The Illustrated Man

Captain Hart and his lieutenant, Martin, have landed their rocket ship outside an alien town, but the locals have not come out to visit them. A cynical man, Hart is tired and angry. He flicks his cigarette into a meadow; Martin stamps it out. Hart can’t understand how their efforts in getting here could go unnoticed and wonders: “Why do we do it, Martin? This space travel, I mean. Always on the go. Always searching. Our insides always tight, never any rest” (61). Martin suggests that perhaps they are looking for peace. Hart agrees, and both decide they might be seeking for something good beyond their “evil planet” (63). Hart sends Martin to the town to investigate.

Martin returns in a daze. The villagers, he says, are disinterested in their rocket because the day before, an unnamed man had arrived. The townspeople had been waiting for this man for a long time. Hart immediately suspects rival rocket captains Ashley or Burton, but Martin insists it was neither; this is a man known by different names on every planet, a man who “healed the sick and comforted the poor” and “fought hypocrisy and dirty politics” (66).

In town, Hart blusters through a conversation with the mayor, which is translated by electronic equipment.