The Metal Moon
By EVERETT C. SMITH and R. F. STARZL
Based upon the Fourth Prize ($10.00) winning plot of the InterplanetaryPlot Contest won by Everett C. Smith, 116 East St., Lawrence, Mass
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Wonder StoriesQuarterly Winter 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidencethat the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The ship was now coming close to the vast curve of thecrystal city. The earthmen became aware that the part below the citylevel was a dull ugly black.
EVERETT C. SMITH
R. F. STARZL
In this story, the joint product of two imaginative minds, we get a veryunusual picture of some of the possibilities of interplanetaryexploration.
We know that as soon as interplanetary travel is possible, expeditionsfrom the earth will be ranging the length and breadth of the solarsystem searching out the thousands of wonders that are to be discovered.
It is quite possible that some of the explorers, whether throughaccident or desire, may colonize the other planets and develop under newand unusual conditions a new branch of the human race. It is doubtlesslytrue that if each of the solar planets were to be colonized, at the endof several hundred centuries there would be nine races of human beingswho might differ radically from each other and in fact might notrecognize each other as members of the same human stock.
In this story we do not see nine races but we do see four of them andMr. Starzl has united the four in a gripping narrative of the greatspaces.
THE METAL MOON
The three men in the tiny space ship showed their apprehension as theywatched the gravity meters. Something was distinctly wrong with theship.
"Are you sure that there isn't some undiscovered moon of Jupiter?" askedthe youngest of them. He was only about 25, which was very young indeedwhen his scientific attainments were considered, even for the humanrace's stage of intellectual development in 1,000,144 A. D. His figurewas stocky, powerful, his face rather thin, bold, with piercing blackeyes. He was naked, save for short, brilliantly red trunks of metalsilk.His name, "Sine," followed by a numerical identification code, wastattooed indelibly in thin, sharp characters on his broad, bronze-hardchest.
The man at the ampliscope removed his head from the eyepiece and shookhis head impatiently. His body was bronzed and spare, but the completeabsence of hair on his head made him look older than the 48 yearsindicated by the code following the name on his chest, "Kass."
"I tell you, Sine, this pull is no gravity effect. No body of such masscould be invisible, unless it were composed entirely of protons. Andeven then it would yank Jupiter out of shape, making it look like apear, but there—"
Jupiter presented its usual appearance. The solar system's largestplanet seemed enormous at this distance of only a few million miles. Itshowed its usual marked depression at the poles, but no distortion suchas might be caused by a nearby body of enormous mass.
"What do you