"If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth..." is Arthur C. Clarke's short story of a ten-year old boy named Marvin who is forced to live in a lunar colony and will never return to Earth, which has been destroyed by an atom bomb.

Marvin feels a sense of anticipation as he accompanies his father upward past several levels of the lunar station in which they live. The pair moves quickly through the Administration and Power section, past the Farmlands where Martin feels an emotional tug to linger and revel in the sights and smells of growing things. Marvin's father pulls him onward though to the entrance of the Observatory, and Martin thrills at the prospect that he will be going Outside for the first time in his life.

Marvin and his father reach the servicing chamber, where they are escorted to a surface vehicle complete with...