Homens, Marcianos e Máquinas , uma coleção de quatro histórias de Eric Frank Russell publicado pela primeira vez em 1955. Qualquer essas capas parecem familiares?
Uma história era sobre um planeta de máquinas onde as máquinas capturavam alguns da tripulação e estavam prontas para dissecá-las vivas em um esforço para aprender o que era a vida.
"Mechanistria" , publicado pela primeira vez em Atraente ficção científica , janeiro de 1942 , disponível em Internet Archive .
"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."
Eles foram pegos de caranguejos inteligentes de um planeta próximo em seu sistema solar e os dissecaram por anos.
"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."
Outro conto no livro era sobre um planeta em que eles pousaram onde a luz do sol era verde e o planeta estava coberto pela selva planetária.
"Symbiotica" , também a resposta a esta pergunta ; publicado pela primeira vez em Astounding Science-Fiction , outubro de 1943 , disponível no Arquivo da Internet .
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.
A tripulação aprende rapidamente que as árvores são carnívoras com folhas planas muito grandes que podem balançar para baixo e com uma armadilha de resina resinosa muito pegajosa e erguer animais que se aproximam demais de seus troncos.
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.
Eles também encontram uma forma de vida humanóide que vive uma relação simbiótica com certas árvores.
"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."
As outras duas histórias da coleção são "Jay Score" , primeiro publicado em Astounding Science-Fiction , maio de 1941 , disponível no Arquivo da Internet , e " Mesmerica ", publicado pela primeira vez nesta coleção.