DAWN OF THE DEMIGODS
By RAYMOND Z. GALLUN
As unheralded as ghosts, but as significant as a
new dawn of history, there came to Earth from distant
Ganymede's glowing crescent—three micro-androids,
minuscule beings, carrying the moot treasure of immortality.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Summer 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Somebody invented the first locomotive. Then came the nuclear bomb. I guess that people were somewhat scared of newness both times.
Mostly, it has been worse ever since.
World War III was also before my day. But then fear, the protective emotion, played a reasonable part. So no cities were actually vaporized. But our side came out the victors with bombers so high-flying that they were already atom-propelled rocket ships of space. We had artificial satellites circling the Earth, and a fortress on the Moon.
I missed the first exploration of the solar system, too. There was hot Mercury, carbon dioxide-smothered Venus; Mars and its ruins and quiet colors; and what was left of Planet X, whose people destroyed the Martians in war, though their planet itself got blown all to bits in the same struggle, its fragments now being known as the asteroids.
The moons of Jupiter and Saturn were also invaded by men, as were the frozen-methane-and-ammonia blizzards of Uranus and Neptune, and the frigid mountain peaks of Pluto, farthest world of all.