Europan n. 1

A horrible fear assailed him. Fear for the safety of the dainty Europan at his side. He found her hand; covered it protectingly with his own.

Many of the spectators were not, strictly speaking, Callistonians at all. They were really Europans, born and reared in that hidden city which was to have been the last stronghold of Callisto’s civilization.

We can trust that crew of rabble-rousers to encroach immediately on the rights of the Europans, as defined by the agreement we will draw up. Whereupon we shall declare the agreement null and void and take over Europa.

Jan. 42 [sc. the back cover of Amazing Stories, a Frank R. Paul illustration titled ‘Glass City of Europa’] brings the bee-hive topped giant glass igloo of the Europans with a prism surmounting it all. The dwellings previously depicted on the Sept[.] 40 back cover are also represented in the background—this igloo, then, must be a new development.

Curt dismounted and stood holding the bridle. He said to the Europan[,] ‘Go back to the spaceport, to the Patrol base. Tell those who wait there for us where we are.’ A gleam that was almost a light of hope began to show in the young man’s eyes. ‘And you?’ he asked. Curt nodded toward the blind notch of the pass. ‘We are going in.’

Apart from the flickering glow of the rare lava outpourings, and occasional bioluminescence from creatures seeking mates, or hunters questing prey, it was a lightless world. It was also a doomed one. Not only were its energy sources sporadic and constantly shifting, but the tidal forces that drove them were steadily weakening. Even if they developed true intelligence, the Europans must perish with the final freezing of their world. They were trapped between fire and ice.

Raggedy urchins, sighting the unwashed Europan leaning over the stone balustrade, his lips compressed with pernickety distaste, giggled.

‘Well, hello there!’ I heard my father say over the comm. ‘This is General Xavier Lightman of the Earth Defense Alliance. Where do you assholes think you’re headed?’ After a pause, he added: ‘Klaatu barada nikto, fellas.’ Then, perhaps taking his own stab at some gallows humor, he whistled the five-note message used to communicate with the friendly ETs in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The same tones that bookended each of the Europans’ montage transmissions.