January 3, 2026 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:38):
Mind Way. Welcome to a half hour of mind Ways
short stories from the world expecting to fiction. This is
(01:09):
Michael Hanson the mind Web story This Evening is copyright
nineteen seventy three from the book Saving Worlds published by
Double Day. This is Paradise Regained a tale by Cogswell Thomas.
(02:25):
When Petro Anthos stepped out of the matter transmitter on
the planet Hell, the guards promptly surrounded him and searched
him for weapons. It was the one thing they did well.
As long as the condemned man reached Hell free of weapons,
there was little to worry about from him, so they
searched him, found nothing, and turned him over to a
(02:45):
resident work group. Jennings took him in charge, snarled at
him in front of the guards, and then put his
arm around his shoulders. When they had him in the
barracks dome, Jennings said, well, you're in luck. An Thus
looked at him. This was a thing he had not
known that Hell was peopled with lunatics fifty light years
(03:11):
from Earth, a vicious penal colony where one breath of
the atmosphere brought choking, gagging, painful death. Hard labor seven
days a week, a trickle of survival food supplements from
Earth in exchange for a daily photo of coal, a
place so deadly that its mere existence all but eliminated
crime from the populations of Earth. Here he was in
(03:34):
the first five minutes of a twenty year sentence, and
a work gang chieftain put his arm around his shoulders
and told him he was in luck. An Thus looked
at him. Jennings was a short, stocky man with a
pot belly that didn't jiggle the slightest bit when he walked.
He was dirty and grimy, and his clothes were in patters,
(03:55):
but he had a calm air of authority about him
that could be felt. Now that he thought of about it,
Petro Anthos realized that having the arm around his shoulders
had probably kept him from screening. Jennings said, you're a
gas chromatographer, aren't you. Anthos nodded numbly. Yeah, okay, Now
(04:20):
we don't have enough time for you to really think
much about this, but we have to include you in
on an escape plan that we've worked out. I escape,
I thought through the matter transmitter. Look, I saw the
other end just now, and you can't possibly Jennings impatiently
(04:43):
waved him quiet. Not through the matter transmitter, that is impossible. Yeah,
but see, we've found a place on this planet where
we can live outside. Yeah, I know, I know you've
heard that no human being candy of outside the domes
or outsuits on this planet. Well you are almost right.
(05:06):
But we've found a place, a small valley that's barely livable,
and once we get to it, we can make it
more livable in time. And we need a good group
to do it though, And we need a gas chromatographer,
And we had one, l Chertsey, But he got a
little careless last week and hiled a good breath of
white damp, burned out, his lungs, gotdy. He died hard.
(05:30):
You know what it's like. Anthos nodded. They had made
it all too clear to him before they had sentenced
him to Hell. The atmosphere would not support life, nor
did it screen out the harmful solar radiations. Men had
to wear outsuits equipped with back tanks to old air,
(05:50):
special breathing apparatus, protective helmets to keep out radiation and cold.
Even the flora and fauna of Hell would not support
human life. They did not contain the vital trace compounds.
The local foodstuffs were one of the secrets of Earth's
hold on Hell. Supplemental nutrients were passed in through the
(06:11):
matter transmitter only in response to the quotas of coal
that were passed out to Earth, and the ultimate irony
was that Earth did not even need the coal, although
it had none of its own. Coal was a status symbol,
something to be burned in the little pots in the
living rooms of the very wealthy, and thus not as
(06:35):
he knew what it was like. Jennings, looking around at
several other men and women gathered near, said it won't
be easy. It won't be easy in the valley, not
for a while. But if we're going to work twelve
hours a day, seven days a week, we might as
well be doing it for ourselves, and not a bunch
(06:56):
of cibarites back on Earth? Are you willis Anthos hesitated.
He was thin and frail, and the thought of hard
physical work appalled in But he was a tough minded chemist,
a good gas chromatographer, who called the shots as he
saw them, which was why he was here in the
first place. In the year AD twenty six eighty eight.
(07:18):
On Earth, one simply does not, as Anthos had done,
give analytical results flatly opposed to the analytical results of
the Federal Horse Racing Board of Analytical Examiners concerning the
urine analysis of a certain Derby winner. Despite all the
changes of man and animals on Earth, it was still
(07:40):
possible to spike a horse and chemically induce an extraordinary
burst of speed. Jennings noticed the hesitation and said, let
me let me introduce you to some of our people.
