THE GREEN SPHERE
Dennis Tucker

	The Green Sphere landed on Earth in the middle of a Mexican desert, on October 27, 2021. As was to be expected, scientists from all round the globe took the first plane they could get, and went to the scene of the landing. They found that what they had heard was true; the Sphere was a brilliant green in color and was composed of very dense matter, being perfectly round and just over a mile and a quarter in diameter, without sign of a break or rivet on its surface. At night a green fluorescence became discernible, casting a glow rather like that of a mercury lamp, giving everyone present a ghastly pallor.

	During the following few days, many and varied were the attempts to break through the wall of the Sphere to the interior, including pneumatic drills with diamond points, oxyacetylene apparatus, and dynamite, but all were to no avail.

	It was on the fourth day that first symptoms of the illness became apparent. All the party camping out around the Sphere complained of sickness and dizziness. In brief, their bodies first became the same violent green hue of the Sphere and then seemed to rot away. They died quickly. It was concluded that some emanation originating in the green globe was the direct cause of the disaster, and it soon became apparent that the area of danger was spreading rapidly.

	It seemed that the mysterious rays took effect only after an exposure of three days. Humans could endure it with impunity for three days—no more. The spot was now five hundred miles in diameter and still growing with undiminished speed.

	Many plans were tried to destroy the thing. Brave souls went into the danger area with trucks of dynamite, which was carefully set out around and under the Sphere. Bombers were sent over, dropping tons of high explosive. Finally, all sorts of radio waves were tried in hopes of counteracting the Sphere's destroying influence. But, miraculously, the green globe emerged unscratched. Still the death spot grew, now having a diameter of sixteen hundred miles, with three thousand deaths accredited to it. Many fled the advancing threat.

	It could only have ended in the complete annihilation of the human race, but for the suggestion of the world-renowned physicist, Professor A. Knutt, whose statue now adorns a public place in practically every town on the face of this Earth.

	Men were rushed to the Sphere in fast planes and excavating work was rushed with all possible speed. The men who worked the first two days were replaced by a second shift, and so on, each gang working only the two days. Finally, came Earth's great day. The Green Sphere had suddenly shot away from the Earth at an enormous speed and it eventually vanished into the depths of space, whence it came. The menace had gone, leaving a death roll of seven thousand.

	In conclusion, and by way of explanation, we quote the professor's radio speech:

	"The means of ridding the Earth of the invader from space was at first evasive by its very simplicity. Explosives would not dent the Sphere. We could not destroy it, so the obvious alternative was to remove it from the planet entirely. After a little thought, this was comparatively simple. I had a shaft dug into the ground at a short distance from the Sphere. A tunnel was then cut from the foot of the shaft to a point right under the Sphere. Another shaft upward and we broke surface against the bottom of the Sphere itself. I then had a powerful searchlight installed at the foot of this shaft, and directed it up at the great globe. Then, after fixing a large block of solid helium over the lens of the searchlight, we turned on the current. The result was just as we had planned and expected. The light, on passing through the solid helium, immediately froze solid, giving us, in effect, a projectile traveling at one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second. This tremendous force, on hitting the Sphere, was easily able to shift it: to shift it so well, in fact, that it was thrown clean out into space! We then switched off the light and came home."