In the Garden

"In the Garden," by R. A. Lafferty, is a science fiction story where a spaceship crew stumbles upon a moon that is a perfect garden, home to a glowing couple named Ha-Adamah and Hawwah. The crew of the Little Probe, led by Captain Stark, are initially skeptical but become charmed by the garden's beauty and the simple existence of its inhabitants. As they explore and enjoy the garden's offerings, they ponder deep questions about what it means to be "people" and whether true paradise exists. The crew's growing enchantment reaches its peak when the captain declares his belief in the garden's purity, only to discover in a surprising turn that their Eden might be a deceptive creation of a sinister serpent, shattering their illusions of perfection and revealing the deceptive nature that lurks beneath the surface.