Special Effects: Red Earth

Stubbs and Tucker struggled through the last of the jungle vines and stepped into the natural clearing. They were both exhausted.

"Thank goodness that's over!" said Stubbs. He threw himself flat on the ground and shut his eyes. His round stomach stuck up like a hill in the bright sun.

Tucker leaned tiredly against a tree. He was thinner than the other man, and darker skinned. Quieter too. He never said anything unless he had to.

They had been climbing, these two men, for six hours. It had been slow progress. There were no tracks, or even spaces between the thick growth, so they never had a convenient place to stop and rest. Only jungle, jungle, and more jungle. Day after day it had been the same, for three long days, through rivers and ravines, up wet, slippery, jungle-clad slopes, and down rushing gorges, full of spray and white air. And now, finally, they were here. At the top. In the sunshine.

The four-hundred-year process of terra-forming had done a wonderful job of the planet. It was now a splendid example of overflowing vegetation. Living, sap-filled life. Where there had been nothing but death, and cold, and poisonous fumes, there was now greenery, and up thrusting trees, and trailing vines.

It had all started as an experiment, long ago. Earth's Scientists had progressed to the point where certain people, and certain Governments were willing to test a theory. It was considered feasible to try to shift the orbit of Mars, to bring it closer to the sun, and thereby make it more habitable. The idea needed universal consent, but the rockets took off before this was granted by some of the less important of the world's leaders.

Years after leaving Earth, the twenty nuclear powered rockets reached Pluto and circled it until they were in the correct positions. The world's best, and most powerful computers had confirmed and double-checked everything. It could not fail. The signal was given and one by one the rockets, detonating their payloads in a perfectly timed series of flashes, sending Pluto into a slightly different orbit.

More years passed. Pluto swept within the path of Neptune, (altering its course), and curved farther until it was on a direct collision course for Uranus. The impact was tremendous. Scientists on Earth watched in awe as the explosion ripped the two planets into a cloud of debris, leaving the remains to wobble lamely along like a riverbed of rock.

Now it was Pluto's turn to show up yet again, and,