Stephen Marlowe

“ It breathes slowly, holding the thin atmosphere to its body, growing plants for photosynthesis when it needs oxygen, a perfectly co-ordinated being."
"So big, Burt. It's so big."
"Sure. On Mars the native life is bigger than on earth. Why?"
"Why? I don't know."
"Because Mars has a weaker gravity pull, being smaller than the earth. ”

“ He could have propelled himself forward, fifty and sixty feet at a jump, but he did not want to. The horizon was too close, and the only way he could find Johnny was like this. As he reached the apex of each leap, he could see much further than he could on the ground, and he was looking for the boy. ”

“ Let's stop talking and find Johnny. He could be half way around the asteroid by now, or more."
Burt shook his head. "We can't all go and look. Joan would delay us. You stay here with her, Marcia—or, better still, get back to the ship with her and stay inside. I'll find Johnny and bring him back. Then we'll get the devil out of here."
Marcia smiled wanly. "That I'd like. And Burt?"
"Yeah, kid?"
"Be careful...."
Burt felt like a kangaroo. Only no earthly kangaroo had ever taken leaps like this. He had flicked the switch of the gravity equalizer over to the right, shutting off the power. ”

“ On the way up, he switched the boy's equalizer off again, and Johnny said:
"You just told me not to, now you do it yourself. What a pop."
Johnny was spoiled and Johnny was precocious, but Burt thought of neither now. Johnny was nothing more than a little bundle which he had to get back to the spaceship. And then they had to leave, all four of them.
The spaceship ... Marcia did not know how to pilot it, she couldn't lift it off the ground. And the sucking, spongy stuff might engulf the ship, take it down into some unknown womb of the world. They'd be marooned. ”

“ And here, out in space, there is no gravity to keep life down. A plant grows and grows as long as it lives, unlike an animal. This huge asteroid has been growing for ages, millions of years, maybe. What's to stop it? No gravity pressing down. Perhaps it can live purely on the mineral matter of the meteors which fall. Maybe it's only a seed, with food-matter stored up inside. Who knows?"
Johnny and Joan came out from the galley. Joan said:
"Mama, I'm hungry."
Marcia laughed. "We never did have that picnic, Burt." ”

“ But that was silly: a body this size would not have life, and even if Johnny took advantage of the low gravity and jumped thirty feet in the air, he wouldn't get hurt—he'd float down gently as a feather.
Marcia pouted as she spread the table-cloth out on a flat expanse of rock. Burt put his hand on her shoulder, but she pulled away from him. "Brats, eh?" she muttered.
"Well, maybe I didn't mean it that way. But you just name me another father at Marsport who takes his family up in a spaceship every Sunday to go picnicking. And a different asteroid each week. ”

“ No one ... there were all the signs of occupation, but no one was around. Dishes for three were set on the plastalloy table, with a blubbery green mass on each plate, billowing over on to the table. That meant that there had been food on those dishes when, quite suddenly, the three people had disappeared. ”

“ Picnic BY MILTON LESSER
ILLUSTRATED BY EBERLE
Burt was tired of taking his family out to the asteroids
for a picnic every week-end. But with a wife and
two spoiled brats to goad him into the regular routine,
what could a man do? ”