MISSION
By John Hollis Mason
It would be so easy to conquer
these primitive creatures....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Science Fiction Quarterly Spring 1942.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The cylinder stood on the edge of a grassy plain. It was enveloped in a shimmering nimbus of golden brilliance. Lying grotesquely crumpled before the cylinder was a strange, alien figure—unmoving.... A little distance away was another figure, also crumpled and still, but more human-like in appearance. Fifty yards beyond began a deep forest.
Aside from the occasional murmuring breeze that rustled the grass there was no sound or movement to disturb the tableau. And the stillness made it all the more mysterious.
Krai landed on the edge of the forest. His search for intelligent life had been unfruitful up to now. But as he passed over the forest he had seen what he was looking for. A village of tree-dwellers.
Equipping himself with a portable pressure projector, Krai let himself out through the air-lock and stepped for the first time to the surface of earth. The air-lock's outer seal—a cumbrous affair over three feet thick—swung automatically back into place behind him and, as it did, a shimmering nimbus of brilliant golden light enveloped the space ship.