ALIEN EQUIVALENT
BY RICHARD R. SMITH
from
Planet Stories Summer 1955
Martians were weak, sensitive, a dying race, frail and impotent before the superiority of master Earthmen. Only in the sly and mentally skillful game of Duchal might sons of the red planet emerge gloriously from their shells.
- - - -
* * * *
CHESTER FARRELL EMERGED from the narrow alley and paused before the barbed wire fence.
Behind him, the Martian city was a maze of strange sounds, angular buildings, acrid odors and dark shadows.
Before him, beyond the fence, three spaceships pointed their bows toward a star-studded sky. The slender ships gleamed dully in the starlight as they rested on the red desert.
He touched the money in his pocket to reassure himself that at last, he had the fare for the trip to Earth.
