MoonQuill

_Violet Beam of Death_ We landed on a stage at the summit of one of the nearer hillsides. Our coming--unheralded since we had carried no sending instruments--created a furor. The workers rested to watch us as we disembarked. It was not so different a scene, here on the hill, than might have occurred on Earth. We took a moving platform, down the hill, to the water's edge. A barge was awaiting us--a broad flat vessel with gaudy trappings. A score of attendants lined its sides, each with a pole to thrust it through th…