The Coming of the Terrans

Leigh Brackett

1967

This is actually a collection of five novellas of Mars-that-should-have-been. Not the dry dusty Mars that is our second nearest planetary neighbour, but a world ancient in years with civilisations that make the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt look like upstarts.

The stories date from 1998 all the way through to 2038 in terms of the story arc, representing copyright dates ranging from 1948 to 1964.

Mars once had world spanning oceans and mighty rivers that allowed those who wished to trade from one side of the planet to the other in their stately sailing ships, for those who built civilisations felt no need to build the great machines of gentler Terra, fighting and dying by sword and arrow, not by gun and bomb.

But Mars dried.

As the seas died the great ports followed the coastlines down the continental shelves in order to live. But soon all that remained were the sluggish remnants of water guided down from the polar ice caps in hand dug canals keeping the huddles of towns alive. The Martians themselves have learnt to live in this harsh landscape, hoarding the precious water, forgetting all their great technologies except those required to live amongst the blowing sand.

For millennia, it had been Martians of the Great Dries against the Mars people of the Towns and Cities, defending their water.

Then came the first ships from distant Terra.

The Terrans wasted no time in opening up the cities to those who wished to trade. Of course, not all who came wished to just trade, some came to experience the ancient mystical powers of the Martians.

In '1998: Beast-Jewel of Mars' we see the hidden powers of the Shanga jewels used by bored Terrans seeking a thrill and relaxation from a stressful lifestyle. Winters was searching for a lost love who had gone deep into the hidden secrets of Shanga and he was determined to follow her into the depths of depravity caused by the Shanga jewels.

In '2016: Mars minus Bisha' a Terran doctor has managed to get a research post in the depths of Mars to study the multitudinous new viruses that have been exposed by their presence. He gets little help from the nearby town, that ignored him as far as possible. So when he was approached by a Martian woman with her child, he is so happy for companionship that he does not question why they had come until it was too late and the woman had fled, leaving the girl with him in his little hut. What was the illness the child was supposed to have? And what did it have to do with the strange blackouts he started experiencing?

By '2024: The Last Days of Shandakor', Earthmen are all over Mars and beginning to think that they can get a hang on the various tribes that make up the Martian scene. Then an ethnologist finds a stranger in the bar where he is resting up. Totally ignored by the others there, the stranger tells his tale to the Earthman. The stranger is persuaded to let the Earthman accompany him back to his home city, for this was no human, not even of the emaciated Martian variety but an entirely new species, that was to the Martians as they were to the Terrans.

When '2031: Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon' arrives, the Martians of the City States and the Terrans are in uneasy accommodation with each other and hated by those that live in the outer towns and the tribes of the Great Dry. A member of the Bureau of Martian Affairs is taken prisoner by a mixed group of Martians and Terrans to witness a rite of the fabled Mad Moon cult. Terrified out of his mind, and fearing for life and sanity, he flees back to Terra where he hopes he can be safe from the promised sacrifice. But is anywhere safe these days?

As '2038: The Road to Sinharat' rolls around, the conscience of Terra has been stirred to such an extent that they dream of resettling all the Martians in great cities round the polar ice sheets where there would be massive pumps to supply them with all the water they require. However, the Martians with an inbred knowledge of what had happened last time there had been offers of help, rebel against this friendly offer and the tribes march upon the Terran outposts. It's left up to an outcast Terran professor and his Martian colleague to find the ancient proof of this earlier catastrophe before there is real bloodshed.

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