The First Men in the Moon Page #5

communication.

What, with clever Selenites?

Yes. Selenites like you, you mean?

Yes, if you like.

Oh, don't be absurd.

Why is it absurd?

Oh, good God, man,

just think about it.

Suppose a Selenite had dropped onto

the Earth when you were at Apuldram.

You'd have been the last person

to hear about it. You never see

anybody,

you never read a newspaper. Now,

I'm telling you, we are in a fix!

We have shown ourselves

to be strange,

strong, dangerous animals.

You have!

And unless they're perfect fools,

they will hunt us and kill us,

end of the matter.

Maybe after we're dead and gone,

they might discuss us,

pickle us in jars, but we shan't

get much fun out of that.

Then what do you suggest? The gold!

It's lying around, like cast iron at

home. If only we could get some

back to Earth,

we might be able to put things

onto a sounder footing.

A sounder footing?

Come back in a bigger sphere.

With guns.

What?

I should have come to the moon

alone. I knew I should!

Now listen, Cavor, I've got half

the voting rights in this affair,

and this is the time for a practical

man. A practical man...like me.

It's water!

Come on, come on.

What is it?

Shame.

What is?

That the moon isn't made

of green cheese.

I quite fancy a bit of cheese

right now.

Pull yourself together, man.

You're hysterical.

Indubitably.

You can have all the cheese you like

once you get us back to Earth.

If I can get us back.

What do you mean?

How long do you think we've been

here...on the moon?

What? How long?

Two days, perhaps.

Two Earthly days.

More like ten. Ten?

Yes. But we've hardly eaten.

I know.

Everything is different here.

Everything.

The sun will be past its zenith

and sinking in the west...

and soon the night will come.

Think what we might have done,

what might be down here.

Caverns beneath caverns.

It must open out and become greater,

and wider, and more populous.

Probably.

There might even be a sea.

A sea? Yes.

Washing around the core of the moon.

Think of the strange tides

upon its inky surface, Bedford.

Perhaps there are mighty cities

and swarming ways,

wisdom and order

passing the wit of man.

And we might die here

and never know its true masters.

We can come back.

But if I take the secret of Cavorite

back to Earth,

what will happen?

Sooner or later, it must come out,

and then governments and powers

will struggle to get here.

They will fight against one another,

and against these moon people,

and in a little while...

..in a very little while...

..this planet, to its deepest

galleries...

..will be strewn with the dead.

Look, Cavor, if the night is coming,

then that great corkscrew affair

on the surface will be closing.

Well, then, we've got to get out of

here, or we'll be trapped!

They've found us.

We can't stay and fight them.

We must split up.

What?

Run for it. I'll lead them away.

No, no,

we can make a decent fist of it.

It's like hitting cinder toffee.

Haven't we done enough?

I can't leave you.

We must split up. You get back

to the surface, find the sphere.

But, Cavor...

I shall be perfectly all right!

Au revoir.

Go! Go!

'I ran on and on,

'desperate to show the Selenites

a clean pair of heels.

'I didn't have a clue

where I was heading.

'A long lunar night was approaching,

'and the moon would soon

close over me,

'like the lid of a tomb.'

The sphere...

The sphere!

'It was incredible.

'But there it was,

'hiding almost in plain sight.'

'And then I heard it.'

'The iris.

'The iris was closing...

'...and with it all my hopes.

'My whole being shrank from this.

'I must get away from the moon,

even if I died in the attempt.'

Cavor!

Cavor!

The sphere! I've found it!

Cavor!

Cavor!

Cavor!

Cavor!

I'll come back!

I promise I'll come back.

Ohhh.

Oh, please!

Sorry, old man.

Wah!

Ohh.

Hello.

Um...good.

Very good.

Good.

What was that?

Very...good.

Yes!

Capital! Wonderful!

No, no. Don't be afraid. Please.

Um...

I'm Cavor. No, no.

Um...um...

I'm man.

I'm a man. Er, hu-man.

Hu-man.

Yes! Wonderful! Ha-ha!

Moon.

Moan.

Yes. Well, almost. Um...I, hu-man,

come from Earth. Harth.

Earth.

Earth.

Oh, God.

Tack about, Cavor said.

Like a sailing boat.

Au revoir.

How do you do?

If I may said...

Er, "say". "If I may say..."

Yes. Hmm. If I may say, draw.

Eat little. Drink little.

Like draw. An artist.

Love draw. Love no other thing.

He like you. New thing to draw.

If you understand me, old man.

Striking. Ugly. Eh?

Yes. Yes, I see...

Another, for instance,

love remember words.

Remember wonderful, more than any.

Think? No.

Draw? No.

Remember? Yes.

Histories. All things.

Hear once, remember ever.

Yes, yes.

Astonishing. You're all fitted

to only one purpose,

an absolute specificity of function,

to think, to draw, to teach,

to remember.

Yes. Good show. Probably.

And only those attributes that will

help that skill along flourish, yes?

The rest of the body atrophies.

Don't quite follow you, old man.

Not know.

Er...shrivels, dies away.

Hmm! On moon, all know place.

Born to that place.

And you have no idea of anything

other than the function

for which you were bred?

Why should we?

But who decides this?

Decides? Yes.

There must be some administrator,

a power, a prime minister.

Er, a president?

A king!

The Grand Lunar.

Oh!

What happens now?

See Grand Lunar.

Yes, I got that.

An audience.

But how shall we communicate?

Hmm! The Grand Lunar

take learning from me.

Can he do that?

Yes, old man, most certainly.

Man.

Er, yes, sir.

Man.

Man. From Earth.

That's right.

Extraordinary! Wonderful!

I wish to know

the state of your world

and why you have come to this.

Yes, of course.

A perfectly reasonable request.

The Earth is to the moon

what the sun is to the Earth.

Our astronomical observations

had led us to believe

your world was uninhabitable.

As did ours

with regard to the moon.

And what do you know

of the interior of your world?

The...interior?

Well, nothing.

But does not your ruler,

your Grand Earthly,

desire to know such things?

We have no...Grand Earthly.

We have democracy.

Well, mostly.

All men rule.

All?!

Gentleman of private means

is willing to lend money.

Gentleman of private means...

Derby hat.

Nice. Sane. Normal.

Sane. Normal.

Lady in distress wishes to

dispose of some fish knives...

Lady in distress wishes to

dispose of some fish knives

and forks.

Could have done with those

fish knives on the moon.

Fish knives on the moon!

Could have seen off one of those

Selenites with a fish knife.

Yes, the moon! I went there.

It was charming. It was charming.

Charming! It was charming.

A cottage for rent.

Excellent terms, summer's lease.

A cottage. Excellent terms,

summer's lease. Cottage.

Bricks, mortar, slates...

Sunshine.

Sunshine, rain... Oh, God!

Hello.

An ironclad can fire shot for 12

miles and go through 20 foot

of metal.

And torpedoes.

We can steer torpedoes underwater.

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