Ed Jackson, mechanical engineer. So does Frank stand over there
an the two grimy people, Millie Franks and Leonora Myers
(08:05):
are chemists, Sorry smith electrician. That's Willie George, nothing much
but a hard worker. Ernie Hill guard biologist, Seat Standage, historian,
Alex Parker, teacher. Jennings named a few more, and Anthos
had a definite feeling that this was the cream of
(08:26):
the penal colony. And finally Anthon said, okay, I'm in
Oh that's great. Now here's the plan. We go back
into our tunnel in half an hour. The coal is
almost exhausted and the tunnel is due to be sealed
off in another month. And we found that five kilometers
(08:49):
down the tunnel it reaches almost to a bend in
a sealed tunnel from the old workings, and we've cut
a small tunnel to it and stored explosives and food
and equipment and some air tanks and even an air compressor.
The tunnel has a lot of white damp in it,
but we think we can get all of us through it, okay.
And at the other end, we got a small tunnel
(09:11):
to the surface. And Thus looked at him and said,
so you go up to the surface and die. No. No,
It opens into the damnedest valley you ever saw. It
kind of sealed off from the rest of the planet's surface.
We can live there. It won't be easy, but we
(09:31):
can stay alive and work to make the valley more livable.
We figure in five years we can convert the valley
to a place even better than Earth. And that's why
we need all the skills of all these people. Jennings
waved at the group around him. See what we do.
We blow up the tunnel we're working and right to
(09:53):
the surface, so it fills with white damp. But we're
in the abandoned tunnel, which be blown shot. And the
guards will you know, they'll just take a look in
the working tunnel, and when they find it filled with
white damp, they'll figure we're all dead and just seal
it off and forget about us. The life's cheap here,
and what are the guards care for a few dozen prisoners,
(10:16):
So we go on to our valley and make it livapool.
Anthus's hand shook as he smoothed his mustache, but he
nodded and said, all right, you need need to monitor
the atmosphere and things like that. I suppose do you
have the material for a gas chromatograph. Oh, we've got
(10:38):
a good supply of equipment. Will make out now. In
fifteen minutes we move out, so take everything you can
stuff when your clothing. The group scattered, leaving Anthos standing alone.
He felt very much alone as he looked for the
first time at the dome that served as living quarters
for the prisoners. It was dark and smelly and quiet,
(11:03):
with a tang in the air that he knew was
a trace of the white damp seeping into the dome
from outside. Bunks with webbing for mattresses formed in a
circle around the outer perimeter of the dome, sticking straight
out from the walls. Everything was smudged gray of black
with the ubiquitous coal dust. He put his hands in
his pockets and as he felt how empty they were,
(11:26):
and realized he had absolutely nothing in the world except
the dirty clothes. He stood in. Depression welled up inside him,
so strong he began to gasp. In an instant. Jennings
was at his side, the arm around him again, saying nothing,
and thus forced himself to breathe normally, and he said
to Jennings, how do how do you stand the noise
(11:47):
level in here? Oh? Yeah, get used to it. Okay,
come on, it's time to go. The group went out
the lock to the sealed vehicle, which took them to
the lock at the mouth of the word. They entered
and rowed for an hour to the end of the
tunnel and got to work with pick and shovel. The
guards got back on the tram and left. What happened
(12:12):
then was a nightmare of unreality for Anthos. With practiced speed,
the group moved a mile back down the tunnel and
planted a series of explosives. They littered the floor with
unusable junk from the mining gear, even including the blown
air tank. They opened the small side tunnel and planted
the charge in it. Climbing over the charge, they all
(12:35):
crawled into the side tunnel, panting from the exertion, choking
on the foul air, taking turns breathing from the tanks. Dimly,
Anthos heard the roar of the explosion, cowered from the
wave of coal particles and rock dust that engulfed them,
and threatened to suffocate them all. In the seal the tunnel,
the dust was better, but the white damp was worse.
(12:59):
The groups shaded all the equipment they could carry and
took turns pulling and dragging the air compressor. Every hour
they stopped, fueled the compressor with powdered coal, recharged the
air tanks, and went on. The buzzing in Anthos's ears
grew louder until he could no longer hear the harsh
panting from his companions. Everything grew blurred, and his muscles
(13:23):
began to twitch and refused to obey his will. He
reached the point where he could barely stand. He put
a hand on the cold wall to steady himself. He
felt someone easing to the floor of the tunnel and
hold a face piece of an air tank to his nose.
