[PART 56]

Radio Interview with Mr. H. G. Wells

(October 1936)

As the thirty-fifth anniversary of the war with Mars came around radio stations in several countries put on special programs in line with the anniversary. The Committee encouraged these programs in order to keep the public aware of the Martian danger. By now we were all but certain that a new and very deadly full-scale war with Mars could literally come at any moment therefore we needed a relatively informed public, but not one alarmed at the possibility. We were walking on a very thin rope.

By this time it was estimated that nearly 39 million people nightly tuned into radio broadcasts in the United States alone, with another 21 million in Europe and many would be tuning in to one or more of the anniversary shows. One of the best was broadcast from Upper-New York City from Blue Network radio station WXNY. Their “Remembering the Martian War” interview program featured author and war reporter Mr. H. G. Wells. Recruited to conduct this memorable interview with the well known author was upcoming 21-year-old producer and director Orson Welles who was himself at the time preparing a radio show of his own based upon Mr. Wells’ popular book The War of the Worlds.

What most people were never told was that Orson Welles had been instructed not to ask H. G. any questions about the Executive Committee of Twelve, his general personal life after the war or inquire about any of the Committee’s activities. If he had crossed that particular line the interview program would have been immediately cut off and Orson Wells would have found himself in a very small underground room for a very long time!

The show began at 7 p.m. Eastern time on 16 October 1936, and would become one of the best listened to radio shows of all time. Copies of the show were later packaged up by the Committee for distribution world-wide to many other radio stations as part of their public information program.

“REMEMBERING THE MARTIAN WAR”

INTRODUCTION: “No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”

ORSON WELLES: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is Orson Welles speaking to you from the studios of WXNY in Upper-New York. As we all know this week commemorates, if that is the proper term, the 35^th anniversary of the war with the inhabitants of planet Mars. After that most titanic struggle in human history was finished mankind recovered and rebuilt much of what we had lost, save the millions who had lost their lives during the war. The work of course is not nearly complete. Yet there is a whole generation who have grown up in this brave new world forged from the blackened planetary destruction that have no real memory of those events of 35 years past other than what they read in the history books. With that in mind we at WXNY present to you our remembrance show with our one-on-one interview with the man whose prose have so touched millions of readers and whose work has so firmly placed his name synonymous with those terrible days some 35 years ago. He has authored such memorable works as The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The First Men in the Moon, The War in the Air and of course The War of the Worlds.

The New Times of London would report, “Suppose yourself at home with them, in Mars, and you will not find them good company. We might live a more interesting life with Victor Hugo’s pieuvre, comparatively a domestic animal. It is unnecessary, and, indeed, without the limits of space, impossible to give an idea of Martians as understood by Mr. Wells, but a very large, round, ruthless cuttlefish, with a genius for scientific inventions and applied mechanics, comes, perhaps, as near a Martian as a brief phrase will allow. Their ravages permit free contrast of the commonplace with the gruesome, and of these contrasts the book is made.”

And with that modest introduction we welcome to our humble studios Mr. H. G. Wells. Welcome Mr. Wells to Upper-New York and WXNY radio.”

H. G. WELLS: “Thank you Orson, it’s a pleasure to be here.”

ORSON WELLES: “It is indeed wonderful to have you here sir. Mr. Wells, I know that your time is short so let’s quickly go back to that time some 35 years ago when our planet was under attack by the Martians. My first question is: Why did it not cross many of our minds that intelligent life could possibly be found on Mars?”

H. G. WELLS: “Orson, so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our Earth, with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the Sun, it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from life’s beginning, but nearer its end.”

ORSON WELLES: “Sir, after years of reflection what is your impression of how these ancient Martians view us today?”

H. G. WELLS: “We men, the creatures who inhabit this Earth, must be to them at least as alien and lowly as the monkeys and lemurs in Madagascar to us. The intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon Mars.”

“And let me add, looking across space with instruments and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of, they [still] see, at its nearest distance only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of them, a morning star of hope, our own warmer planet, green with vegetation and gray with water, with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility, with glimpses through its drifting cloud wisps of broad stretches of populous country and narrow, navy-crowded seas.”

ORSON WELLES: “In the end form then, sir, is mankind, when looked upon with an open mind, truly any different than the Martians?”

H. G. WELLS: “I should think not. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Perhaps we judge of them too harshly. The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtlety – their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours – and to have carried out their preparation with a well-nigh perfect unanimity. We would do as much.”

ORSON WELLES: “In hindsight then, could we have observed anything on Mars at the time just before the war that would have given us any warning of their eventual attack on Earth?”

H. G. WELLS: “Had our instruments permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century. Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet – it is odd, by the bye that for countless centuries Mars has been the star of war – but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so well. All the time the Martians must have been getting ready.”

ORSON WELLES: “What was our first indication that events on Mars were coming our way?”

H. G. WELLS: “The storm burst upon us 35 years ago now. As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth of August and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this Earth.”

ORSON WELLES: “You observed the Martian Heat-Ray up close, sir. Tell us about that if you would.”

H. G. WELLS: “This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror which is still of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light. Lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water, incontinently that explodes into steam. It is indeed a terrible and most formidable weapon.”

ORSON WELLES: “Martians collected humans in a sort of basket, correct?”

H. G. WELLS: “Yes, at times they used no Heat-Ray to destroy them, but picked them up one by one. Apparently they tossed them into the great metallic carrier, which projected behind them, much as a workman’s basket hangs over his shoulder. It was the first time I realized that the Martians might have any other purpose than destruction with defeated humanity. We were food for the Martians.”

ORSON WELLES: “Mr. Wells thanks to yours and other reports we were all made aware that the Martians used mankind for food as if by a vampire, but there were other sources, were there not?”

