all was the Parks and Streiff Construction Co., whose partners were the prime movers of most of the action, James Streiff and Robert Parks.
In early 1937’ my brother Lee Streiff was only four years old, and so it was that most of his childhood and youth were some how surrounded or suffused with the images and tales of the Martian Epic. However, it was not until he reached the age of eleven that he became the brief inheritor of, and participant in the affairs of the Epic itself.
It was during World War 11, in 1943 that Lee first took over the job of running business of the Martian Empire while all of its members were away from Wichita in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Knowing that he would soon be drafted, James began grooming Lee for the task earlier that year. James reported to active duty on June 3rd 1943.
At first Lee’s duties of taking over the job of the Parks and Streiff Construction Co .Files were minimal; receiving correspondence from members of the group and sending it on to James, and keeping the files up to date.
Later in 1944’, Lee started a News letter, because it was easier to keep all the members of the group informed that way, and he called it, “The Martian News Letter.” He would run off copies of the News Letter on his hectograph machine and mail them off to fellow, Martians, aliens, Sci - Fi fans, and refugee’s, (real people) in the far-flung regions of the globe (overseas, and the Midwest) In 1943’ he decided he wanted to reorganize the files and bring the scattered parts of the legend together, but all he had were some letters, some essays, a lot of pictures, assorted documents and some obscure scribbled notes written in Martian script, and so on. He didn’t know how it had all come to be in the first place, or have a mental model of how all of these parts were to fit together, as they didn’t tell a connected tale or necessarily relate to each other even. So – he began to put the events of the Epic into a chronological narrative order and create a sort of an encyclopedia. Lee understood Encyclopedia’s. He had read most of the two sets our family owned and much of the World Book he’d borrowed from our neighbor Mrs. Peggy Easley by the time he was seven. With this wealth of knowledge he set to work extracting information from letters and asking James questions in their long extended correspondence while James was overseas.
When James returned from the War in February of 1946’ Lee’s task was done and in 1947’ as a sophomore in high school, his interest began to turn in other directions. He left Science Fiction behind for the most part and became more involved in art and literature — but then that’s another story.
After the War, most of the members, fans, and other Martians that had returned home began getting jobs and raising families of their own. — and so the Martian Empire winded down and came to a conclusion around 1948’.
Lee ended his Guidebook of “CVC Veri and the Epic of the Martian Empire,” with a poem James had written at that time.
“As we now go through so many rolling years, we gaze upon the greater glory of a mighty Empire. It stands in the memory of great men as the supreme effort of a mighty race.”
It was an epitaph of the Martian Empire and of the many, many, Martians who’d built it.
And so now my version of the Martian Empire comes together in the story of “The Streetcar to Andromeda,” in which I have given my view of the Epic, with considerable embellishing upon a few tales from the scribbling’s, notes and scattered letters and pictures of the Parks and Streiff Construction Company files, And from Lee’s wonderful guidebook of; CVC VERI and, The Epic of Martian Empire.
I have also woven in with my embellishments significant tales of my own, along with several stories and adventures of the exploits of the Martian Exiles and their many friends and creatures. In doing so, I have now added my own name to the long, long list of People and Martians that contributed their imaginations — a very long, long time ago, in another time and another place, way back in the 1940’s.
I have done all this with the wonderful gift of imagination by my side. Because you see, although it was James who had raised Lee, it was Lee in turn, that had raised me, and from his own vast knowledge and wisdom he gave to me the priceless gift of imagination, which I in turn —would enjoy passing on to you.
CHAPTER 1
ELSEWHERE AND ELSEWHEN…
It was a warm and magical firefly night, and the heavens were flushed with the glow of a million stars. Our home was at the edge of the city and the sweeping lowlands of the Kansas plains lay just beyond. I sat at my bedroom window on propped elbows, looking out across the shimmering grasslands of the Kansas prairie, out into that mysterious place where the timeless winds sweep over the tall grass, making it rise and fall like magnificent waves in a vast Ocean.
Suddenly a faint breeze swirled in my window curtains, and in the distance I saw a falling star plummeting from the heavens. As it fell towards the horizon, this particular star seemed a bit brighter than most. I quickly closed my eyes and made a wish, and when I opened them again, the star was gone, disappearing I supposed, into that vast ocean of wheatgrass.
Then suddenly I saw the waves of the wheatgrass part, and out came flying my older brother Jesse and his best friend Parker. The boys whooped and howled exuberantly, fleeing the sea of grass as if something terrible was chasing after them. Tumbling and tripping over one another they reached the vacant lot next to our home, where apparently now safe, they dropped to the ground in giggling out of breath hysterics. Red faced and laughing, they shushed each other so as not to awaken the slumbering neighbors.
Excited by their enthusiasm I started to call out, but then I heard Parker say, as he caught his breath, “Boy!!! We almost didn’t make it that time, huh Jess?”
“Yeah,” Jesse replied emphatically, “Tok Loor was really hot on our heels tonight.”
Jesse stood up and brushed off the seat of his pants then reached down and gave Parker a hand up. “Too bad about our ship though.”
“Yeah,” Parker replied as he struggled up. “But we can patch er’ up later on. I’ll come by tomorrow and help you, okay?”
Jesse nodded.
Parker smiled and chuckled, “Well, it’s certainly been an awfully eventful evening.” Checking his watch he continued, “I guess I’d better hit the ole’ trail, its git’en pretty late.”
I watched as the boys gave each other a strange sort of secret handshake. Grasping each other’s forearm above the wrist, they shook “arms” up and down and exclaimed in unison: “To The Triumphant Victory!”
What the Heck is going on? I thought.
Parker turned and waved to Jesse over his shoulder as he strolled off down the block to his house just a couple of streets away.
When Parker disappeared, Jesse turned and stared pensively up into the heavens for a moment then slowly sank down into the soft grass. As he hugged his knees a strange smile began to play around the corners of his mouth.
I started to call out, but then I thought better of it. I knew now that Jesse would be out there for hours contemplating the universe. I’d seen him do it a million and one times before. Also I knew that tomorrow, or very, very soon, Jesse would tell me what was chasing him and Parker out there that night through the fields of the Kansas plains.
♣
That was all back in
