“It's got to stick. Relations with the Martians are eight times as delicate as we thought they were; absentee ownership isn't practical. Imagine trying to settle issues like this one by taking a vote back on Earth among board members that have never even seen a Martian.”
“That's not what I mean. How much opposition will we run into?”
MacRae scratched his chin again. “Men have had to fight for their liberties before, Jamie. I don't know. It's up to us to convince the folks back on Earth that autonomy is necessary. With the food and population problem back on Earth being what it is, they'll do anything necessary—once they realize what we're up against—to keep the peace and continue migration. They don't want anything to hold up the Project.”
“I hope you're right.”
“In the long run I have to be right. We've got the Martians pitching on our team. Well, I'm on my way to break the news to Jim.”
“He's not going to like it,” said Jim's father.
“He'll get over it. Probably he'll find another bouncer and teach him English and call him Willis, too. Then he'll grow up and not make pets of bouncers. It won't matter.” He looked thoughtful, and added, “But what becomes of Willis? I wish I knew.”
JIM TOOK IT WELL. HE ACCEPTED MACRAE'S MUCH EXPURGATED explanation and nodded. “I guess if Willis has to hibernate, well, that's that. When they come for him, I won't make any fuss. It was just that Howe and Beecher didn't have any right to take him.”
“That's the slant, son. But it's right for him to go with the Martians because they know how to take care of him, when he needs it. You saw that when you were with them.”
“Yes.” Jim added, “Can I visit him?”
“He won't know you. He'll be asleep.”
“Well—look, when he wakes up, will he know me?”
MacRae looked grave. He had asked the old one the same question. “Yes,” he answered truthfully, “he'll have all his memory intact.” He did not give Jim the rest of the answer—that the transition period would last more than forty Earth years.
“Well, that won't be so bad. I'm going to be awfully busy in school right now, anyhow.”
“That's the spirit.”
Jim looked up Frank and they went to their old room, vacant of womenfolk at the moment. Jim cradled Willis in his arms and told Frank what Doc had told him. Willis listened, but the conversation was apparently over the little Martian's depth; Willis made no comment.
Presently Willis became bored with it and started to sing. The selection was the latest Willis had heard, the tango Frank had presented to Jim: iQuien Es La Senorita?
When it was over Frank said, “You know, Willis sounds exactly like a girl when he sings that.”
Jim chuckled. iQuien Es La Senorita?, Willis?”
Willis managed to look indignant. “Willis fine boy!” she insisted.
On the following pages, from the original 1949 Red Planet manuscript, you see the extent of the editing that Scribner did. You will see whole passages from Chapter VIII, “The Other World” are deleted, followed by the heavily edited ending.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROBERT ANSON HEINLEIN was born in Butler, Missouri, in 1907. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he was retired, disabled, in 1934. He studied mathematics and physics at the graduate school of the University of California and owned a silver mine before beginning to write science fiction in 1939. In 1947 his first book of fiction, Rocket Ship Galileo, was published. His novels include Double Star (1956), Starship Troopers (1959), Stranger in a Strange hand (1961), and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), all winners of the Hugo Award. Heinlein was guest commentator for the Apollo 11 first lunar landing. In 1975 he received the Grand Master Nebula Award for lifetime achievement. Mr. Heinlein died in 1988.
Red Planet is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 1949, renewed © 1976 by Robert A. Heinlein Introduction copyright © 2006 by William H. Patterson, Jr.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Fvandom House, Inc.
Originally published in slighdy different form by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, in 1949.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49753-6
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Robert A. Heinlein, Red Planet
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