Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Martians -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space travelers -- Fiction
It was evident at a glance that the car had been struck by the meteor. How
serious the damage might be we could not instantly determine. The course
of our ship was immediately altered, the electric polarity was changed,
and we rapidly approached the disabled car.
The men who had fallen lay upon its surface. One of the heavy circular
glasses covering a window had been smashed to atoms. Through this the
meteor had passed, killing two or three men who stood in its course. Then
it had crashed through the opposite side of the car, and, passing on,
disappeared into space. The store of air contained in the car had
immediately rushed out through the openings, and when two or three of
us, having donned our air-tight suits as quickly as possible, entered
the wrecked car we found all its inmates stretched upon the floor in
a condition of asphyxiation. They, as well as those who lay upon the
exterior, were immediately removed to the flagship, restoratives were
applied, and, fortunately, our aid had come so promptly that the lives
of all of them were saved. But life had fled from the mangled bodies of
those who had stood directly in the path of the fearful projectile.
This strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members
of the fleet, and they quickly drew together, in order to inquire for
the particulars. As the flagship was now overcrowded by the addition
of so many men to its crew, Mr. Edison had them distributed among the
other cars. Fortunately it happened that the disintegrators contained
in the wrecked car were not injured. Mr. Edison thought that it would
be possible to repair the car itself, and for that purpose he had it
attached to the flagship in order that it might be carried on as far as
the moon. The bodies of the dead were transported with it, as it was
determined, instead of committing them to the fearful deep of space,
where they would have wandered forever, or else have fallen like meteors
upon the earth, to give them interment in the lunar soil.
Nearing the Moon.
As we now rapidly approached the moon the change which the appearance of
its surface underwent was no less wonderful than that which the surface of
the earth had presented in the reverse order while we were receding from
it. From a pale silver orb, shining with comparative faintness among the
stars, it slowly assumed the appearance of a vast mountainous desert. As
we drew nearer its colors became more pronounced; the great flat regions
appeared darker; the mountain peaks shone more brilliantly. The huge
chasms seemed bottomless and blacker than midnight. Gradually separate
mountains appeared. What seemed like expanses of snow and immense
glaciers streaming down their sides sparkled with great brilliancy in the
perpendicular rays of the sun. Our motion had now assumed the aspect of
falling. We seemed to be dropping from an immeasurable height and with
an inconceivable velocity, straight down upon those giant peaks.
The Mountains of Luna.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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