_Gracefully, quietly, it came ... landing on a
deserted New Jersey field. Wonder and fear struck
at the bowels of the Earth-people--not because of
the ship itself, but because of its strange message._
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories March 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Despite the widely publicized radar posts encircling our nation and the
continuously alerted jet squadrons at its borders, the space ship was
about to land before it was detected.
It settled gracefully, quietly, onto an empty field in northern New
Jersey. And so unexpected was the event, so unbelievable the fact that
man was being visited by aliens from space, that it was a full half
hour before the first extra was on the streets in New York, and forty
minutes before the news buzzed through the Kremlin.
It might have taken considerably longer for man in earth's more
isolated areas to hear of the event had not the alien taken a hand at
this point. Approximately an hour after the landing, into the mind
of every human on earth, irrespective of nation, language, age, or
intellect, came the thought telepathically:
_We come in peace. Prepare to receive our message._
It was a month before the message came.
During that period, more than ninety-nine per cent of the earth's
population became aware of the visitor from space. Radio, television,
newsreel, telegraph and newspapers reached the greater number; but word
of mouth and even throbbing drums, played their part. In four weeks,
savages along the Amazon and shepherds in Sinkiang knew that visitors
from the stars had arrived with a message for man.
And all awaited the message: scientist and soldier, politician and
revolutionist, millionaire and vagrant, bishop and whirling dervish,
banker and pickpocket, society matron and street walker. And each was
hoping for one thing, and afraid he'd hear another.
All efforts at communication with the alien ship had failed. The
various welcoming delegations from the State of New Jersey, from the
United States, and even from the United Nations, were ignored. No sign
of life aboard was evident, and there seemed no means of entrance to
the spacecraft. It sat there impassively; its tremendous, saucer-like
shape seemed almost like a beautiful monument.
At the end of a month, when world-wide interest in the visitor from
space was at its height, the message came. And once again it was
impressed upon the mind of every human being on earth:
_Man, know this: Your world is fated to complete destruction.
Ordinarily, we of the Galactic Union would not have contacted man
until he had progressed much further and was ready to take his
place among us. But this emergency makes necessary that we take
immediate steps if your kind is to be saved from complete
obliteration._
_In order to preserve your race, we are making efforts to prepare
another planet, an uninhabited one, to receive your colonists.
Unfortunately, our means for transporting you to your new world are
limited; only a handful can be taken. You are safe for another five
of your earth years. At the end of that period we will return. Have
a thousand of your people ready for their escape._
* * * * *
The President of the United States lifted an eyebrow wearily and rapped
again for order.
"Gentlemen, please!... Let us get back to the fundamental question.
Summed up, it amounts to this: only one thousand persons, out of a
world population of approximately two billions, are going to be able to
escape the earth's destruction. In other words, one out of every two
million. It is going to be most difficult to choose."
Herr Ernst Oberfeld tapped his glasses fretfully on the conference
table. "Mr. President, it need not be quite as bad as all that. After
all, we must choose the earth's best specimens to carry on our race. I
believe we will find that the combined populations of Europe and North
America total somewhat less than a billion. If we go still further and
eliminate all inferior...."
Monsieur Pierre Duclos flushed. "Herr Oberfeld should keep in mind that
his presence at this meeting at all was opposed vigorously by some of
the delegates. Isn't it somewhat too soon after his country's debacle
to again broadcast its super-race theories?"
The British representative spoke up. "My dear Duclos, although I agree
with you completely in essence, still it must be pointed out that if we
were to handle this allocation on a strictly numerical basis, that our
Chinese friends would be alloted something like 200 colonists, while
Great Britain would have perhaps twenty."