Slowly his twitching muscles still, and his breathing became normal.
(13:45):
In five minutes, he was able to sit up and
look around. Jennings said to him, the others are are
opening the tunnel to the valley. Anthos found his voice
and said, at least we're out of prison. Oh we'll
miss it, but we'll manage. We'll miss it all right,
(14:07):
but we'll get back there a few years from now,
and Thus had started to turn away, But then Jennings's
words sank in, and Thus turned back and said, what
did you say, Oh, yeah, I didn't mention it before.
Once we get the valley in shape, we'll take over
(14:28):
the whole planet. Not many guards, and with a matter
transmitter out of commission, it'll it'll take Earth fifty years
to get a ship here. We'll be ready for him.
By then. Anthos heaved himself to his feet in dignant
protests forming in his mind. But a call from the
darkness said, hey, guys, the tunnel through. Let's get going.
(14:51):
Jennings patted Anthos on the shoulders, saw that he was
able to walk, and went into the small mouth of
the tunnel and worked his way up. Anthos had to follow,
and then he stepped out onto the surface and looked around.
He was standing near one edge of a giant natural
saucer measuring some six kilometers in diameter. A ring of
(15:12):
mountains enclosed the saucer. In the shaft through which he
had just emerged lay near the base of the south rim.
Scattered around the rim of mountains were spots of orange light,
marking the raw throats of active volcanoes. Plumes of steam
and smoke poured out of fissures all over the floor
of the valley. The entire valley was filled with a
(15:34):
light haze that almost obscured the sun overhead. Yet Anthos
knew that without the haze, the valley would be unlivable
under the unfiltered, harsh radiation of the sun. And he
could breathe. He could stand on the surface of Hell
and breathe. When he inhaled deeply, he coughed, for there
(15:57):
was the barest trace of white dam in the air.
But he could breathe. He looked at the floor of
the valley more carefully. A great clear lake lay in
the center, measuring perhaps three kilometers in diameter. It was
fed by a wide, rushing stream that sprang from the rocks.
Halfway up the east rim, and bordering both the stream
(16:19):
and the lake was a broad belt of greenery. Anthos
was too far away to see the nature of the
green things growing, but some of it stood higher than
the rest and looked very much like trees. Jennings said
to all of them, well, well, where it is may
not be much, but at least it's livable, and we'll
(16:41):
make it a lot better. We've got almost all the
raw materials we'll ever need right here, so let's not
waste time. We'll break up into groups. One bunch will
find as temporary places to live. Another will go back
and finish bringing all the stuff that we hid in
the tunnel. Another group will start looking for anything here
we can eat, and then another. Jennings went on and
(17:06):
then picked people for the various groups. Ten minutes after
they arrived in the valley, they scattered to start their work.
They worked until they could no longer stand, and then
they rested. They worked harder than they had ever worked
as prisoners mining coal. The days blended into weeks and months,
(17:26):
and in four years they accomplished what they had thought
would take them five. Jennings called them together in their
outdoors meeting place and said, well, well, I think we're
ready to move on to the next step. The valley
is in good livable shape now, and except for one
critical trace compound where more than self sufficient. We can
(17:50):
get new supplies to that compound when we take over
the main camp. Okay, we're ready to move. And thus said, ah,
I'll take the group and handles the demolitions. I want
to make certain that no one gets hurt. That all
right with you, Colonel hum I wouldn't want it any
other way. Jennings smiled at Anthos, smiled at the changes
(18:14):
four years had made him. Anthos was lean as a
slat and brought his aboard all sindy and whipcord. His
mustache had grown greater and weatier than ever, and his large,
liquid brown eyes missed nothing as they snapped over the landscape. Anthos,
the gas chromatographer had evolved into Jennings's second in command.