H. G. WELLS: “Indeed. Their undeniable preference for men as their source of nourishment is partly explained by the nature of the remains of the victims they had brought with them as provisions from Mars. These creatures, to judge from the shriveled remains that have fallen into human hands, are bipeds with flimsy, siliceous skeletons and feeble musculature, standing about six feet high and having round, erect heads, and large eyes in flinty sockets. Two or three of these seem to have been brought in each cylinder, and all were killed before Earth was reached.”

ORSON WELLES: “Speaking of food stuffs, what have we learned about Martian vegetation since those early days?”

H. G. WELLS: “Apparently the vegetable kingdom in Mars, instead of having green for a dominant color, is of a vivid blood-red tint. At any rate, the seeds, which the Martians brought with them, gave rise in all cases to red-colored growths. Only that known popularly as the red weed, however, gained any footing in competition with terrestrial forms.”

ORSON WELLES: “Is it possible in your mind that the Martians had once been not too unlike humans?” “Could we, in some future date, be the Martians or related to them today?”

H. G. WELLS: “To me it is quite credible that the Martians may have descended from beings not unlike ourselves by gradual development of brain and hands at the expense of the rest of the body. Without the body the brain would, of course, because a mere selfish intelligence, without any of the emotional substratum of the human being.”

ORSON WELLES: “Mr. Wells, can you clarify a point for our audience? A listener has phoned in a question of Martian’s never sleeping. Could you address this point?”

H. G. WELLS: “Indeed, their organisms did not sleep, any more than the heart of man sleeps. Since they had no extensive muscular mechanism to recuperate, that periodical extinction was unknown to them. They had little or no sense of fatigue, it would seem. In twenty-four hours they did twenty-four hours of work, as even on Earth is the case with the ants.”

ORSON WELLES: “As you moved about during the fighting in and around old London, always keeping the position of the Martians in perspective, was there any point during the Martian war when you felt utterly alone?”

H. G. WELLS: “Yes. For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence.”

ORSON WELLES: “And this was as you came into the outskirts of London?”

H. G. WELLS: “Yes, I stood there alone, the last man left alive. Hard by the top of Putney Hill I came upon another skeleton, with the arms dislocated and removed several yards from the rest of the body. As I proceeded I became more and more convinced that the extermination of mankind was, save for such stragglers as myself, already accomplished in this part of the world. The Martians, I thought, had gone on and left the country desolated, seeking food elsewhere. Perhaps even destroying Berlin or Paris, or it might be they had gone northward.”

ORSON WELLES: “There has been some controversy as to how much the Martians flew and to what extent they used these craft.”

H. G. WELLS: “It has often been asked why the Martians did not fly immediately after their arrival. They certainly did use a flying apparatus for several days, but only for brief flights of a score or so of miles, in order to reconnoiter and spread their black powder.”

ORSON WELLES: “Would you expect a greater use of such technology in any possible future Martian encounters.?

H. G. WELLS: “I would, but the fact remains that during the London portion of the war they did not fly fifty miles from London. Perhaps they are not fully comfortable in the air.”

ORSON WELLES: “Had they flown more would there have been a different outcome during the war?”

H. G. WELLS: “Had they done so, then the destruction they would have caused would have been infinitely greater than it was, though it could not have averted the end, of course, even by a day.”

ORSON WELLES: “You of course refer to their deaths from Earth’s bacteria?”

H. G. WELLS: “Indeed so. They were doomed the moment they began their deadly attacks.”

ORSON WELLES: “What were you able to see of the deadly gas they used?”

H. G. WELLS: “It was heavy, this vapor, heavier than the densest smoke, so that, after the first tumultuous up rush and outflow of its impact, it sank down through the air and poured over the ground in a manner rather liquid than gaseous, abandoning the hills, and streaming into the valleys and ditches and watercourses even as I have heard the carbonic-acid gas that pours from volcanic clefts is wont to do. The vapor did not diffuse as a true gas would do. It hung together in banks, flowing sluggishly down the slope of the land driving reluctantly before the wind.”

ORSON WELLES: “This of course proved to be quite a deadly weapon used by the Martians. Speaking of these creatures, which now haunt many of our nightmares, the first time anyone comes face to face with a Martian must be very traumatic. Could you relate to our listeners what your first close contact was like?”

H. G. WELLS: “When I first saw one a sudden chill came over me. A big grayish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather. Two large dark-colored eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tenticular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air. Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedge like lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth—above all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes—were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty. Even at this first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.”

ORSON WELLES: “A nightmare encounter to be sure Sir. I want to thank Mr. Wells for dropping by our studios at WXNY as I knew he has limited time and needs to go off to a meeting in town this evening. I’m sure our radio audience has been given much to think about as we on planet Earth continue to rebuild and prepare for what may yet come from planet Mars.”

H. G. WELLS: “It was my pleasure Orson. And a very good evening to your radio audience.”

ORSON WELLES: “Thank you Sir. Our guest this evening has been author and Martian War historian H. G. Wells who was kind enough to discuss his memories from the Martian War and his work The War of the Worlds. And we will be right back with the rest of our remembrance program with some call in questions from you the radio audience after these few messages from the producers and distributors of Blue Coal, the world’s finest Pennsylvanian anthracite. Remember folks that’s Blue Coal for all of your heating needs. We will be right back so please dear friends do stay tuned. This is Orson Welles coming to you from our WXNY studios in Upper-New York.”

Before he left the studio H. G. gave permission for young Orson to produce an adaptation of his The War of the Worlds book for his radio audience. Orson would schedule the show for the night of Halloween two years from today on what would have been the 37^th anniversary of the Martian War. However, he was never able to broadcast that show as his subjects, the Martians, decided to preempt his show with one of their own.

