Stranger in a Strange Land

Jubal tells Gillian that his primary weapon against the government storming his compound is the light of exposure (he has the property rigged with cameras which will feed footage to network news outlets). Presently, Smith enters the study, and Gillian asks him how he made Berquist and his associate disappear. He can’t verbalize the process, but he disappears a box as Gillian tosses it in the air. Anne, acting as Fair Witness, testifies that it has indeed vanished. Smith then demonstrates his levitation skills, hovering an ashtray in mid-air. Gillian resolves to learn Martian to understand the differences between the species. For a final test, Jubal pulls out a gun to see if Smith can disappear the gun but leave him corporate. He does so successfully.

When Duke, one of Jubal’s employees, refuses to eat with Smith—he is offended by Smith’s “cannibalism” (Martians consider it a supreme honor to consume the body of a water brother after death)—Jubal warns him that the Man from Mars is not a helpless, docile creature but fully capable of making Duke vanish if he wishes. When they watch the film footage of the tests, they see the objects not vanishing per se but receding to an infinite point.