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Vulcan, whole no. 5, January 1944
Page 15
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COMET By William James SOLYG gazed through the rear port. The black velvet canopy of space, jewel-studded; was spread before his eyes. But, beautiful trough it was, he was not looking at that. He was looking at a planet, one which was growing small by the minute. It was his home world, which he was leaving forever. The world behind was a dying world. It was red; red with the dust of the great desert Kaumyl and the desert Irmylmar -- dust that was iron oxide. Once his world had had a thick atmosphere containing much life-giving oxygen; now it was thin, for most of the oxygen was gone, combined with the iron of the planet. And now Solyg, and the five-hundred other creatures aboard this ship, were the last of their race. As Solyg stared at the red planet he saw tiny lines criss-crossing the red of the desert. He saw the small dot at the junction of several of the lines, and he knew it for one of his people's ancient cities -- Klzk by name -- long since abandoned. And he thought of the world that was the ship's destination. It was a beautiful world. Blue-green it was, with continents covered with growing things. And water -- another thing his world was dying for the lack of -- was there in abundance. Great oceans of it stretched over the face of the planet, and on the continents there were innumerable lakes and rivers. Water! His world was nearly devoid of it, and the blue-green world had more water than land. Intelligent beings lived on that blue-green planet, but Solyg had scruples about wresting their home from them. To him they were little more than the savages, for his intelligence ranked above theirs. But Solyg was wrong in thinking of them as little more than savages. His assumption was based on observations made over the two-thousand Tangs (the name for his home planet's year, which was twice the length of the blue-green planet's) ago. No observations had been made after that time. Since that time, unknown to Solyg and his fellow citizens, those beings had built a great civilization. Great cities covered the face of the planet; machines traveled both on the land and in the air, many carrying freight and passengers. Solyg and his fellow beings were in for a surprise! Days later the globular spaceship of which Solyg was commander, was nearing the blue-green planet. Behind lay the blue-green planet's satellite, a globe about two-thousand miles in diameter, covered with wide plains
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COMET By William James SOLYG gazed through the rear port. The black velvet canopy of space, jewel-studded; was spread before his eyes. But, beautiful trough it was, he was not looking at that. He was looking at a planet, one which was growing small by the minute. It was his home world, which he was leaving forever. The world behind was a dying world. It was red; red with the dust of the great desert Kaumyl and the desert Irmylmar -- dust that was iron oxide. Once his world had had a thick atmosphere containing much life-giving oxygen; now it was thin, for most of the oxygen was gone, combined with the iron of the planet. And now Solyg, and the five-hundred other creatures aboard this ship, were the last of their race. As Solyg stared at the red planet he saw tiny lines criss-crossing the red of the desert. He saw the small dot at the junction of several of the lines, and he knew it for one of his people's ancient cities -- Klzk by name -- long since abandoned. And he thought of the world that was the ship's destination. It was a beautiful world. Blue-green it was, with continents covered with growing things. And water -- another thing his world was dying for the lack of -- was there in abundance. Great oceans of it stretched over the face of the planet, and on the continents there were innumerable lakes and rivers. Water! His world was nearly devoid of it, and the blue-green world had more water than land. Intelligent beings lived on that blue-green planet, but Solyg had scruples about wresting their home from them. To him they were little more than the savages, for his intelligence ranked above theirs. But Solyg was wrong in thinking of them as little more than savages. His assumption was based on observations made over the two-thousand Tangs (the name for his home planet's year, which was twice the length of the blue-green planet's) ago. No observations had been made after that time. Since that time, unknown to Solyg and his fellow citizens, those beings had built a great civilization. Great cities covered the face of the planet; machines traveled both on the land and in the air, many carrying freight and passengers. Solyg and his fellow beings were in for a surprise! Days later the globular spaceship of which Solyg was commander, was nearing the blue-green planet. Behind lay the blue-green planet's satellite, a globe about two-thousand miles in diameter, covered with wide plains
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