Bryce Walton 30 min read

In the interspatial war with Mars, Earth is firmly united, no spies, no saboteurs to fear, that is, if you overlook Mary, the sweetest, most incongruous little girl ever to haunt a launching site.

Bryce Walton's 1954 story spins a sharp military first-contact tale around an innocent-seeming child at a rocket base. Clever, twisty golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a united humanity's one blind spot turns out to be the least suspicious person imaginable.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

30 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller