Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
SECOND LANDING
By FLOYD WALLACE
_A gentle fancy for the Christmas Season--an oft-told tale with a wistful twistful of Something that left the Earth with a wing and a prayer._
Earth was so far away that it wasn't visible. Even the sun was only atwinkle. But this vast distance did not mean that isolation could endureforever. Instruments within the ship intercepted radio broadcasts and,within the hour, early TV signals. Machines compiled dictionaries andgrammars and began translating the major languages. The history of theplanet was tabulated as facts became available.
The course of the ship changed slightly; it was not much out of the wayto swing nearer Earth. For days the two within the ship listened andwatched with little comment. They had to decide soon.
"We've got to make or break," said the first alien.
"You know what I'm in favor of," said the second.
"I can guess," said Ethaniel, who had spoken first. "The place is acomplete mess. They've never done anything except fight each other--andinvent better weapons."
"It's not what they've done," said Bal, the second alien. "It's whatthey're going to do, with that big bomb."
"The more reason for stopping," said Ethaniel. "The big bomb can destroythem. Without our help they may do just that."
"I may remind you that in two months twenty-nine days we're due inWillafours," said Bal. "Without looking at the charts I can tell you westill have more than a hundred light-years to go."
"A week," said Ethaniel. "We can spare a week and still get there ontime."
"A week?" said Bal. "To settle their problems? They've had two worldwars in one generation and that the third and final one is coming up youcan't help feeling in everything they do."
"It won't take much," said Ethaniel. "The wrong diplomatic move, or atrigger-happy soldier could set it off. And it wouldn't have to bedeliberate. A meteor shower could pass over and their clumsy instrumentscould interpret it as an all-out enemy attack."
"Too bad," said Bal. "We'll just have to forget there ever was such aplanet as Earth."
"Could you? Forget so many people?"
"I'm doing it," said Bal. "Just give them a little time and they won'tbe here to remind me that I have a conscience."
"My memory isn't convenient," said Ethaniel. "I ask you to look atthem."
* * * * *
Bal rustled, flicking the screen intently. "Very much like ourselves,"he said at last. "A bit shorter perhaps, and most certainly incomplete.Except for the one thing they lack, and that's quite odd, they seemexactly like us. Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"It is. The fact that they are an incomplete version of ourselvestouches me. They actually seem defenseless, though I suppose they'renot."
"Tough," said Bal. "Nothing we can do about it."
"There is. We can give them a week."
"In a week we can't negate their entire history. We can't begin to undothe effect of the big bomb."
"You can't tell," said Ethaniel. "We can look things over."
"And then what? How much authority do we have?"
"Very little," conceded Ethaniel. "Two minor officials on the way toWillafours--and we run directly into a problem no one knew existed."
"And when we get to Willafours we'll be busy. It will be a long timebefore anyone comes this way again."
"A very long time. There's nothing in this region of space our peoplewant," said Ethaniel. "And how long can Earth last? Ten years? Even tenmonths? The tension is building by the hour."
"What can I say?" said Bal. "I suppose we can stop and look them over.We're not committing ourselves by looking."
They went much closer to Earth, not intending to commit themselves. Fora day they circled the planet, avoiding radar detection, which for themwas not difficult, testing, and sampling. Finally Ethaniel looked upfrom the monitor screen. "Any conclusions?"
"What's there to think? It's worse than I imagined."
"In what way?"
"Well, we knew they had the big bomb. Atmospheric analysis showed thatas far away as we were."
"I know."
"We also knew they could deliver the big bomb, presumably by some sortof aircraft."
"That was almost a certainty. They'd have no use for the big bombwithout aircraft."
"What's worse is that I now find they also have missiles, range onethousand miles and upward. They either have or are near a primitive formof space travel."
"Bad," said Ethaniel. "Sitting there, wondering when it's going to hitthem. Nervousness could set it off."
"It could, and the missiles make it worse," said Bal. "What did you findout at your end?"
"Nothing worthwhile. I was looking at the people while you wereinvestigating their weapons."
"You must think something."
"I wish I knew what to think. There's so little time," Ethaniel said."Language isn't the difficulty. Our machines translate their languageseasily and I've taken a cram course in two or three of them. But that'snot enough, looking at a few plays, listening to advertisements, music,and news bulletins. I should go down and live among them, read books,talk to scholars, work with them, play."
"You could do that and you'd really get to know them. But that takestime--and we don't have it."
"I realize that."
"A flat yes or no," said Bal.
"No. We can't help them," said Ethaniel. "There is nothing we can do forthem--but we have to try."
"Sure, I knew it before we started," said Bal. "It's happened before. Wetake the trouble to find out what a people are like and when we can'thelp them we feel bad. It's going to be that way again." He rose andstretched. "Well, give me an hour to think of some way of going at it."
* * * * *
It was longer than that before they met again. In the meantime the shipmoved much closer to Earth. They no longer needed instruments to see it.The planet revolved outside the visionports. The southern plains weregreen, coursed with rivers; the oceans were blue; and much of thenorthern hemisphere was glistening white. Ragged clouds covered thepole, and a dirty pall spread over the mid-regions of the north.
"I haven't thought of anything brilliant," said Ethaniel.
"Nor I," said Bal. "We're going to have to go down there cold. And itwill be cold."
"Yes. It's their winter."
"I did have an idea," said Bal. "What about going down as supernaturalbeings?"
"Hardly," said Ethaniel. "A hundred years ago it might have worked.Today they have satellites. They are not primitives."
"I suppose you're right," said Bal. "I did think we ought to takeadvantage of our physical differences."
"If we could I'd be all for it. But these people are rough anddesperate. They wouldn't be fooled by anything that crude."
"Well, you're calling it," said Bal.
"All right," said Ethaniel. "You take one side and I the other. We'lltell them bluntly what they'll have to do if they're going to survive,how they can keep their planet in one piece so they can live on it."
"That'll go over big. Advice is always popular."
"Can't help it. That's all we have time for."
"Special instructions?"
"None. We leave the ship here and go down in separate landing craft. Youcan talk with me any time you want to through our communications, butdon't unless you have to."
"They can't intercept the beams we use."
"They can't, and even if they did they wouldn't know what to do with ourlanguage. I want them to think that we don't _need_ to talk thingsover."
"I get it. Makes us seem better than we are. They think we kno
w exactlywhat we're doing even though we don't."
"If we're lucky they'll think that."
* * * * *
Bal looked out of the port at the planet below. "It's going to be