An Earthman on Venus (Originally titled "The Radio Man") — John Shaqi
An Earthman on Venus (Originally titled "The Radio Man")Farley, Ralph Milne
Science
An Earthman on Venus (Originally titled "The Radio Man")
Farley, Ralph Milne
Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Venus (Planet) -- Fiction
“How about the Cupians?” I asked. “Have they any such evolutionary
problem?”
“No,” he wrote, “fortunately for them, they have no problem of
evolution, for they are the only non-egg-laying creatures on Poros, and
so do not regard themselves even as mammals.”
Whereat I wondered to myself whether it was not probable that it was
this distinctiveness of the Cupians which had inspired the jealous
Formians to deny their own obvious kinship to the ants.
In addition to the gr-ool I frequently visited the stuffed specimens in
the museum of their Department of Biology.
The absence of any birds either here or at the gr-ool, perplexed me,
until I reflected that birds are merely a specialized form of flying
lizards on my own earth, and that their occurrence even on earth was
merely a not-to-have-been-expected accident. Creatures similar to
pterodactyls were among the extinct species on exhibit at Mooni, but
birds had never been known on Poros, although I could have sworn to
having seen some sort of small bird flitting in tandem pairs in the
woods on my second day on the planet.
But to get back to radio. By the way, that is how I always felt during
my trips to the gr-ool and my other diversions: oh, to get back to
radio!
One of the Cupian slaves who was assisting me turned out to be Prince
Toron, second nephew of King Kew XII. Toron’s older brother, Yuri, was
the crown prince, as the king was a widower and childless, except for a
daughter, Lilla. Toron’s term of slavery was nearly completed, and he
was anxious to return to Cupia; where a day’s work was only two parths,
or Porovian hours, instead of five as prevailed here.
Think of the degradation of having a prince of the royal house of Cupia
held as a slave in the factories of an alien race! Think of the further
degradation involved in the fact that no one saw anything improper in
the situation! They even celebrated annually, as Peace Day, the
anniversary of the treaty which had imposed this indignity upon them.
“Toron,” I wrote one day, “would not war be infinitely better than such
a peace?”
“Yes,” he admitted, “there is some sentiment among the younger men of my
country against the rule of the ant-men, but the ant-men are
all-powerful and promptly suppress treason with an iron hand. So I am
afraid that our cause is hopeless.”
As the time for the completion of my experiment drew near, I thought of
my massive beard, and I decided that it must be removed before I again
faced the beautiful girl at Wautoosa. Also my hair needed attention.
Cupian hair does not have to be cut and does not grow at all on the
face, which must be a great convenience to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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