by E. C. Tubb
Small insects and easily handled, but Koenig remembered the thing that had ridden in the pod from space and how close it had come to destroying the Moonbase. A risk he had no intention of running again.
He said flatly, ‘You want the change to take place, right?’ Then, as Bergman nodded he added, ‘You realise the risk, Victor? We have no way of telling what may emerge after the transformation is complete. Enalus had strong defence mechanisms and she was, according to your theory, only an unsophisticated form of life. Have you imagined what the next stage could be?’
Helena said quietly, ‘You want to destroy her, John?’
They could do it now if they wanted to, and perhaps it was the only chance they would get. The creature was bloated, dormant, helpless. Lasers could sear it to ash, cut it into segments, burn and char whatever lay beneath the human-like skin. To kill now would be easy. To destroy would be safe.
Koenig looked down at his hands. They were clenched, the nails biting into his palms, the knuckles white. To kill! To destroy! To eliminate, the unknown and the fear that accompanied it!
Within the deepest recesses of his mind a primitive, ape-like thing lifted its head to howl at the Moon.
‘Helena?’
‘At the moment Enalus is harmless. I must admit to a certain curiosity as to what shape she may adopt, and there is medical knowledge to be gained by forbearance, but—’ She let her voice trail into silence.
A silence broken by Bergman.
‘John, she must be given her chance. It is a gamble, I admit, but one we have taken before. We gave her the iron, and so we helped her to the next stage of her development. Are we now to change our minds? And think a little of the nature she has already displayed.’
‘I am,’ said Koenig bleakly. ‘One man dead and another placed at risk.’
‘Accidents, John. She had no way of knowing the danger level of diminished haemoglobin. She was driven to absorb the essential element and Markham provided the iron. She took too much and almost made the same error later with Tomlinson. But she didn’t make it, John. And later she controlled her demands. Helena, were any of the other victims seriously at risk?’
‘No,’ she admitted. ‘Given time, all would have recovered without aid.’
‘So she was merciful—was that the act of a savage? Since we gave her iron, has she attempted to take it from any other source? She has been confined, I know, but I’ve been with her and so has Helena and other women. None have been touched.’
‘So you want her to be left alone?’
‘Yes.’
For the sake of the knowledge she . . . it . . . could give. The old, old curse of the scientists who, in ancient days, would cheerfully have made a pact with the devil for the sake of opening doors to new vistas of attainment. How many had died breathing the noxious fumes rising from their alembics? How many had poisoned themselves with the use of strange chemicals, gases, compounds? Men armed only with ignorance and the determination to know. To learn. To understand.
Could he do less?
Later, standing before the transparent partition separating him and the others from Enalus where she lay on her couch, he pondered the question, adding another.
Had he the justification to learn at the expense of others? Was the risk to Alpha too great? Did any man have the right to gain knowledge when the price was misery and unhappiness to the majority?
Questions there was no time to answer. Helena caught his arm, the sound of her indrawn breath loud in the strained silence. ‘John! She’s moving!’
A twitch, no more, and one over as soon as it had begun. Beyond the walls guards stood ready with weapons at hand. In Main Mission electronic scanners watched every move and monitored all energy levels, recording and correlating even as they observed. Here, with no possibility of electronic distortion, Koenig waited for a biological miracle.
The transformation of living flesh and tissue from one form to another.
But, no, not flesh, from plant into—what?
‘John!’
He strained forward as Helena squeezed his arm. Beyond the partition the slumped figure stirred again, seemed to turn, to writhe, to split.
To turn into a blazing scintillation of lambent, coruscating, eye-bright glory.
It was something he had never experienced before and even as he slumped to sprawl on the floor, eyes tightly closed, hands lifted to protect the lids, a part of Koenig’s mind tried to fit the explicable to the inexplicable. Matter converted into energy, light used as a non-material halo, different energy levels that registered on limited senses in crude analogies.
And a presence that filled his brain with awe.
‘You were kind, and for that I thank you. Such impulses do you credit. Already you are high on the ladder that leads to the ultimate. Imagination and compassion—these are the keys to true humanity.’
‘You—Enalus?’
‘I.’ The voice echoed in the recesses of his mind, communication without the need of hampering words, ideas and concepts relayed in their entirety without distortion. ‘You knew me best when I was younger, and then I did things that I could not avoid. But to forgive was to show understanding. And now for me one journey is over.’
‘But how?’
A blur of thoughts, a seed, a plant, an aching void, the tenderness of remembered affection, the pang of recalled jealousy. A montage of emotions and questions that flooded his mind and which, before his mental apparatus could sort and assemble them in any order, had already been understood.
And answered.
A life-cycle of staggering complexity; from a spore to an insect to a bird, a fish, a plant, the girl-shape he had known to—an angel?
A long, long path to a higher evolution, attended by incredible risk each step of the way, luck and circumstance alone deciding success.
Was it possible?
On Earth there were life-forms that defied extinction; flukes that needed an intermediate host; oysters that spawned billions of eggs in order that a few should survive; humanity itself, which operated on the same level of multiple seed-production.’
How many men had failed to survive beyond the womb?
How many had succumbed before achieving their full potential?
Yes, it was possible, and more than possible.
‘You are wise. Small and helpless as you are, yet in you there is great wisdom. Now I must leave to join those who have gone before. But remember always, shape and form are only the result of environment and chance—but love and compassion are universal. Farewell!’
Light pulsed around them with a tangible pressure and then, suddenly, was gone. Weakly, Koenig climbed to his feet. The chamber beyond the partition was empty. For a brief moment it had held a higher order of life that had passed through the walls and roof as if they did not exist. A form of life that even now was hurtling across space to the place where it belonged.
And Alpha was his again.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
ALIEN SEED
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