(18:34):
Jennings continued, set it up, Petrol, do it tomorrow. The
operation went smoothly. The guards were not very alert and
were easily enticed out of the transmitter building. After the explosion,
Anthos's men quickly went in and carefully fused all the
maining components. Then, from a safe distance, Anthos explained that
(18:59):
all of them, the guards and prisoners alike, were totally marooned,
and that the only salvation for any of them was
to join Jennings' group in the valley. Wisely, Anthos told
them not to make up their minds now, but that
he'd be back the next day for their answers. Anthos
wanted it to sink in that there would be no
(19:21):
more supplies coming from Earth, that the only Earth type
atmosphere existed in the valley, and that even the air
in the domes would slowly go bad. When Anthos returned
the next day, everybody was ready to join him. In
the trip to the valley. The guards were huddled with
(19:41):
their weapons in one group, and the prisoners were in
a separate group. Anthos collected the weapons and made it
clear that they were all in this together, guards and
prisoners alike. It took three days to get all the
people from the side of the prison domes to the valley.
The guards were moved last, and Anthus stayed with them.
(20:03):
He watched their faces as they came up out of
the tunnel into the valley and looked around. Then he
took them to the meeting place where Jennings was waiting
to talk to them. They sat down, hundreds of them.
From where they sat, they had a fine view of
the valley. Jennings waved out over the valley and said,
so all of them could hear. There is almost perfect
(20:28):
earthside conditions. The haze and smoke in the valley were
so thick the rays of the sun could no longer penetrate.
Long streaks of yellow flames licked along the surfaces of
exposed coal veins, burning, pouring dense clouds of smoke into
the air. Jennings said, just inhale, good sulfur dioxide and
(20:54):
nitrous oxides, plenty of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. When
we first got here, the sky was blue. Think of that.
You could hardly breathe because the oxygen in the air.
Why that white damp was like the Earth's atmosphere seven
hundred years ago, before our forefathers changed it. The sun
(21:17):
shone right through here most of the time. Can you
imagine what it was like. Look at that lake down there,
It was as blue as the sky. Unfortunately, we found
some phosphate deposits and we loaded the lake with them,
and just look at it now, rich green, nutritious water.
(21:37):
The lake was jelly thick with algae, and bubbles of
marsh gas could be seen breaking the surface here and there. Well,
we even have fish in there. But we only began
to extract mercury two months ago, and we haven't yet
been able to bring the mercury content of the carp
up to the point where they're edible another few months.
(22:00):
Feel the temperature. We're up to one hundred degrees fahrenheit
now and we're going up all the time. It'll soon
be normal. There's plenty of carbon dioxide in the air now,
and we have a green house effect. And we've only
got one immediate problem. We can't yet make a critical
compound DDT, but it is non biodegradable, and there is
(22:23):
an enormous amount of it in the sewage deposits of
the prison camp. So we'll go back and extract the
DDT and use it as a food supplement until we
can make it ourselves. Well, you like it so far,
guards and prisoners alike nodded and clapped. Jennings held up
his hand for silence. Now the best is yet to come.
(22:46):
What we've done here, we can do to the rest
of the planet. We've done some exploring in our extensive
oil pools available, and we can flood the streams, rivers, lakes,
and oceans with all well to kill off most of
the harmful oxygen producing organisms. We'll burn open coal veins
to cut off the harmful sun rays and give us
(23:09):
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and the sulfur compounds we need
in the air. By eliminating the native flora and fauna,
we ought to be able to reclaim huge portions of
the planet, or maybe even the whole thing will spray
with DDT, so the plants and animals will take it
up and become nutritious. It won't take too long to
(23:30):
get a proper greenhouse effect working for the whole planet.
We'll make a second Earth. Here, are you with us?
A roar of approval went up, chairs, whistles shouting, on
and on it went. A guard leaped from his seat
(23:50):
in the front row, went up to Jennings and shook
his hand and turned to the assembled crowd. They slowly
quieted as they saw he wanted to say something. He said, uh,
four four months ago, j about four months ago, I
came to Hell from from Earth, and I wanna tell
you now that this place he waved his hand out
(24:12):
towards the valley, more at home than any place I've
been since I left New York City. I say, we
make the whole planet livable. The cheers were deafening. That
(25:12):
story is titled Paradise Regained, written by Cogswil Thomas, copyright
nineteen seventy three. It was first published in the Doubleday
book Saving Worlds, edited by Roger Elwood. Virginia Kid This
is Michael Hansen. Technical operation for this broadcast by Rich Grody.
