"The Crystal Crypt" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the January 1954 edition of ''

Planet Stories ''Planet Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readershi ...

'' and later published in ''Beyond Lies the Wub'' in 1988.

Plot summary

The story is set in the distant future where Earth and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

are on the verge of war. The last spaceship to leave Mars headed for Earth is stopped and searched by Martian soldiers, who are looking for three saboteurs who destroyed a Martian city. They are not found, and the ship continues towards Earth. On board the space ship, a business man by the name of Thacher meets a young woman and two men, who tell that they are the people sought by the Martians, and proceed to tell Thacher the story of how they did not destroy the Martian city, but used a device to reduce the entire city to fit in a tiny globe, which they smuggled on board the ship. The city is to be used as a bargaining chip against Mars in the upcoming war. Thacher reveals that he is a Martian secret agent, and several of the passengers on board are Martian police.

Copyright status

''The Crystal Crypt'' is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

since its original

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

was not renewed with the US

Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...

on the 27th year after the initial copyright expired. ''The Crystal Crypt'' is therefore freely available to read and download online.

Adaptations

A short film adaptation of ''The Crystal Crypt'', starring

Yuri Lowenthal Yuri Lowenthal (born March 5, 1971)Birthday references: * * * is an American voice actor, producer and screenwriter known chiefly for his work in cartoons, anime and video games. Some of his prominent roles in animations and anime include S ...

, Cyrus Zoghi, and

Tara Platt Tara Platt (born June 18, 1978) is an American actress and author who has provided voices for dozens of English-language versions of Japanese anime films, television series and video games. Her notable roles in anime include Temari in ''Naruto' ...

,http://www.thecrystalcrypt.com/ "The Crystal Crypt short film" was released in December 2013.

References

External links

* * * Short stories by Philip K. Dick 1952 short stories Works originally published in Planet Stories Short stories set on Mars Short stories adapted into films {{1950s-sf-story-stub