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Your description of Earth sounds exciting. I would like to live there for a while, and I have a suggestion
in this connection, but I wonтАЩt mention it till I have developed it further.
You will have noticed the material on which this letter is written. It is a highly sensitive metal, very thin,
very flexible, and I have enclosed several sheets of it for your use. Tungsten dipped in any strong acid
makes an excellent mark on it. It is important to me that you do write on it, as my fingers are too
hot--literally--to hold your paper without damaging it.
IтАЩll say no more just now. It is possible you will not care to correspond with a convicted criminal, and
therefore I shall leave the next move up to you. Thank you for your letter. Though you did not know its
destination, it brought a moment of cheer into my drab life.
Skander

Aurigae II
Dear Pen Pal:
Your prompt reply to my letter made me happy. I am sorry your doctor thought it excited you too
much, and sorry, also, if I have described my predicament in such a way as to make you feel badly. I
welcome your many questions, and I shall try to answer them all.
You say the international correspondence club has no record of having sent any letters to Aurigae.
That, according to them, the temperature on the second planet of the Aurigae sun is more than 500
degrees Fahrenheit. And that life is not known to exist there. Your club is right about the temperature and
the letters. We have what your people would call a hot climate, but then we are not a hydrocarbon form
of life, and find 500 degrees very pleasant.
I must apologize for deceiving you about the way your first letter was sent to me. I didnтАЩt want to
frighten you away by telling you too much at once. After all, I could not be expected to know that you
would be enthusiastic to hear from me.
The truth is that I am a scientist, and, along with the other members of my race, I have known for some
centuries that there were other inhabited systems in the galaxy. Since I am allowed to experiment in my
spare hours, I amused myself in attempts at communication. I developed several simple systems for
breaking in on galactic communication operations, but it was not until I developed a subspacewave
control that I was able to draw your letter (along with several others, which I did not answer) into a cold
chamber.
I use the cold chamber as both sending and receiving center, and since you were kind enough to use
the material which I sent you, it was easy for me to locate your second letter among the mass of mail that
accumulated at the nearest headquarters of the interstellar correspondence club.
How did I learn your language? After all, it is a simple one, particularly the written language seems
easy. I had no difficulty with it. If you are still interested in writing me, I shall be happy to continue the
correspondence.
Skander

Dear Pen Pal:
Your enthusiasm is refreshing. You say that I failed to answer your question about how I expected to
visit Earth. I confess I deliberately ignored the question, as my experi-ment had not yet proceeded far
enough. I want you to bear with me a short time longer, and then I will be able to give you the details.
You are right in saying that it would be difficult for a being who lives at a temperature of 500 degrees
Fahrenheit to mingle freely with the people of Earth. This was never my intention, so please relieve your
mind. How-ever, let us drop that subject for the time being.
I appreciate the delicate way in which you approach the subject of my imprisonment. But it is quite
unnecessary. I performed forbidden experiments upon my body in a way that was deemed to be
dangerous to the public welfare. For instance, among other things, I once lowered my surface
temperature to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and so shortened the radioactive cycle-time of my surroundings.
This caused an unexpected break in the normal person to person energy flow in the city where I lived,