Män, martians och maskiner , en samling av fyra berättelser av Eric Frank Russell först publicerad 1955. Någon av dessa omslag ser bekanta ut?
En berättelse handlade om en maskinplanet där maskinerna fångade några av besättningen och var redo att dissekera dem levande i ett försök att lära sig vad livet var.
"Mechanistria" , först publicerad i Andrande Science-fiction , januari 1942 , tillgänglig på Internetarkiv .
"Have you any idea of what they intend to do with us?"
"They'll dissect you."
"Dissect us? Cut us up?"
"Yes."
McNulty scowled and asked, "Why?"
"They dissect all the individualistic. They've been doing it for years, centuries, trying to discover the cause of personal independence. They are intelligent machines, and their intelligence is completely communal." The lobster, or whatever it was, mused and went on, "Upon our own world of Varga there are tiny aquatics of similar type in that they're nothing remarkable as individuals but display high intelligence when functioning in organized groups. They share a racial mind."
De hade tagits intelligenta krabba som varelser från en närliggande planet i sitt solsystem och dissekerade dem i flera år.
"For many, many circumsolar revolutions they have been trying to conquer the neighbouring water-world of Varga, which is our home planet. Our people have resisted with some success but occasionally some of us are captured, brought here and dissected."
En annan kort historia i boken handlade om en planet som de landade på var solljuset var grönt och planeten var täckt av planetjungeln.
"Symbiotica" , även svaret på den fråga ; först publicerad i Förvånande Science-fiction , oktober 1943 , tillgängligt på Internetarkiv .
Sticking my face to the nearest port, I had a look through its thick disc and studied what I could see of the new world. It was green. You'd never have believed any place could be so thoroughly and absolutely green. The sun, which had appeared a primrose colour out in space, now looked an extremely pale green. It poured down a flood of yellow-green light.
The Marathon lay in a glade that cut through a mighty forest. The area immediately around us was lush with green grasses, herbs, shrubs, and bugs. And the forest itself was a near-solid mass of tremendous growths that ranged in colour from a very light silver-green to a dark, glossy green that verged upon black.
Besättningen lär sig snabbt att träden är köttätande med mycket stora plana löv som kan svänga ner och med en mycket klibbig hartsig undersida fälla och lyfta djur som kommer för nära sina kläder.
With a mighty swoosh! the branch immediately above his head drove down. I could almost hear the tree's yelp of triumph as the swipe gave a boost to my imagination.
The spatulate leaf smacked Jepson squarely across his back and a waft of the pineapple-cinnamon smell went all over the place. Just as swiftly the branch swung up to its original position, taking the victim with it. Roaring with fury, Jepson soared with the leaf and struggled furiously while we gathered in a dumbfounded bunch below. We could see that he was stuck to the underside of that leaf and slowly becoming covered in thick, yellowy-green goo as he writhed madly around. That stuff must have been a hundred times stickier than the best bird-lime.
De finner också en humanoid livsform som lever ett symbiotiskt förhållande med vissa träd.
"And what have we learned, if anything?" I inquired.
"Well, we know that life on that planet is mostly symbiotic," Jay replied. "Its different forms of life share their existence and their faculties. Men share with trees, each according to his kind. The communal point is that queer chest organ."
De andra två berättelserna i samlingen är "Jay Score" , först publicerad i Förvånande Science-fiction , maj 1941 , tillgänglig på Internetarkiv och " Mesmerica ", först publicerad i denna samling.