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Rocket Summer
A rocket launches from Ohio in January of 1999 melting all of the snow creating a "summer" -
Ylla
Ylla and Yll are martians. They live in a beautiful house. However, Ylla is getting tired of Yll and at the same time starts dreaming about an astronaut by the name of Nathaniel York. Yll goes out hunting and she hears 2 shots at about the same time the rocket was supposed to arrive -
The Summer Night
One night in August of 1999, all over Mars, people begin to hum Earth tunes and to have strange dreams. Musicians automatically begin to play earth tunes--one woman sings "She walks in beauty," by Lord Byron. -
The Earth Men
The next morning, Earth men land, led by Captain Williams. They go from house to house, saying that they are from Earth, but everyone turns them away. They find that they can communicate with the Martians by telepathy. Finally, they are referred to Mr. Iii. They are becoming very discouraged not to receive any attention. Mr. Iii shows them into a room filled with Martians. They welcome Williams and his three men with a huge, spontaneous civilization. Slowly, they realize that they have been put -
The Taxpayer
In March of 2000, a man runs to the launchpad, demanding as a taxpayer to be let onto the third rocket to Mars. He is arrested. -
The Third Expedition
When the rocket lands, in April of 2000, the crew of 16 finds itself in an ideal small American town. Captain John Black is skeptical, but Hinkston is convinced that they are witnessing some kind of miracle. Upon exploration, members of the crew begin to meet different long-lost members of their families. There is even a brass band. Black finds himself in the home of his parents and his brother John. He lays down to sleep in bed with his brother, only to realize that it is probably all a Martian -
The settlers
In August of 2001, drawn by the promise of work, settlers begin to arrive. -
And the Moon Be Still As Bright
A year later, a fourth expedition lands, and it is successful. Captain Wilder lets his men drink and dance, but this angers the archaeologist in the crew, Jeff Spender. He deserts the crew and begins to explore the Martian ruins.Eventually, he returns, claiming to be a Martian. He kills all of the crew except the captain and gets chased by the men and eventually is killed. -
The Locusts
By February of 2002, rockets are landing like flies. A dozen towns have sprung up, little Americas. -
The Green Morning
Benjamin Driscoll is one such settler. He rides a motorcycle and plants seeds wherever he goes, but he doesn't know if they'll grow. One morning in December, after it finally rains, he turns around and sees that the once-barren landscape is now covered with green. -
Night Meeting
One night in August, Toma's Gomez is driving to a party where there will be girls and whiskey. He stops at a filling station, where an old man talks about how much he likes Mars. The old man doesn't expect Mars to be like Earth; he anticipates differences. As Gomez drives on, he thinks of how the air looks and smells like Time. -
The Shore
A Martian by the name of Muhe Ca dismounts, and Gomez gives him a winning smile. They talk, but soon find that they cannot touch each other, as if they were both ghosts. Also, the Martian is headed to a giant festival in a town that looks deserted and ruined to Gomez. -
The Fire Balloons
two Priests, Father stone and Peregrine go in search to save the Martians from their sins but are unable to since the Martians are cleansed of their sins already -
The Interim
By October of 2002, wave upon wave of settlers is hitting Mars. The first was rough and built to build homes where there was nothing, but the second wave comes from the cities. Still, all the settlers come from America. By February of 2003, wood for entire cities is brought in, and the towns are then built. They are just like American towns. -
The Naming of Names
Many things are named after men from the first four expeditions to Mars. The new names are not descriptive like the old Martian ones. -
The Musicians
the settlers' children have found an odd way of amusing themselves: they hike out to a ruined Martian town filled with chicken pox corpses and stamp on the bodies, making black leaves fly up in the air, and they take bones from the skeletons and make music from them. -
Usher 2
Back on Mars, in April 2005, a man named William Stendahl has constructed a recreation of the House of Usher. A man named Garrett, an official Investigator of Moral Climate, soon arrives to condemn the house, but Stendahl has a robotic ape kill him, as in Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Knowing that the government will soon arrive, Stendahl and Pipes escape in a helicopter as the house disappears below a bog, as in the original "The Fall of the House of Usher." -
The Old Ones
In August of 2005, Mars is finally flooded with retirees. -
The Luggage Store
A priest and a luggage salesman are discussing how unreal the war seems, and how there may soon be a run on luggage. They speculate that people have not been away from Earth long enough not to go back if here is a large war. -
The Martian
LaFarge and his wife Anna have settled in, but they still miss their deceased son, Tom. One night, Tom shows up on their porch. LaFarge has trouble believing that he is real, but Anna does not. She insists that they go into town. Tom is terrified to do so, and when the three arrive, Tom immediately disappears. A family with a lost daughter caught sight of him, and he morphed into their lost daughter. LaFarge goes to look for him, and soon many people are chasing the Martian through town, seeing -
The Off Season
Hardly any rockets land on mars. It seems that it is an off season for people coming to Mars -
The Watchers
All over Mars, people watch Earth flame in the sky. They worry about people on Earth with whom they have been lax in communicating. A "light-radio" message comes from Earth, explaining that Australia has been destroyed due to the accidental detonation of an atomic stockpile, and that London and Los Angeles have been bombed. They are asked to return home. Soon, the luggage salesman is sold out. -
The Silent Towns
By December of 2005, Mars has been almost completely evacuated. One man, named Walter Gripp, who lives in the mountains, is left behind. For a few days, he entertains himself in an empty town, but he is lonely. He somehow finds a girl but she is fat and sticky with chocolate and leaves immediately ironically. -
The Long Years
It is April, 2026. Hathaway is living on Mars with his wife and three children. They live in a hut.He looks up into the sky, as he does every night, and this time he sees a rocket approaching in the distance. He is elated. He lights a nearby city on fire to make sure the rocket does not miss him. When the rocket lands, he finds that it is his old Captain Wilder, returned from exploring Jupiter and Pluto.Wilder, however, is struck by the youthfulness of Hathaway's family and sends Williamson to i -
There will come soft rains
In August of 2026, in California, a fully-automated house announces that it is time to wake up. Yet the house is empty. There is a silhouette of a man and woman doing yardwork and of a boy and a girl throwing a ball. The rest of the neighborhood is charred and flattened, and a radioactive glow hangs over the city. As evening comes, the house automatically reads the woman's favorite poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains." The poem describes how, once man is utterly destroyed because of a war, nature -
The Million Year Picnic
In October of 2026, a rocket lands on Mars. It carries a husband and wife and three boys. The Dad explains that he has brought them away from Earth to start a new life on Mars. The next day, the Edwards will arrive with their daughters, and together they will start life anew.He then takes his boys to see some Martians. He has them look into the canal at their own reflections.