Mars flag

The Martian flag is a makeshift diplomatic emblem devised by Jubal Harshaw for Valentine Michael Smith’s meeting with Secretary General Joseph Douglas. Though the Martians have no flag, Harshaw arranges for one to be improvised, so that Smith can be received in a setting that represents him as an equal rather than a curiosity or subordinate. Its plain materials and improvised design make it a practical prop; its placement behind the meeting’s two principal figures gives it political weight.

Design and diplomatic purpose

Harshaw notices that a Federation Banner is to stand behind the Secretary General’s seat and asks where its counterpart for Mars is. LaRue, a palace official, is taken aback: he had not known that Martians used flags. Harshaw answers that they do not, but argues that the occasion requires some representation of what they use for high state occasions. Since no suitable Martian emblem can be produced, he proposes an approximation for the task at hand.

The design he sketches is deliberately simple: a white field bearing the familiar human symbol for Mars, a red circle with an arrow extending toward the upper right. Harshaw describes it as something that could be improvised from a clean sheet and paint, while acknowledging that a proper version would be sewn in bunting. The flag is therefore not presented as an authentic Martian national standard. It is a human-made substitute, created to answer the visual and ceremonial expectations of the Federation’s formal meeting.

Arrival and placement

As the meeting approaches, Harshaw sees two men carrying what appears to be a Christmas-tree stand and a sheet that has been stained with paint. He recognizes the object as almost certainly the intended Martian flag. The makeshift materials underline the gap between the elaborate diplomatic setting and the hurried solution: the symbol is assembled just in time, not delivered as an established emblem of a Martian state.

The flag is set up behind the chairs as music begins and the Secretary General is announced. Before that, Harshaw has made sure the President of the United States is seated beside Smith, despite objections from a palace official and a Uruguayan dignitary. The flag’s position thus helps complete a carefully arranged scene: Smith is presented not as a visitor standing beneath the Federation’s banner, but as the other party to a meeting between political equals.

Ceremony and political meaning

Harshaw’s protocol makes the flag part of a larger effort to control how the meeting is read. He has the music announce the arrival of the Secretary General and arranges for the Mars movement of a symphony to serve as a Martian anthem. When the music begins, Douglas and the others stand, while Smith remains seated at Harshaw’s direction. Afterward, Smith stands, bows, and sits in time with the Secretary General and the rest of the company. Harshaw’s model for this gesture comes from a queen acknowledging the salute of her own anthem; Smith’s response implies that the musical salute is directed to him as a sovereign figure.

The improvised banner does not establish a Martian flag as a customary or official object. Instead, it makes the absence of a known Martian emblem legible within a human diplomatic ceremony, then supplies a provisional answer. Its function is not merely decorative: beside the music, seating, and exchange of honors, it helps frame the meeting as one between Smith and Douglas on equal terms. A sheet, a painted sign, and a tree stand become the visible shorthand for political recognition.