
A gutsy teenage reporter named Garth accepts a dare that could make his school paper legendary: an interview with the enigmatic being known as The Visitor. For seven thousand years the alien has dwelled in an egg‑shaped palace atop a mountain, a place shrouded in myth and feared for its supposed wrath toward curiosity. Undeterred, Garth climbs the seven‑mile rock‑cut path, his heart pounding as he steps into the silent, wheelchair‑bound figure at the heart of the mystery. The atmosphere cracks with the tension of a taboo question finally being asked.
Inside the stark chamber, The Visitor answers Garth’s probing queries with wry, ancient humor, confirming that the palace is a colossal spaceship that crash‑landed millennia ago. He reveals the staggering number of souls aboard and the heartbreaking fact that none survived the disaster. Each reply is layered with cryptic wisdom, forcing the young journalist to confront the fragile line between legend and reality. As the interview unfolds, Garth discovers the true story may be less about alien power and more about the lingering echo of a lost civilization.
Language
en
Duration
~21 minutes (20K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-04-12
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects
1918–1988
A mid-century American science fiction writer, he published inventive short stories under the names L. J. Stecher and L. J. Stecher Jr. His work appeared in the magazine era that helped define classic sci-fi, with stories that still circulate through Project Gutenberg and anthologies.
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