The Secret of the Martian Moons Read Online Free PDF Page B

imagine. They had simply vanished. They had taken nothing with them, except perhaps their clothing, for their homes were untouched, their cities still intact, undamaged, their agriculture still automatically functioning, probably their entire planet ready to resume full life once someone could find the controls. They had left no pictures of themselves, no statues, no inscriptions that could be read. They had left no bodies, no skeletons, no cemeteries. Possibly there were some somewhere, must be, Nelson had always thought, but to find them in this world of desert would be sheer luck. And there had never been enough explorers here to warrant such a stroke of luck yet.
    Now there never would be, probably. Nelson’s thoughts were glum as he finished packing the very valise with which he had arrived. Their day had come. Only one ship waited for the last members of the colony. Out at the spaceport, it was already two-thirds full, and now only the Parrs and his father’s immediate associates were awaited. After them, there would be nobody else. The planet would be as empty of human life as it had been before the first ship had made its wild rocket-driven landing so long ago.
    Outside, his mother was already in the little car. Nelson went through the dome house, mentally saying good-by to the scenes. His little sister came out tearfully from her room clutching her favorite doll. Tearfully she kissed it and set it up in a sitting position on the floor of the living room. It, too, was excess weight. Then with a sob she ran to join her mother. Nelson followed his father through the door, adjusted his respirator mask, and swung the rounded door shut. It clicked tight, adhering with that fine keenness of Martian architecture to the surface of the blue dome. The two males piled into the car, started the engine.
    The trip to the spaceport was made in silence, as each strove to imprint on his memory their last glimpse of what they had regarded as their home world. At the spaceport, they were checked off by the ship’s captain, their baggage taken from them and sent up to their space.
    John Parr turned to his wife. “You and Beth go aboard to our cabin. Nelse and I want to talk a minute with Worden before we join you.”
    Nelson's mother nodded and, casting her husband and son a strange long glance, took her daughter's hand and went off to the ship. As they went, Nelson felt his fathers hand close on his arm. "Stay close to me,” he heard his dad whisper.
    A sudden thrill ran through the young man. He turned. In the little space of the corrugated-roofed spaceport house, there were now only the captain, a crew member of the liner, and his dad's assistant, Jim Worden, the thirty-year-old explorer. John Parr waited until the women had vanished into die distant liner and the captain and his crewman were starting to leave.
    He nodded to Worden, and started to walk slowly toward the ship, letting the two crewmen get well ahead of them. The three Mars colonists walked slowly, as if reluctant to leave.
    Nelson saw the captain reach the entry port with his man and look back. The Parrs were coming, he could see, for Nelson saw the captain vanish into the space lock. Now his father began to rush, and Nelson and Jim Worden followed him fast. At a point nearly below the ship, out of sight of anyone in the ship, they dropped to the ground.
    Nelson watched Jim frantically searching for something. He touched a little projecting knob in the blast-scarred surface of the field. A small circular trap door opened.
    “Quick!” breathed the elder Parr, and Nelson needed no second word. Jim was scrambling down into the dark space beneath the desert surface. Nelson climbed in on top of him, and his father came at his heels, and closed the trap over their heads.
    “Hurry,” Worden said, “we’ve got to get as far down this passage as we can before the ship takes off. Follow me!” He produced a flash from his