Transcriber's Note
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
On earth it was 2056 A.D.
but on the red-green planet
it was
THE YEAR ONE
There were only six human beings—
DR. CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT, anthropologist—he believed in man'sbasic goodness ... but could he put his trust in an alienrace?
PAUL MASON—he dutifully shared his wife with his bestfriend.
DOROTHY LEEDS—Paul was her husband, but she knew there weresome things more important than love.
SEARS OLIPHANT—the gentle scientist who inspired love in analien.
ANN BRYAN—the youngest of them all, she had to be taughtviolence and passion.
EDMUND SPEARMAN—the rebel who had to have his own tribe torule ... even though it meant war with his Earth companions.
Six humans alone against the deadly forces of a strange anddistant planet.
WEST OF THE SUN
EDGAR PANGBORN
To Mary C. Pangborn
Contents
| PART ONE | |||||||
| A.D. 2056 | 9 | ||||||
| PART TWO | |||||||
| The Year One | 77 | ||||||
| PART THREE | |||||||
| The Year Ten | 161 | ||||||
Part One
A.D. 2056
1
Morning was flowing over the red-green planet. "What do we know?" Thedelicate brown face of Dorothy Leeds kindled with questions."Summarize it."
Edmund Spearman achieved casualness. "Diameter and mass a trifle morethan Earth's, larger orbit around a larger sun. A year of 458 days,twenty-six hours each. Moderate seasonal changes, axial tilt less thanEarth's, orbit less elliptical. See the smallness of the north polarice cap? The equatorial region—much too hot; the rest is subtropicalto temperate. We should go down (if we do) near the 50thparallel—north, I'd say. Too much desert in the southern hemisphere.Might be hot winds, sandstorms."
"The red-green is vegetation?" Dr. Christopher Wright teetered onlong legs before the screen, a classroom mannerism unchanged by elevenyears in the wilderness of space. He pinc