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Committee Report (C) 36-134 – Palenque Stone Relief, 8 November 1936, 8:40 a.m.

A stone relief not unlike the god Kukumatz in the Yucatan has been uncovered in Palenque. The relief shows a ‘human’ bent forward as if it is riding a motorcycle with what appears to be a rocket jet out of the back end. His foot is on what appears to be a pedal. The clothing worn has a rubber suit look to it and the rider wears a helmet with a pair of antenna coming out of it. Martian markings are clearly cut into the relief.

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[END PART 56]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 57: Eruption on Mars as Earth offers peace.]

[PART 55]

The Martians Committee Field Notebook Number Four

1935-1938

THE SECOND MARTIAN WAR

Chapter Nine – 1936-August 1938

Earth Braces for Interplanetary War

Chapter Ten – September 1938

The Final Conflict for Supremacy on Earth

Chapter 9

1936-August 1938

Earth Braces for Interplanetary War

Testing the seismic device – Preparations for war with Mars – The Committee renegades – Radio interview with H. G. Wells – Large eruption on Mars – Earth offers peace – The Hindenburg ‘accident’ – Hybrid attack on the Empire State building – Earth launches ‘Defense One’ – Underground missile launch facilities – ‘Crystal Word’ – Phobos moved – I937 Flash on Mars – Radio dishes ready – Deception war/psychological operations – Tunguska project nears completion – Mass migration to the hinterland – 4 July 1938 – Earth’s final preparations.

Testing the Seismic Device

It had been a long time coming: nearly three decades of work of back engineering, building and testing time and time again, before we were ready to deploy our first “human made” seismic devices. Now we needed a test-site far enough away from any populated areas so as not to do ourselves any real damage. We needed a strato-volcano with an active lava lake at its crater summit and one with a recent history of eruptions that we could use as a base of information to gage our results against natural events. It did not take us long to decide that an active volcano named Mount Erebus in Antarctica would make the ideal test-site for our new seismic weapon. As far as I was concerned if we happen to “take out” a few Martians while we were at it – well then all the better.

Scientists had originally become aware of Mount Erebus’s activity in 1841 when an eruption was sighted by several whaling ships passing Antarctica. Several explosive eruptions have occurred since 1841 all of which have been studied for volume of material and violence of the eruptive event. The lava lake when the seismic test was started was nearly 300 feet in diameter. When we finished it would be a great deal larger for this volcano, which happens to be the world’s most southern active strato-volcano. We were about to increase its activity at least over the short term.

Tesla explained the principles behind the new device to members of the Committee during an evening at our Lower-New York City Headquarters. “Earth’s vibrations have a periodicity. That is to say, if I strike the Earth this instant, a wave of contraction goes through it that will come back in one hour and forty-nine minutes in the form of expansion. As a matter of fact, the Earth, like everything else, is in a constant state of vibration. It is constantly contracting and expanding. Now suppose that at the precise moment when it began to contract, I explode a ton of dynamite. That accelerates the contraction and, in one hour and forty-nine minutes, there comes an equally accelerated wave of expansion. When the wave of expansion ebbs, suppose I explode another ton of dynamite thus further increasing the wave of contraction. And, suppose this performance be repeated, time after time. Is there any doubt as to what would happen? There is no doubt in my mind. The Earth would be split in two. For the first time in man’s history, he has the knowledge with which he may interfere with cosmic processes!”

Dr. Tesla was quick to point out that it would take months to years to “split the Earth”, but in only weeks he could do severe damage to the Earth’s crust. The Committee members were to say the least shocked to hear this news knowing how far advanced the Martians were. He assured the group that although the principle was quiet sound it would eventually fail on a planetary scale due to the imperfect resonance of the Earth. It could only be used in local areas, about the size of a large city, and was best deployed using a high energy electrical source instead of dynamite. For some reason that did not give great comfort to the members.

Taking the Martian plan to heart, it seemed that placing three of the devices in a triangular pattern around the target volcano at a distance of no greater than four miles from the caldaria was thought to give the best results. This had been the pattern of deployment used by the Martians and we had seen the results they had achieved. We would therefore begin our tests at that point.

We very well knew that this little test could be somewhat more dangerous than a simple journey to the always dangerous Antarctica. We had to mount the effort with a full military escort in the event any Martians just happened to be in the area. Clearly this was not an area fully controlled by the men of Earth. This was hostile territory in every sense of the word and we had to be ready for anything that may occur. This time the Antarctic team would be led by Australian Marines who had been training for some time in icy conditions.

Earlier in order to perform a small test of the new devices Dr. Tesla came out of his office in Lower-New York City one afternoon. Finding a suitable “test subject” he placed one of the devices on the side of a building under construction and stood back to watch. He later reported the results to the Committee. “In a few minutes I could feel the beam trembling. Gradually the trembling increased in intensity and extended throughout the whole great mass of steel. Finally, the structure began to creak and weave, and the steelworkers came to the ground panic-stricken, believing that there had been an earthquake. Rumors spread that the building was about to fall, and the police reserves were called out. Before anything serious happened, I took off the vibrator, put it in my pocket, and went away. But if I had kept on ten minutes more, I could have laid that building flat in the street. And, with the same vibration, I could drop Brooklyn Bridge (recently rebuilt after the war) in less than an hour.”

There was a good deal of excitement at the Committee, but the statement most heard at the meeting was that we were “glad Dr. Tesla is on our side!”

The Committee members were quite amused to learn that several officers from the Upper-New York City police department having learned about the “little test” visited Dr. Tesla in his underground apartment. They did not know that he was one of the Magic Twelve. What they did seem to understand was that he was somehow responsible for a seismic event. Dr. Tesla, cool as ever reported how he met the situation and disposed of the police officer inquires.

