I rolled over and shut my eyes even tighter--but I couldn't get all the
way back to sleep. Not back down to the warm, dark depths. It was a long
time before Maxwell even lay back down, and he rolled and twisted for
the rest of the night. At six o'clock, he fell into a deep, quiet
slumber, and I was wide awake, damn him. So I got up and dressed.
I found a news magazine I hadn't read, and occupied myself with it for
an hour. Practically the entire issue was devoted to an analysis of the
Martian immigration.
It went way back into history and discussed the folklore fear that
humans had for centuries about a Martian invasion. And it pointed out
that something very like a Martian invasion was taking place right now.
One particular article concluded with what I considered an unnecessarily
grim warning that unless something were done soon to check the flow of
immigrants, Earth would soon be overrun with Martians.
Other articles in the magazine went into the causes and implications of
the migration. One of the writers pointed out that Mars is a dying
planet. In only a few thousand years, it will be too cold, too dry and
too airless to support life.
The development of interplanetary travel a century earlier had provided
the inhabitants with a means of escape. They could survive on Earth; now
they could get to Earth; so they came to Earth.
One full article was devoted to the debates and pending legislation in
World Council on the subject, but I didn't take the time to read it. I
was fairly familiar with the current controversy, having followed the
daily news reports, and besides, the reading was giving me a headache.
* * * * *
At seven o'clock, I considered going down for breakfast, but it occurred
to me that it would be another black mark against Maxwell if I should be
seen without him. Forgetting about the defense mech was enough for one
case.
So I ordered breakfast brought up to the room. While I was waiting, and
since I was sitting near it anyway, I flicked the TV switch and tuned in
on the morning's news. Nothing earthshaking: a factory explosion in St.
Louis; political unrest in India; death of a Vegan millionaire; speech
in The World Council by Delegate Machavowski of Eurasia in support of
the Bagley-Dalton bill to establish a yearly immigration quota of ten
thousand from all planets, one thousand from Mars; protest reply by a
Martian sociologist at Yale; spacecruiser crashed on Calypso, twenty
killed. And so on and so on.
My attention was held momentarily by the Martian question, since I was
freshly informed on it.
While the two views of the issue did nothing to settle it in my mind,
they did serve to remind me of my Martian friend, Zan Matl Blekeke, and
the fact that I was supposed to be digging up a feature story on
Suns-Rays Incorporated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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