The Test Colony

By Winston K. Marks

Winston K. Marks was a popular sci-fi writer whose stories were featured in a number of magazines during the mid-20th century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krill Press
• Release date: Jan 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781518370991

Book preview

THE TEST COLONY

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Winston K. Marks

CHASMA PRESS

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This book is a work of fiction; its contents are wholly imagined.

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Copyright © 2016 by Winston K. Marks

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BY WINSTON MARKS: Illustrated by Kelly Freas

The Test Colony

By

Winston K. Marks

The Test Colony

Published by Chasma Press

New York City, NY

First published circa 1979

Copyright © Chasma Press, 2015

All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

About Chasma Press

No genre has ever unlocked the possibilities and potential of mankind like science fiction. Sci-fi writers like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne have been conjuring up vivid depictions of the future for centuries, and Chasma Press brings all these worlds to life to readers who continue to read the classics and forge visions of new ones.

BY WINSTON MARKS: ILLUSTRATED BY KELLY FREAS

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[TRANSCRIBER NOTE: THIS ETEXT WAS produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction September 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Benson did his best to keep his colony from going native, but what can you do when the Natives have a rare human intelligence and know all about the facts of life?

It was the afternoon of our arrival. Our fellow members of the test colony were back in the clearing at the edge of the lake, getting their ground-legs and drinking in the sweet, clean air of Sirius XXII. I was strolling along the strip of sandy beach with Phillip Benson, leader of our group, sniffing the spicy perfume of the forest that crowded within twenty feet of the water’s edge.

Half a billion miles overhead, Sirius shone with an artificially white glow. Somewhere on the horizon, Earth lay, an invisible, remote speck of dust we had forsaken 24 dreary, claustrophobic months ago.

The trip had taken its toll from all of us, even tough-minded Phil Benson. We both found it difficult to relax and enjoy the invigorating, oxygen-rich air and the balmy climate. As official recorder, I was trying to think of words suitable to capture the magnificence, the sheer loveliness of the planet which would be our home for at least four years, perhaps forever.

Each absorbed in his own thoughts, Benson and I were some 500 yards from the clearing when he stopped me with a hand on my arm. Who is that? he demanded.

Up the beach where he pointed, two naked forms emerged from the calm waters. They skipped across the sand and began rolling together playfully in the soft grasses at the forest’s edge. Even at this distance they were visibly male and female.

I can’t make them out, I said. My only thought was that one of the young couples had swum down ahead of us and was enjoying the first privacy attainable in two years.

Benson’s eyes were sharper. Sam, they—they look like—

Our voices must have reached them, for they sprang apart and rose to their feet facing us.

Like youngsters, I