From: mdl@oscar.bellcore.com (Mike Lynch)
Subject: Re: *Secret of the Martian Moons*? (was Re: Looking for a Short Story)
Reply-To: mdl@oscar.bellcore.com (Mike Lynch)
Organization: Bellcore
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 11:26:36 GMT

In article <5454@balrog.ctron.com>, smith@ctron.com (Larry Smith) writes:
|> 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!


Thank You!!  It's probably been 35 years since I read that book, and I'll
never forget it.  I have to say, though, that you have a much better memory
than I.  Now I have to find a copy and reread it.  There's also "The Green
Man From Mars"......was that also by Wolheim?

Mike Lynch
mdl@oscar.bellcore.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.misc