Tom W. Harris

“ I said, drooling at the thought of what Myron Ferdinand would do for me when I told him the story.
"Well," said Renn, "it's really because of the Martians. As you know, they aren't awfully advanced—or maybe they've retrogressed—but they do have some wonderful things in medicine. Their medicine, or whatever it is, works on body cells. You've heard about the lizards that grow a new tail when the old one is cut off? Or a lobster growing a new claw? Well, all living body cells, including human, have some of what they call regenerative power. With most animals it's faint ”

“ Find out how Renn Kettering of PGP Studios had shot those startling sequences Mars Hazard, an international hit. It was super realism—the critics were calling it "Art's answer to the newsreel" and stuff like that. The scenes had been shot on Mars. Renn had fabulous influence. In this case he must have paid off the government itself, because the crew of the third ship to touch the new planet had been mostly his own actors and technicians and Renn himself was along. These factors were known to every hipster. ”

“ Arden and I had been occupied in the kitchen, and I was the last guest.
Renn went with me to the door, slipping past the tawny which jumped at both of us.
"Goodnight, R.K.," I said. "It was real."
He put his hand on my shoulder, "You're a great boy, Manny. I've been hearing a lot of nice things about you."
It was coming.
"I do as well as I can," I said modestly.
"I know that," he said, pompous and serious as an old gibbon. "I keep an eye on people. I'd like you to have lunch with me sometime."
In a way, I wished I could work for him. He was heading Up, but def. Myron was right, though. ”

“ He was staggering in ragged rings, his mouth gnashing at the bar, moving slower and slower like a machine running down. He stumbled into some little bushes, tangled, toppled, and there was a thrashing. The air stunk with the escaping vapor. ”

“ I make a very nice salary working for Renn up here—mostly newsreels and a few dramas, although even with the medicine nobody will volunteer to make a show where the tawnies tear them up. And there are some very nice things about being a Martian. Arden is even more interesting now that we both have three more senses. And Mars is wonderful. ”

“ If the public wanted horror, this film delivered it.
There were some more hair-raising shots as the crew tried to beat off the tawnies. There was a guy who got in the way of a blaster. I wanted to think he was a rubber dummy or some kind of robot, but I couldn't convince myself. Anyway, the tawnies cleaned up. The only one who made it back to the ship was Arden Montgomery, and her legs were ripped and slashed like ragged cloth.
Then the clips were over. I sat and thought a moment. Maybe Myron had a point, watching the steals again. I had picked up an idea. ”

“ I was about halfway to the house when I saw the tawny. It was coming toward me, from behind the house a quarter-mile away. I crouched and started a trot, and that seemed to attract it. It came in long, clumsy bounds, and I could hear it huffing.
It was time to try the stunt from the old movie. The flick showed some jungle joes hunting boar. This character was kneeling on the ground with a spear in his hands. The butt was braced against the ground and the point was toward the boar. The boar was charging. The idea seemed to be that it would spit itself. ”