(25:34):
Mind webs is a production of WHA Radio in Madison,
a service of the University of Wisconsin Extension
Mind Way. Welcome to a half hour of mind Ways
short stories from the world expecting to fiction. This is
(01:09):
Michael Hanson the mind Web story This Evening is copyright
nineteen seventy three from the book Saving Worlds published by
Double Day. This is Paradise Regained a tale by Cogswell Thomas.
(02:25):
When Petro Anthos stepped out of the matter transmitter on
the planet Hell, the guards promptly surrounded him and searched
him for weapons. It was the one thing they did well.
As long as the condemned man reached Hell free of weapons,
there was little to worry about from him, so they
searched him, found nothing, and turned him over to a
(02:45):
resident work group. Jennings took him in charge, snarled at
him in front of the guards, and then put his
arm around his shoulders. When they had him in the
barracks dome, Jennings said, well, you're in luck. An Thus
looked at him. This was a thing he had not
known that Hell was peopled with lunatics fifty light years
(03:11):
from Earth, a vicious penal colony where one breath of
the atmosphere brought choking, gagging, painful death. Hard labor seven
days a week, a trickle of survival food supplements from
Earth in exchange for a daily photo of coal, a
place so deadly that its mere existence all but eliminated
crime from the populations of Earth. Here he was in
(03:34):
the first five minutes of a twenty year sentence, and
a work gang chieftain put his arm around his shoulders
and told him he was in luck. An Thus looked
at him. Jennings was a short, stocky man with a
pot belly that didn't jiggle the slightest bit when he walked.
He was dirty and grimy, and his clothes were in patters,
(03:55):
but he had a calm air of authority about him
that could be felt. Now that he thought of about it,
Petro Anthos realized that having the arm around his shoulders
had probably kept him from screening. Jennings said, you're a
gas chromatographer, aren't you. Anthos nodded numbly. Yeah, okay, Now
(04:20):
we don't have enough time for you to really think
much about this, but we have to include you in
on an escape plan that we've worked out. I escape,
I thought through the matter transmitter. Look, I saw the
other end just now, and you can't possibly Jennings impatiently
(04:43):
waved him quiet. Not through the matter transmitter, that is impossible. Yeah,
but see, we've found a place on this planet where
we can live outside. Yeah, I know, I know you've
heard that no human being candy of outside the domes
or outsuits on this planet. Well you are almost right.
(05:06):
But we've found a place, a small valley that's barely livable,
and once we get to it, we can make it
more livable in time. And we need a good group
to do it though, And we need a gas chromatographer,
And we had one, l Chertsey, But he got a
little careless last week and hiled a good breath of
white damp, burned out, his lungs, gotdy. He died hard.
(05:30):
You know what it's like. Anthos nodded. They had made
it all too clear to him before they had sentenced
him to Hell. The atmosphere would not support life, nor
did it screen out the harmful solar radiations. Men had
to wear outsuits equipped with back tanks to old air,
(05:50):
special breathing apparatus, protective helmets to keep out radiation and cold.
Even the flora and fauna of Hell would not support
human life. They did not contain the vital trace compounds.
The local foodstuffs were one of the secrets of Earth's
hold on Hell. Supplemental nutrients were passed in through the
(06:11):
matter transmitter only in response to the quotas of coal
that were passed out to Earth, and the ultimate irony
was that Earth did not even need the coal, although
it had none of its own. Coal was a status symbol,
something to be burned in the little pots in the
living rooms of the very wealthy, and thus not as
(06:35):
he knew what it was like. Jennings, looking around at
several other men and women gathered near, said it won't
be easy. It won't be easy in the valley, not
for a while. But if we're going to work twelve
hours a day, seven days a week, we might as
well be doing it for ourselves, and not a bunch
(06:56):
of cibarites back on Earth? Are you willis Anthos hesitated.
He was thin and frail, and the thought of hard
physical work appalled in But he was a tough minded chemist,
a good gas chromatographer, who called the shots as he
saw them, which was why he was here in the
first place. In the year AD twenty six eighty eight.
(07:18):
On Earth, one simply does not, as Anthos had done,
give analytical results flatly opposed to the analytical results of
the Federal Horse Racing Board of Analytical Examiners concerning the
urine analysis of a certain Derby winner. Despite all the
changes of man and animals on Earth, it was still
(07:40):
possible to spike a horse and chemically induce an extraordinary
burst of speed. Jennings noticed the hesitation and said, let
me let me introduce you to some of our people.