Gentlemen, I am sorry, you are just a trifle too late to witness my experiment. I found it necessary to stop it suddenly and unexpectedly and in an unusual way. However, if you will come around this evening I will have another oscillator attached to this platform and each of you can stand on it. You will, I am sure, find it a most interesting and pleasurable experience. Now you must leave, for I have many things to do. Good day, gentlemen.

Later that day one of the security team members paid a visit to the police station to “explain” to the captain that the late evening visit would not be necessary and that “there would be no need to further inquire about Committee business!” Nothing to see here.

THE MOUNT EREBUS TEST

Once again we were making our way to Antarctica. We knew of course that we were sending in another team which could very well make some type of contact with the Martians however, this test was critical to our defense plans so it would go forward as planned. Antarctica was becoming familiar territory for those who worked for the Committee. Mt. Erebus, which hugs the peninsular coast east of the Ross Ice Sheet is on the edge of the Ross Sea which was the team’s pathway to the volcano. On 14 February 1936 the team set out from our Australian Headquarters sailing with two ice cutters and two battleships. The battleships would follow the ice cutters and if need be would engage any enemy forces that happen to be in the area. There were also three submarines in the group. With the team in place, including Dr. Tesla manning the bridge on the Battleship RAS City of Perth a radio signal was sent to the three jets standing by to deliver their devices. The Martians had been seen to drop their devices in threes from a single craft however, for this test our jets would drop one each and then pull away as air cover for the rest of the operation. They were also tasked to photograph the results – if any. The devices were to be dropped on the south, east and western sides of the volcano approximately three miles in each direction from the base of the target.

Fifteen minutes after the radio call to the jets which had been in a holding position north of the test site the team spotted them coming in low directly at the target. With cameras rolling on both battleships the jets split up into a wide triangle formation which had been practiced for weeks. Counting down to zero the lead pilot radioed “Drop” and almost as one the three jets dropped what looked like small tube-like devices with metal tips. They almost looked like fat spears from a distance and in fact that was about what they were. The speed of the fall and the weight of the devices were such that on impacting solid ground the seismic devices would penetrate some 25 to 30 feet. On hard rock tests showed that they could still penetrate at least six feet which was just enough to make good contact with the target area.

From what could be seen by the observation groups the run went well. Dr. Tesla viewing the ‘bomb run’ with binoculars would only say, “Now we wait – but I don’t think it will be for long.”

True to his prediction it was only a matter of minutes before our instruments began to detect harmonic rumblings emanating from shallow depth focused beneath the volcano. Minutes after the first vibrations the eruption began and it was spectacular. At first a tight steam cloud with some gray ash began to vent from the summit rising thousands of feet above the volcano into the atmosphere. Then suddenly we heard several loud reports like cannon fire as much more ash and smoke began to erupt from the caldera of Mount Erebus. The largest blast in that series took the top off the volcano in a blinding flash that rocked the area. It was the loudest sound I have ever heard and the blast was heard all along the southern coast of Australia and New Zealand. As ash began to fall on our ships we turned around and got out of the area as fast as steam could take us. As we headed north we were able to see huge slices of the ice fields caving off and falling into Ross Sea before the ash fall closed off our view of the spectacular events unfolding at Mount Erebus.

For the next several hours blast after blast sent columns of ash and pyroclastics into the sky rising to at least 40,000 feet. Within an hour of the first eruptive event magma was poring over the mountain which would eventually reach all the way to the north shore and cause a column of steam to rise out of the frozen sea.

In total the eruption lasted a little more than three weeks and was declared a complete success. We had been able to duplicate the same geologic effect that had been perfected by the Martians centuries ago. Now the only question remaining was: Would we ever find a Martian target on which this new technology could be employed? No one believed we could send the device to Mars any time in the new future so any potential target would have to be an area on Earth occupied by the Martians!

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Committee Report (TS) 36-04 – Mars’ moon Phobos, 15 July 1936, 8:04 a.m.

It has been definitely established that the ‘moon’ Phobos is not a natural satellite of the planet Mars. The object is an artificial satellite, probably a massive orbital spacecraft. There is a good possibly that the Martians will attempt to move Phobos from Mars orbit to Earth orbit in the event of open hostilities as a possible command center.

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Preparations for War with Mars

THE ‘CIVILIAN’ SIDE

Much of the work of military preparation for war with the Martians focused on the vast civilian infrastructure developed around the world since 1901. With this in mind and in close working relation with national leaders the Committee began to consolidate organizations with direct control over many of these critical civilian resources. One example would be our over-site of the 15,000 plus independent rail companies operating around the world. The Committee Railroad Administration was soon merging (on paper at the time, to be put into operation in the event of planetary conflict) all of these privately and nationally owned companies into a single world-wide organization with centralized control held in seven strategic locations regardless of national borders with the noted exceptions of the Lawless Zones and the Soviet Union. The ability to move vast amounts of men and material over these now mostly linked rail systems needed to be closely organized in order to place this world resource at its maximum capacity when needed at critical times in the near future. It was not lost on anyone that most, if not all of these rail movements planned in support of anti-Martian activities would need to be completed before the outbreak of any major Martian hostilities.

Along with the Railway Administration came the closely linked Food and Fuel Administration. Even though it had been policy for many years for most national governments to store vast amounts of food and fuel in thousands of mostly underground facilities the Committee took it upon itself to establish a world system for the distribution of these critical items in the event of hostilities expected to open up with the Martians. For the most part however, history would show that most local governments would remain in control of these critical resources due to the fact that moving any large amount of food or fuel on rail or open roads would have made for very easy targets for the Martians in a shooting war. In the end for the most part this was going to be a local come as you are situation for most of the people of Earth.

