SOURCE: "Betelgeuse Bridge" by William Tenn (Galaxy Magazine, April 1951).

DESCRIPTION: "They were standing on a flat metal plate surrounded by the highest the republic had elected or appointed. Nine feet of slimy green trunk tapering up from a rather wide base to a pointed top, and dressed in a tiny pink-and-white shell. Two stalks with eyes on them that swung this way and that, and seemed muscular enough to throttle a man. And a huge wet slash of a mouth that showed whenever an edge of the squirming base lifted from the metal plate." ("Betelgeuse Bridge" by William Tenn)

NOTES: The Snails from Betelgeuse come in a fancy spaceship and are sold to the American public through a lengthy public relations campaign. After being accepted by the entire world, they tell of their revitalizers, machines that extend the life and cure disease. The human race comes together to supply the snails with radioactive materials in payment for the revitalizers. Only we've been had! Really a decadent race, the snails go from planet to planet ripping off primitive races. Only they don't count on the humans coming up with artificial radioactives and asking for their money back.

HISTORY: Similar to Damon Knight's "To Serve Man", this tale is typical of the 1950s science fiction. The B. E. M.s no longer want to rape Earth women but are conmen or conquerors. Tenn does a great job of showing how a PR campaign is used to bilk the public.

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