Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science Fiction June 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
THE VALLEY
By Richard Stockham
Illustrated by Ed Emsh
If you can't find it countless millions of miles in space,come back to Earth. You might find it just on the other sideof the fence—where the grass is always greener.
he Ship dove into Earth's sea of atmosphere like a great, silverfish.
Inside the ship, a man and woman stood looking down at the expanse ofland that curved away to a growing horizon. They saw the yellow groundcracked like a dried skin; and the polished stone of the mountains andthe seas that were shrunken away in the dust. And they saw how thecity circled the sea, as a circle of men surround a water hole in adesert under a blazing sun.
The ship's radio cried out. "You've made it! Thank God! You've madeit!"
Another voice, shaking, said, "President—Davis is—overwhelmed. Hecan't go on. On his behalf and on behalf of all the people—with ourhope that was almost dead, we greet you." A pause. "Please come in!"
The voice was silent. The air screamed against the hull of the ship.
"I can't tell them," said the man.
"Please come in!" said the radio. "Do you hear me?"
The woman looked up at the man. "You've got to Michael!"
"Two thousand years. From one end of the galaxy to the other. Not onegrain of dust we can live on. Just Earth. And it's burned to acinder."
A note of hysteria stabbed into the radio voice. "Are you all right?Stand by! We're sending a rescue ship."
"They've got a right to know what we've found," said the woman. "Theysent us out. They've waited so long—."
He stared into space. "It's hopeless. If we'd found another planetthey could live on, they'd do the same as they've done here."
He touched the tiny golden locket that hung around his neck. "Rightnow, I could press this and scratch myself and the whole farce wouldbe over."
"No. A thousand of us died. You've got to think of them."
"We'll go back out into space," he said. "It's clean out there. I'mtired. Two thousand years of reincarnation."
She spoke softly. "We've been together for a long time. I've lovedyou. I've asked very little. But I need to stay on Earth. Please,Michael."
He looked at her for a moment. Then he flipped a switch. "Milky Way toEarth. Never mind the rescue ship. We're all right. We're coming in."
he great, white ship settled to Earth that was like a plain afterflood waters have drained away.
The man and woman came out into the blazing sunlight.
A shout, like the crashing of a thousand surfs, rose and broke overthem. The man and woman descended the gang-plank toward the officialsgathered on the platform. They glanced around at the massed field ofwhite faces beneath them; saw those same faces that had been turnedtoward them two thousand years past; remembered the cheers and thecries that had crashed around them then, as they and the thousand