It was at this point in our gearing up that reserve military units around the world, manned mostly by civilians who had been training on weekends for years, were put on “partial” full-time duty. Most of these unit headquarters were now manned 24 hours a day by skeleton forces amounting to ten percent of unit strength. Drills as they were known were increased to one week per month of active duty as well as duty every other weekend. Training went across the board from small arms instruction to medical/first aid training, radio, map work and small unit tactics. Needless to say, training also included combat patrols wearing protective gas masks.

This was the first time these reserve units would be assigned to active front line units as well as some units being given assignments to defend specific areas including entrances to cities and other underground facilities, stay behind assignments and defense of open as well as closed underground shelters. Because these were local reserve units and as such well acquainted with their own local areas many of the newly formed stay behind intelligence units were manned by these forces as so-called ‘pathfinders’.

Plans were also activated for the final supply of fresh emergency medical items to virtually every underground hospital in every underground city on Earth. All manner of equipment were moving on ships, planes and trains from manufacturing facilities around the world in a massive final effort to pack in as much as could be held and stored at these hospitals and medical clinics in preparation for war. Everything from full surgical team equipment and blood supplies to the smallest item to cover wounds were moving in this final push. Medical and surgical teams – long training for this massive deployment – were also on the move reporting to and setting up their assigned facilities. These teams would spend several weeks at their designated assignments preparing for the work ahead before beginning their rotations of two months on and two months off. If war came they would be fully staffed for the duration – or at least as long as it was feasible for them to stay at their designated assignments.

THE MILITARY SIDE

On the military side of the equation Committee and National forces began preplanned deployment of half of their aircraft carriers fully manned and armed for war. Many of the ships now carried the new Whitehead fighter jets as well as prop-driven fighters and bombers. We could also count some 122 Phoenix II fighters based on carriers with another 148 deployed world-wide from land-based facilities. Five each were based in Lower-New York City, Lower-London, Lower-Upolu, Lower-Sydney and four other underground cities. Each of these could be launched from short underground runways fully covered and express launched by rocket assist pods similar to carrier launches.

We were now able to deploy 156 rebuilt Martian Walkers in 15 strategic locations around the world in teams of ten. Deployment was based on Martian tactical movements during the First Martian War as well as critical developed strong points built after the war. They would fight from New London, Manchester, Paris, Munich, Moscow, New York City, New Washington Center, Chicago, Panama City, Montreal, Nanking China, Rosario Argentina, Johannesburg Southern Africa, Sydney and Cairo. None of these machines would be expected to fight alone as they were deployed alongside active infantry or armored units. This would be a team effort. Six of the rebuilt machines were to be held in reserve in three teams of two as stay behind forces attached to special forces units located near Montreal, Johannesburg and Beijing. It was essential that our stay behind forces be able to present a strong attack capability if only in limited areas. We needed to be able to inflict maximum damage to the limited Martian forces able to attack Earth from as many areas and angles as we could possibly deploy. In other words we needed to wear them down for as long and as hard as we could.

Final deployment of well over 8000 new television monitors was also well underway. Monitory stations, mostly underground, were beginning to be manned but not as yet on a full-time basis. Nevertheless, the machines, small power sources, cables to the stations and radio/cable communication networks were better than 90% complete and were expected to be fully operational within six months.

In the middle of all this effort a problem developed at one of our primary rocket launch facilities.

The Committee Renegades

I suppose those in authority should have anticipated, or at least suspected, that a group like the Renegades could come into being at some point. After all we all knew the very survival of the human species was at stake and not all who knew what was really happening with the Martians could be expected to simply go along with orders and plans approved by the Executive Committee of Twelve. Nevertheless, it came as quite a shock to learn that one of our new rocket launching facilities, the one along the east coast of Florida at Canaveral, had been overrun by renegade United States and British military forces hell bent on launching the deadly bacterial missile to Mars. At the time of the attack the rocket had been fully prepared for launch but the bacterial ‘package’ had not been loaded on the rocket. It was however housed very near at the launch site.

When we realized that the new facility had been taken by forces led by General Jonathon Davis we naturally made every effort to bring the base back under nominal control of the United States government as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the bloody battle to take the base ended only after the missile had been launched. We had been too late to stop the launch. Even a desperate attempt to intercept the missile by two Phoenix II fighter aircraft failed as it rocketed into a low orbit around the Earth.

Backed into a corner by the renegades we now needed to address the Martian notification issue. The question was: Do we simply let the deadly package continue on its way to Mars, send a radio signal to destroy the rocket or failing that inform the Martians about the rocket and give them some type of warning about what it contained? We suspected that no matter what message we sent by radio to the Martians to explain that the launch was an error and sent by individuals not acting on behalf of any Earth government would not be accepted as truth by the Martians. They had no reason to believe the truth. They had no reason to believe anything we said and we certainly had no real expectation that they would. The problem now facing the Committee was quite simple. If we allowed the missile to continue on and possibly hit its target – Mars – we could very well wipe out all life on their planet. This of course would end any further conflicts, which if allowed to begin, would surely cost millions of human as well as Martian lives. (Not that anyone in the highest levels of the Committee cared a damn about the lives of Martians.) Or do we send the destruct signal and destroy the rocket, which would be seen by Mars as perhaps an indication of our peaceful wishes?

It did not take long for the decision to be made. Do not inform the Martians but destroy the rocket. As the satellite passed over one of our Pacific radar sites the signal was sent to destroy the rocket, but for some reason the destruct mechanism did not fire. It was later suspected, but not possible to prove, that the renegades had foreseen the possible destruction of the missile by Earth authorities and had therefore disarmed it. It appeared they had also disabled the backup.

