Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

innermost at about 42 million. By virtue of their surprisingly different

diameters and densities, all but the innermost of these worlds appear to be

habitable in some degree, and even the innermost-hot and stormy though it

obviously is–cannot entirely be ruled out as an abode of indigenous life.

The outermost, a body about 10,000 miles in diameter and rich in both water

vapor and carbon dioxide, exhibits a frost-line after midnight almost as

far down as the equatorial belt, and it is permanently glaciated in both

its northern and its southern sixths; but the tem-

148 fames Blish

peratures at noon range from hot along the equator to freezing at about 250

N. and S. latitude. As a result the prevailing planetary weather may be de-

scribed as violent, but by no means intolerable.

“The three planets bracketed by these two extremes are all livable, and in

fact the spectroscope shows that life has arisen on all three. The fourth

planet outward from the sun, a world 9,000 miles in diameter with one very

large moon and two small ones, is particularly verdant, and close

inspection shows that both the planet and the large moon were in fact

occupied at one time. The lunar installation is a featureless metal dome.

The planet can be seen to bear many large stone and metal artifacts

suggesting cities, now obviously quite silent and deserted. Pending

exploration, their age, origin and fate remain conjectural.

“We are not yet able to say upon what basis our computer selected this

extraordinarily promising system, but hope to accumulate more data after