Murray Leinster

“ McGuire said practically, "And what would you guess that to be?"
Tom shrugged. "They could get any possible mineral matter from Mercury, and most organic materials from Venus. But there's no intelligent life except on Earth. Would they want intelligent creatures—in short, men? I don't know."
But as it happened Tom made that guess just eight hours before the first human being, in Cleveland, Ohio, was engulfed in a misty globe which came down from the sky and enclosed him—and then, before the eyes of his goggling fellow-humans, turned him into mist like the thing which had captured him. ”

“ Atomic explosives in thousands of tons will shatter the comet in a blast so intense that the human mind cannot conceive of it."
Tom and McGuire stared at each other.
"I," said McGuire, "told the government that it was a planet and the spheres were ships. But if I am right somebody may not get reelected. So it has to be an animal and it has to be destroyed—and the chance of our getting a space-drive is gone forever!"
His voice held the quintessence of bitterness.
"Here is Lan Hardy," said the announcer proudly. "He will tell you of his discovery and its fruits." ”

“ It was a diaphanous globe of utter unsubstantiality. Stars could be seen through it clearly. Yet it seemed to Tom that some distant stars were dimmed a little more than others, as if the mistiness varied in thickness with an internal structure. ”

“ McGuire went into the house. Tom gloomily examined the field generator on the Weddington's bow. It had to be shifted to the stern. It could be cut loose and rewelded but he was filled with forebodings—particularly because he already foresaw the only possible thing to do.
"I wish," he said, "one could be as smart as the heroes of the history books! They always know just how everything has to be done from the beginning and never have to do anything over."
Kit repeated, "But what did you do?"
Tom told her. Lan Hardy listened unhappily. ”

“ I am more relieved than anybody else and more grateful for the idea, because I saw the Earth as a hunting ground for unspeakable intangible monsters, who could devour human beings while we were helpless to take any action against them. ”

“ But as the substance of Mr. Handmetter diminished the substance of the wraith increased.
It became misty even in the sunlight. It grew smoky. Partitions and floors appeared within it. Shapes moved, dimly seen through its spherical walls. It grew more and more opaque—and it was an alien Thing, not wholly real but certainly not imagined.
Then the wave of panic broke in the Square. Men fled from the shadow of the thing of smoke. And, like a flood of pure terror, others turned and fled until all downtown Cleveland became a bedlam of screaming, fleeing humanity. ”

“ If the Weddington had been sighted, to the mist-ships it would represent the people on Earth. If it fled, it would convict them of cowardice and lead to immediate attack. But if it did not flee and was defeated, it would even more definitely prove the present defenselessness of Earth.
As loyal human beings, it was up to Tom and McGuire to prove the courage and deadliness of Earth people with very inadequate means. Against mist-globes not expecting attack the Weddington had been effective. Against a fleet gathering for action against her the little Earth ship was rather pathetic. ”

“ Then Kit said unhappily, "I thought he was wonderful until I, until I saw him turn pale when he realized we were close to those globes at the hospital. We started to drive right past them on the way to the marriage license bureau. But he was scared. He trembled! And you and Father went to fight them!"
Tom said curtly, "I'm going to cut this loose, now. Will you hand me up that torch?"
She obeyed meekly. He began to cut away the so-recently-welded struts which had held the generator to the nose of the lumpy little space-ship. Kit watched, fidgeting. ”

“ By law all other radio traffic has to stop.
"And when I announce that I'm bringing a ghost-globe to Earth under a flag of truce to open negotiations with the Government—let them try to suppress the news! A democracy can make some horrible blunders but praise Allah there are limits!"
And the ghost-globe and the Weddington settled down out of emptiness where the sky was dark and many stars burned, to a place where the sky was merely deep purple, and then to a level where there was blue overhead and clouds not too far below and then down below those clouds. ”

“ The throbbing, moaning noise the Weddington's space-drive made in atmosphere changed a little. The ship went wallowing down for a landing.
"We've got to turn over the fact that shells can be made effective," said Tom, frowning, "and there's the fact that the patients in that hospital will be in a queer state. They're partly real and partly not.
"We can make them wholly real with trigger-energy charges, but they've got to be careful not to get that energy released until the charged molecules are gotten rid of by natural metabolism." ”

“ There was absolutely no evidence—said the release—to support any idea that either the comet or the mist-globes were hitherto unknown forms of life or that the globes were likely to prey on humanity.
The release was very comfortingly phrased, but it was a mistake. Few people, if any, had heard any rumor suggesting that the ghost-globes were creatures which might eat men. The information release spread the suggestion on world-wide newscasts. It sent a wave of hysteria around an overcrowded, overemotional earth. ”

“ It was a tiny speck of mistiness, perhaps half the size of the disk of Mars. It was almost in line with the red planet. And in interplanetary space there should be nothing misty save comets. Tom regarded it absently for a moment, then swung a telescope to bear.
It was a globular mass of unsubstantial reflecting stuff, like a puff of smoke in emptiness. Which, of course, was impossible. Also, this particular object was new. It hadn't been in sight in the neighborhood of Mars a little while since. ”

“ Other mist-globe formations appeared.
"They see our ionization-trail," said Tom sourly. "They're debating what to do. They can't be bluffed off permanently."
Round and round and round the circle the Weddington went. A second formation arrived. It checked and stopped like the first. A third and fourth and fifth formation—they seemed to drift into a ringlike arrangement, lining the course of the circuit the Weddington repeated over and over and over, looking like fat round spooks regarding a curious phenomenon.
"They know we can hurt them," said McGuire suddenly. "At least, they know we did. ”