Under the desert stars

by Frank Koester

Much traveling was done by means of airplanes, such as they had noticed when first they hovered over the planet. These airplanes had no engines, but were propelled by wireless from stations on land. Freight planes, too, sailed prescribed courses, without pilots, guided by a lone operator in a distant tower.

For a time things ran along smoothly but at last Carl and Sana realized that they would soon have to return to earth. Life was dear to them and their days were numbered if they continued to live upon Mars. The rarity of the atmosphere and the strange mode of living was making its impression upon them. Besides, they noted, the ever increasing hostility on the part of some of the Martians.

Carl waited until their baby was born and Sana well on the road to recovery, before making any definite plans for the future.

Came the day, however, when they went once more to the “Meteor” to leave that strange land. And just in time. The plane literally swarmed with Martians, who, from all appearances were doing their utmost to dismantle it. At Carl’s approach they fell back, taken by surprise.

One of the Martians, in particular, was quite hostile and abusive. With a snarl he attempted to take baby Charlie from Sana, who screamed to Carl for help. Carl, with a spring, was at her side. Without hesitating an instance he swung his arm and landed a mighty blow on the head of the offender. To the surprise of all, the Martian did not fall, but went flying through the air, at a height of perhaps twenty feet, to land in a misshapen heap some hundred yards away.

This sight cowed the rest of them to a certain extent. Carl had time to help Sana and the baby into the cabin of the plane, give a hasty glance at the mechanism at the head of the machine, climb inside and shut the door, which automatically was hermetically sealed.

Once more the Martians swarmed about the “Meteor” in a last attempt to prevent its leaving the ground. Their efforts were, of course, useless. No power on earth or Mars could have held the “Meteor,” once Carl established his electric zone, the airplane would shoot forward at the speed of electric waves. With a rush they were off, soaring far out into space, followed, as they saw upon looking back, by a myriad of Martian airplanes, which, although capable of traveling at a speed greater than any ordinary airplane of the earth, were soon out-distanced.

Looking at one of the wings, Carl saw, hanging on, with a desperation caused by fear and astonishment, a Martian at the end of the wing. Apparently he had been unable to scramble off when the “Meteor” had started.

Without saying anything to Sana as to this, Carl flapped the encumbered wing in the way a bird would, and saw the Martian torn from his grasp and catapulted far out into space, only to describe a wide arc and fall like a plummet down into the limitless depths. Would he, Carl mused, too become a wanderer of the skies?

Putting the countless miles speedily behind them, the “Meteor” at last came in sight of the moon. Calling Sana to his side, Carl let their ship hover above that cold dead world. The sight below them was fearful—the planet was a veritable charnel-house. Countless circular mountain ranges, looking like great inactive volcanic craters, some of them hundreds of miles in diameter and with ramparts more than twenty-five thousand feet high, studded the surface of the moon. Between these mountain ranges the surface of the moon was scarred with great clefts or crevices, evidently caused by the sudden cooling of that planet.