Welcoming Committee: They Were Charming, They Were Smiling—And They Were Not What They Seemed

The rescue mission should have been straightforward: land on Mars, locate the missing ship, and bring back answers. Instead, the crew finds only silence, an abandoned vessel, and a world that seems far too ready to receive them. The longer they stay, the clearer it becomes that nothing about this planet behaves as expected, least of all the smiling guides who insist on leading them onward.

As the expedition moves deeper into the Martian canals, discipline erodes and warnings emerge too late to ignore. Scratched messages hint at danger, yet the threat remains unseen, growing more convincing with every mile traveled. Armed, alert, and increasingly uneasy, the crew must choose whether to trust their instincts or the path laid out for them—knowing that turning back may already be impossible.

Harry Harrison was a prolific and sharp-witted science fiction writer whose career spanned more than five decades. His stories appeared in magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy, and Fantastic Universe, where “Welcoming Committee” was originally published. Harrison later became widely known for novels like The Stainless Steel Rat series and Make Room! Make Room!, combining fast pacing with pointed ideas about human behavior. In this early Mars tale, his talent for tension and irony is already on full display.