The Moon Era

The Moon Era is a story by Jack Williamson, taken from the February 1932 issue of Wonder Stories. A short note before it raises the idea that the moon, now dead and barren, was once the scene of flourishing life.

In one passage the narrator follows Uncle Enfield to a galvanized iron building that glistens in the light of the full moon. Inside stands a machine of two huge copper disks, each about twenty feet across, with a chromium-plated cylinder between them and small round windows in its sides. An oval door of plated steel swings inward, and lights come on in the circular room within.

In another passage the narrator lies on bare sand below spiky scrub, stiff with dry blood and aching from the poison of thorns, and remembers the telegram, the flight through space and time and the expedition to the jungle's edge. A slender being, flexible as an eel and covered in soft golden down, glides into view. Elsewhere the narrator speaks of the Mother, with violet eyes, as a loyal, courageous and kind comrade.