COURSE OF EMPIRE
By RICHARD WILSON
Mars' sands are red;
Earth's face is too:
We were too green,
And now we're blue!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Infinity Science Fiction, February 1956.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The older man sat down on the grassy bank on the hill overlooking theorchard. The autumn sun was bright but the humidity was low and therewas a breeze.
The younger man sprawled next to him.
"Cigarette?" he asked.
"Thanks," said Roger Boynton. He looked across the valley, past theapple trees, to the fine white-columned house on the hill beyond. Hesmiled reminiscently. "A friend of mine once owned that house. A fellowcommissioner in World Government. He and I used to sit on this veryhill, sometimes. We'd munch on an apple or two that we'd picked on ourway through the orchard. Winesaps, they're called."
"You were telling me about the colonizing," said Allister gently, aftera pause.
The older man sighed. "Yes." He put out the cigarette carefully,stripped it, scattered the tobacco and wadded the paper into a tinyball. "I was commissioner of colonies. I had to decide, after my staffhad gathered all the data, who would be the best man to put in charge.It was no easy decision."
"I can imagine."
"You can't really. There were so many factors, and the data wereactually quite skimpy. The way it worked out, to be candid with you,was on the basis of the best guess. And some of the guesses were prettywild. We knew Mars was sandy, for instance, and so we put a Bedouinin charge. That pleased the Middle East, in general, and Jordan inparticular. Jordan donated a thousand camels under Point Four pointfour."
"I beg your pardon?" said Allister.
"That's not double-talk. Point Four was the old terrestrial program forunderdeveloped countries. World Government adopted it and broadened it.Mars is the fourth planet, so—" he traced 4.4 in the air, stabbinga finger at the imaginary point "—Point Four point four. It wasundoubtedly somebody's little whimsy in the beginning, but then itbecame accepted for the descriptive term that it was."
"I see." The young man looked vague. He stubbed out his cigarettecarelessly, so that it continued to smolder in the grass.
"Venus was the rainy planet," Boynton said, looking with disapprovalat the smoking butt, though he did nothing about it, "so we put anEnglishman in charge. England sent a crate of Alligators."
The young man looked startled.
"Alligator raincoats," Boynton said. "Things weren't very wellorganized. Too many things were happening too fast. There was a lot ofconfusion and although the countries wanted to do what was best, no oneknew exactly what that was. So they improvised as best they could onthe basis of their little knowledge."
"Was it a dangerous thing?"
"The little knowledge? No, not dangerous. Just inefficient. Then therewas Jupiter. We didn't bother about Mercury, although for a time therewas some uninformed talk about sending an Equatorial African to do whathe could."
"Who went to Jupiter?" Allister asked.
"The United States clamored for Jupiter and got it. The argument wasthat the other planets would be a cinch to colonize because of theirsimilarity to Earth but that Jupiter needed a real expert because ithad only its surface of liquid gas and the Red Spot."
"What's that?"
"I'm sorry. I'd forgotten you were just a youngster when all this