Ed Jackson, mechanical engineer. So does Frank stand over there
an the two grimy people, Millie Franks and Leonora Myers
(08:05):
are chemists, Sorry smith electrician. That's Willie George, nothing much
but a hard worker. Ernie Hill guard biologist, Seat Standage, historian,
Alex Parker, teacher. Jennings named a few more, and Anthos
had a definite feeling that this was the cream of
(08:26):
the penal colony. And finally Anthon said, okay, I'm in
Oh that's great. Now here's the plan. We go back
into our tunnel in half an hour. The coal is
almost exhausted and the tunnel is due to be sealed
off in another month. And we found that five kilometers
(08:49):
down the tunnel it reaches almost to a bend in
a sealed tunnel from the old workings, and we've cut
a small tunnel to it and stored explosives and food
and equipment and some air tanks and even an air compressor.
The tunnel has a lot of white damp in it,
but we think we can get all of us through it, okay.
And at the other end, we got a small tunnel
(09:11):
to the surface. And Thus looked at him and said,
so you go up to the surface and die. No. No,
It opens into the damnedest valley you ever saw. It
kind of sealed off from the rest of the planet's surface.
We can live there. It won't be easy, but we
(09:31):
can stay alive and work to make the valley more livable.
We figure in five years we can convert the valley
to a place even better than Earth. And that's why
we need all the skills of all these people. Jennings
waved at the group around him. See what we do.
We blow up the tunnel we're working and right to
(09:53):
the surface, so it fills with white damp. But we're
in the abandoned tunnel, which be blown shot. And the
guards will you know, they'll just take a look in
the working tunnel, and when they find it filled with
white damp, they'll figure we're all dead and just seal
it off and forget about us. The life's cheap here,
and what are the guards care for a few dozen prisoners,
(10:16):
So we go on to our valley and make it livapool.
Anthus's hand shook as he smoothed his mustache, but he
nodded and said, all right, you need need to monitor
the atmosphere and things like that. I suppose do you
have the material for a gas chromatograph. Oh, we've got
(10:38):
a good supply of equipment. Will make out now. In
fifteen minutes we move out, so take everything you can
stuff when your clothing. The group scattered, leaving Anthos standing alone.
He felt very much alone as he looked for the
first time at the dome that served as living quarters
for the prisoners. It was dark and smelly and quiet,
(11:03):
with a tang in the air that he knew was
a trace of the white damp seeping into the dome
from outside. Bunks with webbing for mattresses formed in a
circle around the outer perimeter of the dome, sticking straight
out from the walls. Everything was smudged gray of black
with the ubiquitous coal dust. He put his hands in
his pockets and as he felt how empty they were,
(11:26):
and realized he had absolutely nothing in the world except
the dirty clothes. He stood in. Depression welled up inside him,
so strong he began to gasp. In an instant. Jennings
was at his side, the arm around him again, saying nothing,
and thus forced himself to breathe normally, and he said
to Jennings, how do how do you stand the noise
(11:47):
level in here? Oh? Yeah, get used to it. Okay,
come on, it's time to go. The group went out
the lock to the sealed vehicle, which took them to
the lock at the mouth of the word. They entered
and rowed for an hour to the end of the
tunnel and got to work with pick and shovel. The
guards got back on the tram and left. What happened
(12:12):
then was a nightmare of unreality for Anthos. With practiced speed,
the group moved a mile back down the tunnel and
planted a series of explosives. They littered the floor with
unusable junk from the mining gear, even including the blown
air tank. They opened the small side tunnel and planted
the charge in it. Climbing over the charge, they all
(12:35):
crawled into the side tunnel, panting from the exertion, choking
on the foul air, taking turns breathing from the tanks. Dimly,
Anthos heard the roar of the explosion, cowered from the
wave of coal particles and rock dust that engulfed them,
and threatened to suffocate them all. In the seal the tunnel,
the dust was better, but the white damp was worse.
(12:59):
The groups shaded all the equipment they could carry and
took turns pulling and dragging the air compressor. Every hour
they stopped, fueled the compressor with powdered coal, recharged the
air tanks, and went on. The buzzing in Anthos's ears
grew louder until he could no longer hear the harsh
panting from his companions. Everything grew blurred, and his muscles
(13:23):
began to twitch and refused to obey his will. He
reached the point where he could barely stand. He put
a hand on the cold wall to steady himself. He
felt someone easing to the floor of the tunnel and
hold a face piece of an air tank to his nose.
