
the Leech
On a quiet New York farm, a retired professor spends his annual “resting week” while his hired hand, Frank Conners, tends the chores. Their routine is shattered when Conners uncovers a smooth, gray‑black disc the size of a truck tire lying in a ditch, its surface impervious to spade, dirt, and even rain. The professor, more accustomed to lectures than mysteries, is instantly intrigued and suspects the object is something far stranger than a mere rock.
The disc is actually a dormant alien leech, a space‑borne spore that has finally found a planet to feed on. As it awakens, it begins to draw in everything it touches—soil, metal, even the very tools meant to study it—raising unsettling questions about what else it might consume. Together, the eccentric scholar and his practical assistant must decide whether to investigate further or try to stop a creature that could literally drain a house and its surroundings.
Language
en
Duration
~33 minutes (32K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-07-27
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1928–2005
Best known for sharp, funny science fiction that could turn absurd in a heartbeat, this American writer made a specialty of stories that feel playful on the surface and unsettling underneath. His work helped define the satirical side of mid-20th-century SF.
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