Dawn on Venus. The sleek, furry heads of web-footed Venusians break water near one of the rare archipelagos of the world-girdling ocean. Nearby, the toothy head and long, snaky neck of a Plesiosaur-like sea creature momentarily rears above the waves. Elsewhere, vast swamps are pocked and shimmered by the ceaseless, unending rain, while immense dinosaurian shapes grunt and wallow in the mud. Elsewhere, tall, spindly people in elaborate headdresses and jewel-encrusted robes walk across rope bridges strung between huge trees, bigger by far than any Terrestrial Redwood or Sequoia, and the spreading ashen light reveals that there's an entire city up there, up in the trees. Elsewhere, shining silver rockets are landing at the spaceport at Venusport. Still elsewhere, the thick, fetid, steamy jungle is ripped asunder by a dinosaur-like beast, reminiscent of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, who emerges from the dripping vegetation and opens his massive, dagger-studded maw to roar defiance at the morning.
Then, one day in 1962, all these dreams abruptly vanish, like someone blowing out a candle.
Then, one day in 1962, all these dreams abruptly vanish, like someone blowing out a candle.
—Introduction: Return to Venusport, Old Venus
