These Martonians speak the language of the Moonalites so one of our
white native boys can fill in as interpreter whenever necessary, but we
have been learning from him during all the time we have been here. By
now we are beginning to understand pretty well what is being said. He
too has learned our language even better than we have learned his, so
he often has to ask our questions for us when we are talking with other
people for the first time.
"The people on Mars are built slightly different than you," we are told
in answer to our queries. Their pilot came up and felt our bodies then
indicated with his hands that our lung capacity is again as large as
theirs. He went on to explain, "the atmosphere on our planet is lighter
than that of Earth, so we do not need as large a lung capacity as you
have."
To our astonishment, we were next told that the Martonians knew that we
were on the Moon and when we had landed. They also knew that we would
be at this city at the very time we arrived, for they had instruments
that were able to pick up our radar messages and decode them. And we
have been in regular contact with the Earth.
More astounding information was given us by these men as they told us
a little about the dark moon of our Earth. It is used as a stopping
place for space ships and is much colder than the cold side of this
Moon. After observing it through our little telescope, Dr. Johnston had
estimated it to be about five hundred thousand miles from Earth, but
the Martonians told us, for that is where they stopped on their way in,
that it is seven hundred fifty thousand miles from Earth.
"We have other outposts in space for different purposes, where our
ships stop," commented one of the scientists of the group.
After quite a long visit with these Martonians and when all necessary
details at the airport were completed, we were taken to the other
section of the city where the citizens had been notified of our
presence here. A royal welcome was given us as the entire population
turned out in greeting.
At sunset we joined the citizens in their hour of praise and
thanksgiving for the day; not out of respect for them so much but
because with our whole beings we are intensely grateful for the
friendship and the knowledge that have been so freely and joyously
given us this day.
Later in the evening we were given the greatest surprise of the many
we had received here on the Moon, for we were taken to one of their
many observatories. Within it was housed a telescope which would be
equivalent on Earth to a five thousand inch. This telescope is equipped
with mechanism similar to our radar. It catches the reflections of
heavenly bodies and somehow throws them into this complicated machine
that acts like a primal focus on our telescopes, then angles it off
there onto a large screen in a vast room. The screen is something like
a moving picture screen in the theaters on Earth except it is about one
hundred feet square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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