Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Amazing Stories, November, 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
 | SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL |
THE
PLANET
SAVERS
By
MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY
ILLUSTRATOR NOVICK
A SHORT NOVEL
the planet savers
By the time I got myself all[84]the way awake I thought Iwas alone. I was lying on aleather couch in a bare whiteroom with huge windows, alternateglass-brick and clear glass.Beyond the clear windows was aview of snow-peaked mountainswhich turned to pale shadows inthe glass-brick.
Habit and memory fittednames to all these; the bare office,the orange flare of the greatsun, the names of the dimmingmountains. But beyond a polishedglass desk, a man sat watchingme. And I had never seen theman before.
He was chubby, and notyoung, and had ginger-coloredeyebrows and a fringe of ginger-coloredhair around the edges ofa forehead which was otherwisequite pink and bald. He waswearing a white uniform coat,and the intertwined caduceus onthe pocket and on the sleeve proclaimedhim a member of theMedical Service attached to theCivilian HQ of the Terran TradeCity.
I didn't stop to make allthese evaluations consciously, ofcourse. They were just part ofmy world when I woke up andfound it taking shape around me.The familiar mountains, thefamiliar sun, the strange man.But he spoke to me in a friendlyway, as if it were an ordinarything to find a perfect strangersprawled out taking a siesta inhere.
"Could I trouble you to tell meyour name?"[85]
That was reasonable enough.If I found somebody makinghimself at home in my office—ifI had an office—I'd ask him hisname, too. I started to swing mylegs to the floor, and had to stop[86]and steady myself with onehand while the room drifted ingiddy circles around me.
"I wouldn't try to sit up justyet," he remarked, while thefloor calmed down again.