The white rain came
Martian plain. The air shook around them and their eardrums hurt,
even from two kilometers away. But the sky remained its usual dark,
undisturbed blue, with the sun small and reddish-hued near the meridian.
“Where’s your rain, young lady?” Weather wanted to know.
It was Rana who pointed in the direction of the irritated entity and
cried in her small voice, “Look, here it comes.”
Again there was a gasp of excitement from the assemblage as a moving
barrier appeared, first low against the horizon, then rising higher and
higher as it approached. To men and women who had spent all their adult
lives under the cloudless Martian sky, it was a miracle--and like all
miracles, terrifying.
Lynne could sense the thoughts of panic darting about her. A scientist,
checking a barometer to make sure too much moisture was not being
drained from the atmosphere, suddenly shouted, “Believe it or not, the
moisture-table’s rising!”
Panic faded before excitement and delight but Lynne, watching the
approaching weather front, its edge ominous with the lightning
flickers, felt mounting disquiet. This didn’t look like a rainstorm
approaching to her. It looked at lot more like....
It _was!_ As the sun was obscured, the snowflakes fluttered down
upon them, first by ones and twos, then by dozens, then in countless
armies that blotted out the far horizon. And Lynne laughed, laughed
wholeheartedly for the first time since her brother’s wedding. She
laughed until she cried.
Why hadn’t anyone thought of it? Of course, in the chill Martian
climate, it would have to be snow, except in the tropics during the
height of the brief summer season. But snow was merely crystalized
rain and there was sufficient power on Mars to turn it back to water
by heating the ground. And once the soil was watered, it would bloom
again, as it had not bloomed in millions of years.
The snow fell for a solid hour, piling a good three inches of soft
cotton wool on the gaunt ground. Then Lynne, with the agreement of
the authorities present, turned off the device. They had harnessed
the alien entity, put the super-brain to use for men. It would be
irritated, of course, but so superior an entity could neither know
nor care about the source of its irritation. It would merely seek to
sweep it away--which it could not hope to do, any more than an Earthly
elephant could hope to catch a fly.
There followed fervent congratulations and a hurried conference of
officials, all of them wreathed in smiles at the prospect of employing
this unlooked-for source of moisture to speed up the reconstitution of
the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
Krausemeier, acting as spokesman, called Rolf and Lynne over and said,
“The Governing Council of Mars offers you its gratitude, not only
for what you have achieved but for the dangers you have undergone in
accomplishing this invaluable feat. In view of these factors, we hope
you will allow us to offer you a six-month visit to Earth with all
expenses paid.”
_Earth!_ Lynne’s heart sang the word. Her home planet--and six whole
months. Yet, as she walked beside Rolf to their ship, she was glad
their trip together was to last no longer. Here on Mars, there was so
much to be done. And even though they had attained control of a sort
over the Entity, it could still kill. Juan, and the prospectors and the
dead members of the Callisto expedition proved it. Perhaps it would be
wiser if she and Rolf postponed....
Rolf cut in on her thoughts with a rude, _stow that bosh! Revere and
Tony and some of these other_ MARLETS _can carry the ball for a while.
You and I_, VINRAL, _we’re having ourselves a honeymoon, beginning
right now. We’re going to live it up--really live it up!_
In sheer jubilation, he did a little skipping dance and, before Lynne
could warn him, he slipped in the soft snow and fell. Lynne read the
thoughts of the physician who hurried to his aid, even before that
worthy opened his mouth to say, “I’m afraid he’s broken his leg.”
It looked as if the honeymoon would have to wait.
Transcriber’s note:
This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe, May 1955 (Vol. 3, No.
4.). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.
Obvious errors have been silently corrected in this version, but minor
inconsistencies have been retained as printed.