Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed

Summary

As part of a new 800-person community on Mars, the Bittering family — Harry, Cora, and their
three children Dan, Laura, and David — has arrived. They are originally from Boston and have
traveled to Mars via rocket to avoid the catastrophe that the war on Earth is expected to bring.
"One day the atom bomb will repair Earth. Then we'll be safe here," Cora warns Harry when he
wants to return to Earth right after stepping off the rocket.

They can no longer rely on this option soon after their arrival. Laura returns home one day to
inform them that New York was devastated by an atomic bomb, and all of the space rockets were
destroyed. The family must embrace the truth that they will spend the rest of their lives on Mars.
Harry, distraught, chooses to recommit himself to his patch of land. As he worked in his garden,
he began to notice things that were "the same, but different," such as peach blossoms, carrots,
radishes, and other produce planted in his garden (4.) Harry became concerned that Mars was
changing him and his belongings, and he ran into town to discuss it with the other settlers.

When he gets in town, the other men are sitting along the street, uninterested. They've received
word that no more rockets will be landing on Mars, yet they seem unfazed. Harry can also see that
the planet is changing them since their eyes are becoming gold. They offer him a mirror when he
tells them this and argues that he has blue eyes, and he sees dim specks of old in the blue of his
eyes. Harry gets fed up with them and attempts to unite them around the notion of constructing a
rocket together. One man offers to sell him metal so that he may construct the rocket himself,
which would take around 30 years.

Harry continues working on the rocket alone as the others observe, and he refuses to consume any
of the Martian food he has grown. He only consumes food delivered directly from Earth from his
deepfreeze. As he watches the people around him get more adjusted to life on Mars, he works even
harder on the rocket. He notices that they are growing more adapted to life on Mars, as well as
physically changing: they are taller, slimmer, have darker skin tones, and golden eyes.

Harry begins to see subtle changes in himself as well. For example, one night he finds himself
murmuring the unusual word "Iorrt," and when he asks his buddy whether he's heard of it, he learns
that it's an old Martian name for Earth. Cora approached Harry a few days later and informed him
that the Deepfreeze's food had all been consumed. They could only eat food that had been
cultivated on Mars. She encourages him to take it easy, rest, and go for a dip in the canals with the
family. He joins them and muses on the changes he's noticed in the people around him, and his
son, Dan, begs to change his name to Linnl at the conclusion of the day. Harry and Cora agree
quickly and readily.

When they get home, they notice a group of individuals getting ready to depart town. They're on
their way to the villas, where Harry has just departed, and he insists on staying to work on the
rocket. With a little persuasion, Harry decides that spending the summer at the villas will be more
enjoyable, and he will continue working on the rocket in the fall. There is some debate about the
name of the mountain range as they discuss where they are all headed - is it the Earth name or the
old Martian name? Harry and his family pack their belongings and leave, leaving behind many of
the items they thought were necessary before they left.

Cora informs Harry that it's time to return to town after the summer, but Harry says, "There's
nothing there any longer" (11). He doesn't want to return for his books or clothing, which he now
refers to by their Martian names. They've both evolved significantly from the persons they were
when they first came. A rocket arrived on Mars five years later, and men leapt out. They said that
the conflict on Earth had ended and that they had arrived to save the original settlers. However, no
one heard them since no one was in town. One of the men assigned to scout the region reported
finding local Martians in the hills but no trace of the previous colony. The scout and the other
recently arrived men are unaware that the "Martians" they are discussing are the initial settlement
they were looking for. The captain begins yelling instructions for what has to be done, and his
subordinates look away for a time, caught in by his surroundings, before resuming their duties.