From: smith@ctron.com (Larry Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.misc
Subject: Re: *Secret of the Martian Moons*? (was Re: Looking for a Short Story)
Date: 8 Oct 92 12:14:20 GMT
Reply-To: smith@ctron.com
Organization: Cabletron Systems, Inc.

In article <1992Oct7.200644.1@fnalf.fnal.gov>, higgins@fnalf.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:
>In article <JOHN.92Oct7125315@sekrit.WPI.EDU>, john@sekrit.WPI.EDU (John Stoffel) writes:

>> I read this story years and years ago and enjoyed it then, and it must
>> be really juvenile, but what the hey, maybe i'll like it again.

>>PLOT: Young Kid on mars who lives in the ruins of the previous martian
>>civilization.  Somehow gets into something and ends up in a spaceship.
>>The ship is round, has guns (??) at the four corners, and is pretty
>>neat.  Anyway, he ends up getting chased by these long black ships,
>>who finally catch up with him.  He thinks he is going to get blown
>>away, but instead they capture him and take him in.  He then finds out
>>that they are the original martians, and that they (the entire
>>population) had merely left on a voyage and were now coming back to
>>their homes.  I forget how it ends...

>Hmm... sounds *very* much like *Secret of the Martian Moons*, by
>Donald A. Wollheim, one of the grand series of juvenile novels
>published by Winston in the Fifties.  It's not a short story, though. 
>And it's pretty hard to find!

A genuine childhood favorite.  Been many years since I read it, but I know it's
still in my library.  Bill is right about the author.

SYNOPSIS: the Martian buildings are not ruins, they are completely intact,
made of some substance that makes them nearly immune to any kind of decay.
But no one can figure out how to get into the storehouses, the power will
not come on, etc.  The buildings are used by the Earthlings, who run their
own power cables, but the storehouses and catacombs remain inviolate.

The colony is ordered abandoned by an increasingly impecunious Earth, but
for a few people, including the kid, who remain behind to monitor the ruins.
Seems that some very mysterious goings-on have been discovered, and some
people suspect the Martians are still around.

The men move to Phobos and set up a telescope to monitor areas of suspicious
activity.  One guy and the kid sets up a similar station on Deimos, but the
guy soon shows up with his helmet smashed and strange footprints leading away.
The launch was sabotaged after the murder, so the kid follows the prints and
finds his way inside the moon, where he discovers the entire planetoid is a
enormous spaceship, as is Phobos, built uncountable years ago by the humanoid
people within, who are both paranoid and xenophobic.  The Phobos people have
decided to contact the humans and to take over Mars, the Deimos ones are still
fearful, but in the midst of all this the long black spaceships that the
moon people said had driven them from their homeworld suddenly show up. The
moons prepare to leave, Deimos into deep space, and Phobos toward Earth, whom
they believe might help them against "The Marauders".  The kid makes it to
a hanger and boards a Malakarji spaceship to rendevous with Phobos.  The ship
is cubical, and uses light intensity for various readouts.  It is armed with
four gun turrets.  He takes off, but the ship cannot reach Phobos, it doesn't
have enough acceleration, so he settles in for the long trip back to Earth by
himself.  Shortly thereafter, a squadron of the black ships show up.  Resigning
himself to his fate, he tries dodging, hoping to slow the invaders, but they
are faster than he.  He manages to arm and fire the guns, taking one invader
out, but the next bolt is reflected back at him, crippling the ship.

He awakens on Mars - in his own room!  Mars has come alive, all the storehouses
that were sealed against the Earthlings are open, all the power is on, and
the invaders are everywhere.  Surprise!  The invader _are_ the long lost
Martians, who built the fleet to go exploring and to make sure they had a place
to go to as Mars slowly became uninhabitable, but they still come home every
few hundred years.  They convince the boy of their good intentions, and have
a tense approach to Earth, which has quickly armed itself for the "invasion".
But everything, as usual in a D. A. Wollheim juvenile, works out.

Larry Smith (smith@ctron.com)  No, I don't speak for Cabletron.  Need you ask?
-
How about we all do something reasonable?  I bet that'll confuse 'em!
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.misc