We're Civilized

We're Civilized

Title: We're Civilized
Author: Mark Clifton & Alex Apostolides
Release: 2011-08-20
Kind: ebook
Genre: Adventure Sci-Fi, Books, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Size: 147268
Naturally, the superior race should win ... but superior by which standards ... and whose?

excerpt
 The females and children worked among the lichen growth, picking off the fattest, ripest leaves for their food and moisture, completing their arc of the circle of symbiosis.

The males worked at the surface of the canals, or in open excavations. Their wide, mutated hands chipped into the rock-hard clay, opening a channel which was to be filled with sand and then sealed off with clay on all sides and surface. That water might seep through the sand without evaporation, without loss, from the poles to the equator of Mars--seep unimpeded, so that moisture might reach the lichen plants of everyone, so that none might thirst or hunger.

The seepage must flow. Not even buried in the dim racial memory had there ever been one who took more than his share, for this would be like the fingers of one hand stealing blood from the fingers of the other.

Among the Mars race there were many words for contentment, kinship of each to all. There were words to express the ecstasy of watching the eternal stars, by night and by day, through the thin blackish atmosphere. There were words to express the joy of opening slitted nostrils to breathe deeply in those protected places where the blowing sands did not swirl, of opening folds of rubbery skin to catch the weak rays of the distant Sun.

But there were no words for "mine" as separate from "yours." And there was no urge to cry out, "Why am I here? What is the purpose of it all?"

Each had his purpose, serene, unquestioning. Each repaired or extended the seepage canals so that others, unborn, might know the same joys and ecstasies as they. The work was in itself a part of the total joy, and they resisted it no more than healthy lungs resist clear, cool air.

So far back that even the concept of beginnings had been forgotten, the interwoven fabric of their symbiotic interdependence seeped through their lives as naturally as the precious water seeped through the canal sands. As far back as that, they had achieved civilization.

Their kind of civilization.

More Books from Mark Clifton & Alex Apostolides

Mark Clifton
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., R. A. Lafferty, Horace B. Fyfe, Lester del Rey, Frank M. Robinson, James Mckimmey, Jr., Milton Lesser, Keith Laumer, Warren Lapine, Mark Clifton, Mari Wolf, Charles L. Fontenay, Kenneth O'Hara, Charles V. De Vet, Don Thompson, Lynn Venable, Winston Marks, Arnold Castle, Tom Godwin, Sam Merwin Jr., Kris Neville, Ed M. Clinton, Jr., M. C. Pease, Jim Harmon, Robert J. Shea, Frank W. Coggins, Albert Teichner, William Campbell Gault, Charles E. Fritch, E. E. Doc Smith, E. Everett Evans, Albert Hernhunter, Gene Hunter, Arthur G. Hill, Richard O. Lewis, John Sentry & Tom Leahy
Mark Clifton
H. B. Fyfe, Milton Lesser, Arthur Dekker Savage, August Derleth, Alan E. Nourse, James Blish, James Mckimmey, Jr., Warren Lapine, Keith Laumer, Mari Wolf, Boyd Ellanby, Alvin Heiner, Don Berry, Mack Reynolds, Kenneth O'Hara, Dave Dryfoos, Jim Harmon, Mark Clifton, R. A. Lafferty, Russ Winterbotham, Richard Wilson, Alex Apostolides, Alfred Coppel, Frank M. Robinson, Ralph Sholto, Russell Burton, Robert Moore Williams, Charles Fontenay, Winston Marks, Jerome Bixby, Andersen Horne, L. Major Reynolds & J. F. Bone
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton, Alex Apostolides, C. M. Kornbluth, Jerome Bixby, Russell Burton, Walter Bupp, Raymond Jones, Arthur Feldman, Murray Leinster, Allan Danzig, Bradner Buckner, Stephen Barr, Mack Reynolds, Milton Lesser, Sterner Meek, Frank Banta, Frank Herbert, H. Beam Piper, Francis Stevens, Fritz Leiber, James Schmitz & Robert Abernathy
Evelyn E. Smith, Roger Dee, Ross Rocklynne, Jim Harmon, J.F. Bone, Robert Abernathy, C.L. Moore, Walter Bupp, Edmond Hamilton, Algis Budrys & Mark Clifton
Alex Apostolides & Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Roger Dee, Harry Harrison, Mark Clifton, L.J. Stecher, Vaughan Shelton, William Tenn, F.L. Wallace, Edward E. Smith, C.H. Thames & Tom Godwin
Mark Clifton
George du Maurier, Tom Godwin, Charles L. Fontenay, Mark Clifton, Randall Garrett, Stanley L. Weinbaum, Eros Urides, Jack Sharkey, Mark Wicks, L. P. Gratacap, Giovanni Schiaparelli, Andrew North & Andre Norton
Mark Clifton & Alex Apostolides
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Alex Apostolides & Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton & Alex Apostolides
Robert Hoskins et al.
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton