don't worry about that. They'll see it. Everybody on Earth

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will see it. Later, with the ship in position, glowing

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against the darkness of space, pulsating with light outside. You know,

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I feel better about this. We may pull it off.

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Lighting the ship may be just the help we need.

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It's not we who need help, but the people of Earth,

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said Nathaniel. See you in five days. With that, he

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entered a small landing craft, which left a faintly luminescent

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trail as it plunged toward Earth. As soon as it

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was safe to do so, Bob left in another craft,

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heading for the other side of the planet, and the

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spaceship circled Earth unmanned, blazing and pulsing with light. No

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star in the winter skies of the planet below could

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equal it. In Brilliancy, once a man made satellite came near,

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but it was dim and was lost sight of by

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the people below. During the day, the ship was visible

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as a bright spot of light. At evening, it seemed

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to burn through the sunset colors, and the ship circled

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on bright, shining, seeming to be a little piece clipped

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from the center of a star and brought near Earth

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to illuminate it. Never, or seldom had Earth seen anything

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like it. In five days, the two small landing craft

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that had left, It arched up from Earth and joined

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the orbit of the large ship. The two small craft

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slid inside the large one, and doors closed behind them.

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In a short time, the aliens met again. We did it,

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said Ball exultantly as he came in. I don't know

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how we did it, and I thought we were going

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to fail, but at the last minute they came through.

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Nathaniel smiled. I'm tired, he said, rustling me too, but

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mostly I'm cold, said Ball, shivering. Snow, nothing but snow

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wherever I went. Miserable climate. And yet you had me

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go out walking after that first day. From my own experience,

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it seemed to be a good idea, said Nathaniel. If

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I went out walking one day, I noticed that the

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next day the officials were very much more co operative.

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If it worked for me, I thought it might help you.

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It did. I don't know why, but it did, said Ball. Anyway,

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this agreement they made isn't the best, but I think

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it will keep them from destroying themselves. It's as much

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as we can expect, said Nathaniel. They may have small

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wars after this, but never the big one. In fifty

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or a hundred years, we can come back and see

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how much they've learned. I'm not sure I want to,

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said Ball. Say what's an angel? Why? When I went

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out walking, people stopped to look. Some knelt in the

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snow and called me an angel. Something like that happened

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to me, said Nathaniel. I didn't get it, but I

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didn't let it upset me, said Ball. I smiled at

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them and went about my business. He shivered again. It

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was always cold. I walked out, but sometimes I flew back.

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I hope that was all right. In the cabin, Ball

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spread his great wings. Renaissance painters had never seen his luck,

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but knew exactly how he looked in their paintings. They

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had pictured him innumerable times. I don't think it hurt

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us that you flew, said Nathaniel. I did sell myself occasionally,

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But you don't know what an angel lives. No, I

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didn't have time to find out some creature of their folklore.

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I suppose you know, except for our wings, they're very

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much like ourselves. Their legends are bound to resemble ours, sure,

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said Ball. Anyway, Peace on Earth. End of Second Landing

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by Floyd Wallace