Read Online STRANGE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OMNIBUS by Benson Grayson - Free Book Online

manufactured in the molten core of the Moon and forced up through cracks in the surface of depressions such as the one in which I am living. That’s the way we get our oxygen as well. Forced up from the core. I believe our Moi may be similar to the manna referred to in your Old Testament as being furnished by your God to help the Israelites survive in the desert.”
    Hawthorne was amazed that the Moon Man knew so much about events on Earth and spoke such colloquial English. When he inquired, the Moon Man explained that the inhabitants of the Moon regularly listened to radio broadcasts emanating from the Earth. “We also receive your television signals,” added, “But they are usually too scrambled for us to make much sense of them. Additionally, we learned your language when we sent exploratory missions to Earth many centuries ago. We decided at that time you were too primitive a species for us to have any interaction with, always concentrating on murdering each other, and that in the future we should do all that we could to prevent you from learning of our existence.”
    “If you actually visited the Earth,” Hawthorne asked, “Why is there no record of it in our history?”
    “Actually, there is,” came back the answer, which left Hawthorne even more confused. “Many of your accounts of ghosts represent human sightings of us. If you think about it, you can see our appearance is rather similar to the descriptions of ghosts.”
    Remembering the purpose of his mission to the Moon, Hawthorne said. “I am very glad to have made the trip here and to have met with you. I always suspected that all the reports of NASA expeditions reaching the Moon and exploring it were fabricated. If they had really done so, they would have encountered you or other Moon People and reported that to Earth.”
    “You’re being foolish again,” the Moon Man said reproachfully, “they didn’t see us because we deliberately concealed our existence from them. It’s a simple matter to camouflage our depressions and our residences so they are indistinguishable from the Moon surface.”
    Hawthorne realized that he had spent considerable time speaking with the Moon Man and that it was necessary for him to leave and return to the space capsule. “One last question,” he said. “Since you Moon people have taken such pains to avoid Earthmen learning of your existence, why have you revealed yourself to me?”
    “That’s very simple,” came back the answer. “There are three reasons. In the first place, if you told the people on Earth what you have seen and heard, they would not believe you. You would be confined in a mental institution. The second reason is that if they did believe you and sent another mission here to look for us, we would simply conceal our existence, as we did during your previous Moon walks. Of course, the third reason is the most important.”
    “And what is that?’” Hawthorne blurted out.
    “It’s just this. You are never going back to Earth. You are here permanently.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Go to the door and look out.” explained the Moon Man.
    Hawthorne rushed to the door and opened it. High in the sky, disappearing from sight, he beheld the spacecraft returning to Earth. He cried out in horror and began cursing, then sobbing. In a few minutes, however, he regained his composure. Actually living permanently on the Moon with the Moon people would not be that bad. Their Moi was pretty tasty fare. If he stayed here, he would not have to undergo that awful feeling of weightlessness again. But best of all, if he stayed here, he would be dealing with a species much more rational, more intelligent and nicer than what he had observed on Earth.

THE ENEMIES MACHINE
    The multi-million dollar super computer dubbed the “Enemies Machine” was constructed under the direction of the Advanced Research Project Agency under the overall supervision of senior Pentagon officials. Once built, the CIA and other members of