THE GALACTIC GHOST
By MACK REYNOLDS
Gracefully, quietly, it came ... landing on a
deserted New Jersey field. Wonder and fear struck
at the bowels of the Earth-people—not because of
the ship itself, but because of its strange message.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories March 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Despite the widely publicized radar posts encircling our nation and thecontinuously alerted jet squadrons at its borders, the space ship wasabout to land before it was detected.
It settled gracefully, quietly, onto an empty field in northern NewJersey. And so unexpected was the event, so unbelievable the fact thatman was being visited by aliens from space, that it was a full halfhour before the first extra was on the streets in New York, and fortyminutes before the news buzzed through the Kremlin.
It might have taken considerably longer for man in earth's moreisolated areas to hear of the event had not the alien taken a hand atthis point. Approximately an hour after the landing, into the mindof every human on earth, irrespective of nation, language, age, orintellect, came the thought telepathically:
We come in peace. Prepare to receive our message.
It was a month before the message came.
During that period, more than ninety-nine per cent of the earth'spopulation became aware of the visitor from space. Radio, television,newsreel, telegraph and newspapers reached the greater number; but wordof mouth and even throbbing drums, played their part. In four weeks,savages along the Amazon and shepherds in Sinkiang knew that visitorsfrom the stars had arrived with a message for man.
And all awaited the message: scientist and soldier, politician andrevolutionist, millionaire and vagrant, bishop and whirling dervish,banker and pickpocket, society matron and street walker. And each washoping for one thing, and afraid he'd hear another.
All efforts at communication with the alien ship had failed. Thevarious welcoming delegations from the State of New Jersey, from theUnited States, and even from the United Nations, were ignored. No signof life aboard was evident, and there seemed no means of entrance tothe spacecraft. It sat there impassively; its tremendous, saucer-likeshape seemed almost like a beautiful monument.
At the end of a month, when world-wide interest in the visitor fromspace was at its height, the message came. And once again it wasimpressed upon the mind of every human being on earth:
Man, know this: Your world is fated to complete destruction.Ordinarily, we of the Galactic Union would not have contacted manuntil he had progressed much further and was ready to take his placeamong us. But this emergency makes necessary that we take immediatesteps if your kind is to be saved from complete obliteration.
In order to preserve your race, we are making efforts to prepareanother planet, an uninhabited one, to receive your colonists.Unfortunately, our means for transporting you to your new world arelimited; only a handful can be taken. You are safe for another fiveof your earth years. At the end of that period we will return. Have athousand of your people ready for their escape.
The President of the United States lifted an eyebrow wearily and rappedagain for order.
"Gentlemen, please!... Let us get back to the fundamental question.Summed up, it amounts to this: only one thousand persons, out of aworld population of approximately two billions, are going to be able toescape the earth's destruction. In other words, one out of