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
There was much decorating with medals and handing out of promotions.
Needless to state, the King made me a sarkar; and the Assembly, not to
be outdone, voted to make me a winko, or field marshal, for life!
Now marriage was possible between Lilla and me. And also between Bthuh
and Poblath, for Bthuh had proven to be a good sport and had finally
accepted him; and as Lilla had prophesied, Bthuh settled down and became
a most quiet and domestic wife.
The proudest and happiest moment of my entire life was when, upon the
joining-stand of Kuana in the presence of the assembled multitude, King
Kew pronounced the words which made Lilla my wife.
We spent our honeymoon camping out on a most beautiful rocky island in
the middle of Lake Luno, which nestled in the hills and surrounded by
deep woods, about a thousand stads to the northward of Kuana. I had
discovered the place by accident, while on an airplane trip to an
isolated mountain community immediately after the war, for the purpose
of conferring decorations on the first company which had stood its
ground against the onslaught of the ant-men.
The walls of the island rise sheer some nine parastads from the water’s
edge, save where in one spot a sloping lawn runs through a cleft in the
rocks down to a sandy beach. The interior of the island slopes gently
from the cliffs down from all sides to a little pond in the center, and
is about equally divided between lawn and stately grove. Here Lilla and
I plan to build.
Here we spent many golden days, swimming and fishing and climbing, but
mostly just looking into each other’s eyes.
At our first dip in the water, I was horribly embarrassed. In the first
place, I had to shed my headset, which always puts me at a disadvantage.
And, in the second place, my wings came unstuck and fell off, and my
matted hair exposed my ears, so that I stood before her an earth-man,
with all my horrible earthly deformities. Yet, still she loved me.
Our honeymoon was idyllic and ideal. But all good things must end, and
we finally had to return to the city to take up my duties, for added to
my honors was a place in the Royal Cabinet as Minister of Play, the
former incumbent having died during my absence.
I have various projects in hand for my adopted country. Already a
network of radio stations is going up throughout the land. A systematic
extermination of the whistling bee is under way by means of
anti-aircraft artillery. Various earth devices are being tested out in
our laboratories as fast as I can recall them to memory. And I have
resumed, but with great precautions, my experiments on the wireless
transmission of matter, in which work Toron is assisting.
Lilla and I occupy her old suite in the palace, and entertain
constantly; among our most frequent guests are my old friend Poblath and
his completely tamed wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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