This however, was only an assumption as all of the renegade forces had been killed during the fighting or summarily executed soon after their capture. Their executions were, despite stories by the popular press, not ordered by higher authorities and those involved were disciplined. The men involved however, spent very little time in jail, as public sentiment would not allow it. They were heroes to a good number of people. They were soon freed, but were no longer in the military or the Committee at least for the next couple of years. (War would soon see these men back on duty.)

Now the question was: Do we now contact the Martians giving them warning of the biological threat and hope they had some way of intercepting the deadly rocket before it impacted on their planet or allow events to run their course? It came down to a simple thought. The primary reason for not sending the rocket in the first place was the very real possibility that the rocket could fail and rain its deadly cargo back on Earth. Now that point had been rendered mute since the rocket had obviously worked at least for the moment. It was in fact safely in orbit. So the question became one of ‘humanity,’ for lack of a better term, of the Martians rather than any such risk to Earth. Could the people of Earth live with the fact that we as humans would have been directly responsible for possibly killing off an entire planet’s ecosystem and with it possibly all life on that planet, including the ancient and intelligent life, albeit brutal non-human life of the Martians? Were humans interested in the defense of our home planet and peaceful relations with others or would we step into space for the very first time to cause death and utter destruction perhaps on a global scale mirroring what the Martians had attempted to do on Earth? What Earth scientists did not know at the time was that any Earth bacteria making contact with the Martian environment could not survive. So even if it had impacted the planet nothing would have come of it. This knowledge however was not part of the decision making process. Were we going to be good stewards of our new abilities or become brutal conquers in space as we had been upon our own Earth as did the Martians on Earth? We could not know it at the time, but that was the same question the ‘others’ were asking as well!

And before I became too smug sitting in my comfortable chair about this little dilemma and feeling quite superior, I was reminded of the Great Plains American Indian tribe known as the Mandans who in 1832 were nearly completely exterminated by an epidemic of smallpox in three weeks! The disease had been delivered in the form of intentionally contaminated blankets by the military. Smallpox, measles and other dread diseases had been used before to wipe out whole populations and it could very well be used again. Even without man’s help diseases have devastated native populations such as in California. In the early 1800s European explorers found dozens of villages in the interior areas where only skeletons of the dead could be found.

In the end it was decided that Earth would warn our brutal enemies on Mars that a missile thought to be deadly to all species on Mars was on its way giving them all of the flight information we had in the hope they could find the means to stop and destroy it before it impacted on Mars. Historians and others would study how that decision was made for years to come.

However, fate played its own hand before the message could be sent. As the missile prepared itself to fire out of Earth orbit for its deadly mission to Mars the missile exploded over the Pacific Ocean just as the rocket engines were operating at 100 percent of power with pieces of the destroyed craft re-entering the atmosphere and burning up. We were never able to discover whether or not the missile was defective and simply blew itself up or was perhaps destroyed by one of the Martian craft known to be orbiting our planet. We did discover one thing for certain – the Martians knew we had launched a rocket and they were fully prepared to respond to what we had done with or without any help from us.

PHOBOS REALLY MOVES!

“Eppure si muove!”

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

We were still tracking the missile’s radio signal when the call came in from the people working the Mars Watch Program. It was hard to believe, but reports of confirmation soon came in. Phobos had changed its orbit! This was not news to the Executive Committee of Twelve leadership as we had already received reports that stated that the ‘moon’ was an artificial satellite, but to actually see and track one of the two moons of Mars change its orbit was quite remarkable.

Such technological abilities were far beyond what we could hope to accomplish for many decades to come even if we were to obtain much greater back-engineered Martian technology. Understanding – to a point – was one thing. Being able to actually produce something as massive and scientifically superior as a large manmade moon was quite another thing entirely. It soon became evident that this so-called moon was much more than a massive control center. It also possessed a weapon of extraordinary capability and destructive power.

When Phobos changed its orbit to a much wider one around Mars we saw this as an indication that the Martians were nearing the end of their preparations to once again attack the Earth. The Mars Watch teams now had direct observational data showing that Phobos was indeed a Martian made orbital station of tremendous size and not a natural satellite of the planet. Once again we were amazed at the technical abilities of our off world enemies.

Our questions naturally led to a discussion about the possibility of the Martians sending this massive spacecraft to Earth. And if they did was there anything we could do to somehow attack this object? The only possible way for humans to attack that craft would be to place an atomic weapon of great energy on one of Dr. Goddard’s rockets. And to be clear, we were nowhere near being able to accomplish that little piece of science.

When Dr. Tesla was handed the report on the destructive nature of the Phobos’ weapon he looked ashen. As he finished reading the report and began to walk away all he would say was, “We are in deep trouble. If they bring that weapon to Earth orbit we don’t stand a chance. We have nothing to counter this threat. We must find a method to defeat this weapon as soon as possible. There must be a way and my team must find it, and soon, or any coming war will be lost even before it begins.”

[END PART 55]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 56: An interview with Mr. H. G. Wells.]

[PART 54]

The Underground Zoo Project

In truth the Zoo Project had begun many years earlier, but not as any well-organized or Committee funded program. For the most part a majority of zoos around the world had already developed local programs to protect their charges in the event of war, but not for long periods of time. Most had planned a release program or spreading out their animals in the event of interplanetary war. In late 1935 the Committee decided to look at the situation and develop a better way to protect these animals and once again they looked inward towards the Earth for solutions. Basement storage areas now had a whole new meaning for zoos.