Slowly his twitching muscles still, and his breathing became normal.
(13:45):
In five minutes, he was able to sit up and
look around. Jennings said to him, the others are are
opening the tunnel to the valley. Anthos found his voice
and said, at least we're out of prison. Oh we'll
miss it, but we'll manage. We'll miss it all right,
(14:07):
but we'll get back there a few years from now,
and Thus had started to turn away, But then Jennings's
words sank in, and Thus turned back and said, what
did you say, Oh, yeah, I didn't mention it before.
Once we get the valley in shape, we'll take over
(14:28):
the whole planet. Not many guards, and with a matter
transmitter out of commission, it'll it'll take Earth fifty years
to get a ship here. We'll be ready for him.
By then. Anthos heaved himself to his feet in dignant
protests forming in his mind. But a call from the
darkness said, hey, guys, the tunnel through. Let's get going.
(14:51):
Jennings patted Anthos on the shoulders, saw that he was
able to walk, and went into the small mouth of
the tunnel and worked his way up. Anthos had to follow,
and then he stepped out onto the surface and looked around.
He was standing near one edge of a giant natural
saucer measuring some six kilometers in diameter. A ring of
(15:12):
mountains enclosed the saucer. In the shaft through which he
had just emerged lay near the base of the south rim.
Scattered around the rim of mountains were spots of orange light,
marking the raw throats of active volcanoes. Plumes of steam
and smoke poured out of fissures all over the floor
of the valley. The entire valley was filled with a
(15:34):
light haze that almost obscured the sun overhead. Yet Anthos
knew that without the haze, the valley would be unlivable
under the unfiltered, harsh radiation of the sun. And he
could breathe. He could stand on the surface of Hell
and breathe. When he inhaled deeply, he coughed, for there
(15:57):
was the barest trace of white dam in the air.
But he could breathe. He looked at the floor of
the valley more carefully. A great clear lake lay in
the center, measuring perhaps three kilometers in diameter. It was
fed by a wide, rushing stream that sprang from the rocks.
Halfway up the east rim, and bordering both the stream
(16:19):
and the lake was a broad belt of greenery. Anthos
was too far away to see the nature of the
green things growing, but some of it stood higher than
the rest and looked very much like trees. Jennings said
to all of them, well, well, where it is may
not be much, but at least it's livable, and we'll
(16:41):
make it a lot better. We've got almost all the
raw materials we'll ever need right here, so let's not
waste time. We'll break up into groups. One bunch will
find as temporary places to live. Another will go back
and finish bringing all the stuff that we hid in
the tunnel. Another group will start looking for anything here
we can eat, and then another. Jennings went on and
(17:06):
then picked people for the various groups. Ten minutes after
they arrived in the valley, they scattered to start their work.
They worked until they could no longer stand, and then
they rested. They worked harder than they had ever worked
as prisoners mining coal. The days blended into weeks and months,
(17:26):
and in four years they accomplished what they had thought
would take them five. Jennings called them together in their
outdoors meeting place and said, well, well, I think we're
ready to move on to the next step. The valley
is in good livable shape now, and except for one
critical trace compound where more than self sufficient. We can
(17:50):
get new supplies to that compound when we take over
the main camp. Okay, we're ready to move. And thus said, ah,
I'll take the group and handles the demolitions. I want
to make certain that no one gets hurt. That all
right with you, Colonel hum I wouldn't want it any
other way. Jennings smiled at Anthos, smiled at the changes
(18:14):
four years had made him. Anthos was lean as a
slat and brought his aboard all sindy and whipcord. His
mustache had grown greater and weatier than ever, and his large,
liquid brown eyes missed nothing as they snapped over the landscape. Anthos,
the gas chromatographer had evolved into Jennings's second in command.
