The Espadrilles

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. In a Marsport bar, a battered spaceman in espadrilles spins a tale that begins as a routine repair stop and ends as a nightmare of alien contagion. Stranded on a strange planetoid, he finds glittering soil, metallic trees, and terrain so dense his ship sinks into it, all hinting at a world that is alive in ways humans cannot grasp. As he struggles to fix his craft, the planet's hard, gemlike growths become impossible to ignore. In desperation, he uses part of one of the alien trees as a drive-shaft replacement and unknowingly brings the life form back with him. On Mars, the strange growth spreads into the desert, turning dead sand into a cradle for a new, glittering ecology. No one believes his warning, but the final revelation is undeniable: a green, jewel-like leaf is sprouting from his own foot, proving the alien life has already begun to transform him.