Two ideas were thought to be best as protection methods. The first was simple and local. With help from Committee sources local zoos would begin a program of digging or expanding ‘basements’ for many of their animal holding areas as part of their regular construction. These reinforced underground holding areas would become part of the animals’ regular housing area. Designed only as temporary housing areas in case of war, they were expected to be used for up to three weeks at a time. Naturally these temporary holding areas would need to be manned when the time came.

The second plan called for the transportation of animals to larger holding areas in natural caves reworked to accommodate several different species hopefully ones that could “get along with each other”. Internally this was referred to as the “Noah’s Ark project”. Once again we would be looking at caves as a natural solution to a major problem. The “Ark Teams” crewed mostly by zoologists, biologists and geographers were also looking at which species could be rounded up in large enough numbers to become a reproducing population and transported to locations far enough away from their primary habitats to hopefully be safe if a crisis developed in their primary habitat yet in areas which could support these new groups for many years.

Finally it was decided to begin the process of transporting large numbers of animals around the world to areas that could sustain them as soon as possible in order to protect them in the event of war. Time would be critical in the event of war so transportation and occupation of these areas needed to be complete before an attack was suspected. Many unpopulated islands around the world soon began to see whole new animal populations thought to be critical to our diverse animal population’s survival. We had come to the conclusion that the Martians were interested in more than removing humanity from the face of the Earth. They were interested in wholesale reorganization of the entire planet including any other native life forms they had needs for. They really wanted to turn Earth into another version of Mars.

A Final word on Machu Picchu

It had been a little over two decades since Hiram Brigham made his dramatic discovery of the high citadel of Machu Picchu having been directed to the site following a committee conference in Santiago. Since then the Committee and university archaeological teams had cleared a great deal of the site and had uncovered many of the secrets lost for hundreds of years. Some had come from the hand of man, but many had the distinct print of a Martian. It was discovered that there were three primary structures at the site: the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows.

Workers had discovered that work on the site was not complete when it was attacked. A nearby granite quarry showed signs that many stones were in the process of being worked. This suggested that the end came without warning. They also unearthed some 100 burial sites of people who had worked and lived at Machu Picchu. It was very clear that many, if not all, had died not by accident or old age, but by the ravages of small pox. Combined with translations taken from unearthed tablets it was clear once again that “the sky gods had brought death to the people.” It had been just one more test site for the brutal Martians. It would be the survivors of the small pox attack who would fight the final desperate battle amongst the snows of Machu Picchu. After 100 years around 1550 the end came to Machu Picchu.

What the teams also discovered was that in an area where torrential rains come each year Machu Picchu had been constructed in such a fashion as to allow perfect drainage without any large erosion problems to develop. In preparation of the site for food production the builders had shored up the entire site with stepped terraces up steep walls of the ridge. The terraces held a top layer of fine rich soil brought in from many miles away, a second layer of sand below the soil on top of a bottom layer of broken stones. This type of design allowed the average 76 inches of rain a year to filter through the terraces and slowly run off without destroying the finely designed work. It was in fact a masterpiece of engineering. Even after the site was eventually abandoned, locals continued to use the finely developed terraces to grow vegetable gardens. The rest of the facility was allowed to go back to local vegetation which soon covered most of the ruins.

The city itself was also constructed on this base of material; soil, sand and broken rock. At the base of the rocks were 100 drains placed throughout the small city which carried all of the extra water away from the more than 200 buildings and its central 1 acre grass plaza. The entire site was one huge drainage system designed to withstand the massive rains of the Andes. But who had designed it?

Three stone cut tablets told the tale. One showed the details of the three layered system. Another detailed the overall general layout of the city. And a third showed how the spring water had been transported into the city – all had Martian markings on them! The site was surely built by the Incas but it had been designed by the Martians. These were very same Martians who needed to construct massive canali across their own planet to survive.

There were other secrets to discover about this ancient site. Many of these people had not gone quietly into that dark night. Medical examination of some of the human remains had shown blunt force trauma. These were warriors who had been killed in defense of their mountain top retreat. However, these warriors had not fallen at the greasy tentacle of a Martian A or the blue/gray hand of a Martian B. These Inca had fought hand-to-hand combat with hybrids that had come to Earth in service to their Martian masters. Four of the bodies (bones) were hybrid. Part of the final attack on Machu Picchu had been a combined effort of Martians and hybrids and even though the people of the site had lost their efforts to defend their home to the very last, must have given the Martians pause. Humans were a warrior species and they were willing to die to defend even a small part of their planet.

The final secret taken from the site was almost the last artifact found at that location. At first glance the stone cut item looked like a group of square and rectangle blocks cut simply into a flat round rock measuring three and a half feet across. However, when it was cleaned one could see small, almost invisible markings on its surface. The scientists finally came to the conclusion that this round stone with the well laid out small blocks on its surface was in fact a finally crafted model of a city on Mars. They also concluded that the volcanic rock on which the model had been carved had itself been brought to Earth from Mars! We now had the only suspected model on Earth of how the Martians laid out their cities.

The Martians, at least by this model, built their cities outward from a center point using concentric circles from the center. The core was most likely the center of government for that city. It would seem that by necessity all Martian cities were round. Circles and central control were very important to the Martians. It is no wonder that most human cities and towns were so foreign to our enemies on Mars. My question was: Just how many ancient sites on Earth designed along the same lines as the Martian cities could be directly related to some type of Martian influence?

The Great Martian Launch Facilities

From early 1935 the teams working on the Mars Watch Program were bringing on line some of the finest optical equipment ever built on Earth. Certainly they had been aided by electronic documents and devices found in the Martian war machines, but the effort on the mirrors had been produced and developed purely from the skills of the scientists and engineers on Earth who had developed new methods, which had enabled them to produce the largest mirrors ever made. The Martian contribution, if that is the proper term, had come from devices used to stabilize their spacecraft. Committee teams had used these devices and reengineered them in order to help correct the problems of an unstable Earth atmosphere, which caused difficulties in “seeing”. These new devices caused the clarity to be twenty-five times clearer than possible without the so-called “reactive optics.”

