Paradise Planet
By Richard S. Shaver
It was a nice little world; everything about
it reminded Steve of Earth—except for the people.
They looked as human—as steel could make them!...
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
April 1953
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
It was a queer looking planet. As his ship approached it, Steve Donaycould see slowly rising and twisting coils of strange smoke, brownand silver and gold, like great snakes or the tenuous flesh of somecreature of the air. He hated to think of setting down on that worldof surface fires. But what else was there to do? He was at the endof his supplies, there wasn't fuel enough to look further. Maybe notenough to land safely. But he had to take a chance.
As he burst down through the coiling layers of strange smoke, the worldbeneath was amazingly beautiful. Wild, maybe, no—those were plantedtrees, those fields of grass were too regularly curved, too well laidout. He smiled. That brown stuff, he should have recognized it. It wasweather control particles. He'd read about it somewhere. Magnetizedparticles. When you turned on the field, they gathered, shut outunwanted light. When you reversed, to negative field projection, theycaused rain to condense. When you wanted the sun, they were swept asideby another repellent field ... he should have recognized them. This wasluck, a really civilized world.
He swept lower, his jets thrumming softly, reassuringly. Still perking,he could pick a good landing spot. There, beyond that huge tree group.And what trees they were. That meant an old culture, a good one. Thetemples crowning the hills, the peaceful meadows curving between, thelazy river—he caught his breath! This was a world, some place, indeed!
He set the little ship down near the great trees, and tested the air.It was normal, as he expected.
Not far away, on the edge of the meadow, was a house. It was a verynice looking farm house, with a tiny barn, two other small buildings,and a haystack. There were three cows, and a pen of hogs; a horse wasin the barnyard. He left his ship and walked up the path to the door,marveling at the rows of flowers beside the path, and the neatness ofthe yard. No blade of grass seemed to grow out of place, no flowerbloomed too boisterously. Even the birds in the trees seemed to partakeof the discipline, singing in a soft and careful way, not to disturbthe serene surroundings.
Steve knocked, and almost at once the upper part of the door swunginward. He stared, for he had not seen a woman in nearly two years. Nota beautiful woman ... like this! Cinematic, glamorous ... he wonderedif he wasn't in truth a little unbalanced from his long absence fromhumankind. No one could be quite that attractive! But when she spoke,something in his breast shrilled an alarm, and a chill ran up hisspine. There was a brittle, edgy quality in her voice, like a crystalbell, yes—but a bell with a crack that was about to shatter.
"Vey fanis vu?" she asked.
He shook his head. "I'm from Earth, another planet. We can't understandeach other, I suppose—not until I learn your tongue."
She opened the bottom half of the door, and he walked into a room ofquiet beauty. A large brown tile stove was nearby with a copper potsimmering, utterly spotless.
Pictures were set in the walls, strangely exotic, realistic art work.Leather chairs, a wide wooden table, unmarred by