(18:34):
Jennings continued, set it up, Petrol, do it tomorrow. The
operation went smoothly. The guards were not very alert and
were easily enticed out of the transmitter building. After the explosion,
Anthos's men quickly went in and carefully fused all the
maining components. Then, from a safe distance, Anthos explained that
(18:59):
all of them, the guards and prisoners alike, were totally marooned,
and that the only salvation for any of them was
to join Jennings' group in the valley. Wisely, Anthos told
them not to make up their minds now, but that
he'd be back the next day for their answers. Anthos
wanted it to sink in that there would be no
(19:21):
more supplies coming from Earth, that the only Earth type
atmosphere existed in the valley, and that even the air
in the domes would slowly go bad. When Anthos returned
the next day, everybody was ready to join him. In
the trip to the valley. The guards were huddled with
(19:41):
their weapons in one group, and the prisoners were in
a separate group. Anthos collected the weapons and made it
clear that they were all in this together, guards and
prisoners alike. It took three days to get all the
people from the side of the prison domes to the valley.
The guards were moved last, and Anthus stayed with them.
(20:03):
He watched their faces as they came up out of
the tunnel into the valley and looked around. Then he
took them to the meeting place where Jennings was waiting
to talk to them. They sat down, hundreds of them.
From where they sat, they had a fine view of
the valley. Jennings waved out over the valley and said,
so all of them could hear. There is almost perfect
(20:28):
earthside conditions. The haze and smoke in the valley were
so thick the rays of the sun could no longer penetrate.
Long streaks of yellow flames licked along the surfaces of
exposed coal veins, burning, pouring dense clouds of smoke into
the air. Jennings said, just inhale, good sulfur dioxide and
(20:54):
nitrous oxides, plenty of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. When
we first got here, the sky was blue. Think of that.
You could hardly breathe because the oxygen in the air.
Why that white damp was like the Earth's atmosphere seven
hundred years ago, before our forefathers changed it. The sun
(21:17):
shone right through here most of the time. Can you
imagine what it was like. Look at that lake down there,
It was as blue as the sky. Unfortunately, we found
some phosphate deposits and we loaded the lake with them,
and just look at it now, rich green, nutritious water.
(21:37):
The lake was jelly thick with algae, and bubbles of
marsh gas could be seen breaking the surface here and there. Well,
we even have fish in there. But we only began
to extract mercury two months ago, and we haven't yet
been able to bring the mercury content of the carp
up to the point where they're edible another few months.
(22:00):
Feel the temperature. We're up to one hundred degrees fahrenheit
now and we're going up all the time. It'll soon
be normal. There's plenty of carbon dioxide in the air now,
and we have a green house effect. And we've only
got one immediate problem. We can't yet make a critical
compound DDT, but it is non biodegradable, and there is
(22:23):
an enormous amount of it in the sewage deposits of
the prison camp. So we'll go back and extract the
DDT and use it as a food supplement until we
can make it ourselves. Well, you like it so far,
guards and prisoners alike nodded and clapped. Jennings held up
his hand for silence. Now the best is yet to come.
(22:46):
What we've done here, we can do to the rest
of the planet. We've done some exploring in our extensive
oil pools available, and we can flood the streams, rivers, lakes,
and oceans with all well to kill off most of
the harmful oxygen producing organisms. We'll burn open coal veins
to cut off the harmful sun rays and give us
(23:09):
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and the sulfur compounds we need
in the air. By eliminating the native flora and fauna,
we ought to be able to reclaim huge portions of
the planet, or maybe even the whole thing will spray
with DDT, so the plants and animals will take it
up and become nutritious. It won't take too long to
(23:30):
get a proper greenhouse effect working for the whole planet.
We'll make a second Earth. Here, are you with us?
A roar of approval went up, chairs, whistles shouting, on
and on it went. A guard leaped from his seat
(23:50):
in the front row, went up to Jennings and shook
his hand and turned to the assembled crowd. They slowly
quieted as they saw he wanted to say something. He said, uh,
four four months ago, j about four months ago, I
came to Hell from from Earth, and I wanna tell
you now that this place he waved his hand out
(24:12):
towards the valley, more at home than any place I've
been since I left New York City. I say, we
make the whole planet livable. The cheers were deafening. That
(25:12):
story is titled Paradise Regained, written by Cogswil Thomas, copyright
nineteen seventy three. It was first published in the Doubleday
book Saving Worlds, edited by Roger Elwood. Virginia Kid This
is Michael Hansen. Technical operation for this broadcast by Rich Grody.
(25:34):
Mind webs is a production of WHA Radio in Madison,
a service of the University of Wisconsin Extension
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