As it turned out the clearer views of Mars paid off almost immediately for the Mars Watch Program. They spotted right away the new Martian launch facility up and alongside the Tharsis Montes Volcanoes. They also spotted what appeared to be huge facilities in support of the launch facility.

At first the astronomers did not know what they were looking at. It was felt that perhaps a new canal had been built, but this did not make any sense because the ‘canal’ did not run from any known source of water to any known or suspected large above or below ground facility. The clue to its real purpose was first revealed on 3 July 1935, when Mars Watch Program team members saw a series of flashes along much of the ‘canal.’ Were they ready to invade again?

As better observational equipment came on line, much improved due to the back engineering work being done by Directorate E, we were able to obtain much better views of Mars especially at opposition. As such it became clear that several massive building projects must have been on going on the Martian surface for some time. When the ‘seeing’ was particularly good one could just make out three dark lines along side Nix Olympia. Now known (thanks to recovered Martian Electronic Documents) (Ref: Martian Electric Document 116DB4) to be a massive volcanic mountain twice the height of Mount Everest, its base would cover the width of California with room to spare. At 10 miles high the massive volcano was nearly always visible above the sparse clouds and many dust storms, which bathe the planet every two to four years. It is now thought to be the largest known volcano in the solar system.

We soon discovered what these dark lines were. The Martians had constructed three 400 mile long magnetic pulse launching ramps to be used as the “first stage” machines to place their spacecraft into Mars orbit and to invade the Earth – or for that matter – any other destination the Martians may care to launch towards (Venus?). The launch begins with an explosive push, while the craft was lifted above the rails by magnets allowing the craft to float above with no contact friction. The craft was also kept in the center of the rail by magnets along the sides. Adding to the engineering marvel was a covering roof, which had magnets on its surface a well to not only keep the craft centered, but allowed no contact with the thin surface atmosphere.

As the spaceships flew along by a continuous series of sharp magnetic front pulses which added energy to the forward motion of the craft the ship slowly increased speed. By the time the craft reached the top of Nix Olympia at the very end of the rail tube it was estimated to be moving at an astonishing 8000 miles per hour. From that point the craft exited the rail flying free for a few seconds at which point powerful rocket engines were ignited easily sending the craft into orbit around Mars or on a direct path towards the Earth. It would be the ignition of these powerful rocket engines that we would spot several times from each ramp as the Martians sent these massive attack ships towards Earth to begin their next invasion. If we could someday harness this technology we certainly could develop spacecraft to easily orbit our Earth and perhaps someday travel to the moon and beyond. Once again the Mars Watch Program swung into action and reported no further launches. We also kept an eye open for new plagues, but this had only been a test. No new attacks were forthcoming at least not for the time being.

With our new optical equipment we were also able, for the first time, to actually view the four major population centers on Mars, or rather the three remaining population centers. The fourth one displayed only a darkened area. Our shock was to discover that there really were only three remaining city areas on the surface where the Martians lived all under domes. We were also able to ‘see’ the domes for the first time (barely as fuzzy spots). Our views showed that there were no major Martian facilities outside of the domed areas save the ones in support of their launch facilities and canals. This discovery seemed to clearly indicate that the Martians were truly nearing the end of their ability to survive on the surface of Mars. This information however, did not add any knowledge of how extensive the underground facilities must be, but they certainly must be rather extensive in order to support any large number of Martians still living on and under the planet as well as being able to support their massive launch facility. We were making a lot of guesses, but they were now being based upon known observational information as well as what it would take to do the work we knew to be on going.

We were also able for the first to ‘see’ once again barely, a much better view of the major canal system. They turned out to be a good deal more complicated than we had imagined. We were later able to confirm that along the entire length of active canals (more than 60 percent of the canals were inactive according to our intelligence reports) on both sides were well developed vegetation strips with red weed and something akin to medium sized trees. Small Martian “surface communities” were in place to tend the “crops” as well as monitor the movement of water along the canal. There was also what can best be described as roads along one side of the canal linking the communities. If only we could discover what lay beneath the Martian surface.

It would seem that a whole portion of Martian society had been devoted to monitoring and maintaining these canals as well as the crops and possibly small animals which are part of the canal ecological system. This made a great deal of sense considering how critical these canals are to the very survival of the Martians. If this system ever collapsed the species we know as Martian may very well vanish in a very short period of time.

By the end of 1935 Committee doctors had performed the first lobotomy on a Brotherhood hybrid who had been convicted of rape and murder. The hybrid was later killed and examined by doctors. After this first test the same procedure was performed on severely mentally handicapped full humans. They were not killed.

As another year came to an end we took time out to celebrate another World Nation’s Day on 17 December. Those of us in the Committee wondered how many more we would be celebrating before all of our nations once again faced the Martians in mortal combat?

Winston Reports

As the many nations of the world continued to prepare for a planetary war few discounted, my friend Sir Winston Churchill warned that totalitarian governments in Europe as well as other parts of the world were threatening democracies and weakening our overall military strength needed to defend our planet. At a meeting of the Magic Twelve held in Lower-London he would report, “We must focus on human self-preservation from an off-world enemy, but also of the human and the world cause of the preservation of free governments and of Western civilization against the ever advancing sources of authority and despotism. What is the good of defeating a Martian horde only to fall under the thumb of human despotism.”

[END PART 54]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 55: Chapter 9: Bracing for interplanetary War.]