The Seed of Evil

“Yes, I know. I was looking at them yesterday.”

Antan began to describe the mission to Altair. A real prize had been discovered: a planet that could become an Earth-type habitat with only minor reforming. The drumship team had even instituted the first few chemical processes needed for a change of atmosphere. Lian Li listened captivated, first of all by her story but also by the vivacity of the girl herself. She would be twenty-two years old, he calculated. She still had four years before. …

His knee accidentally brushed hers under the table; he became uncomfortably aware of her voluptuous body. She, however, gave no sign of having noticed the contact.

The talk turned to other projects. An observer from prerevolutionary times, had he magically been able to eavesdrop, might have been struck by the complete absence of negative feeling in the young people present. The degree of geniality, the atmosphere of general good-will, would have seemed abnormal to him; it was as if the whole party would at any moment burst into spontaneous applause. But alongside this, he would have been struck by a tremendous sense of energy, of readiness to face and overcome problems of all kinds.

Lian Li moved marginally closer to Antan. “Tell me, is it true there’s a scheme afoot to tap the energy of an entire star?”

Her eyes widened. “Why, yes! It’s the most talked-about thing in Star Project. Alpha Centauri has been picked for it, provisionally. But if it works it will only be a pilot project. Think what it would mean—power unlimited! The ability to terraform practically any planet, to build new planets, to move stars about—you name it.”

There was a good-humoured laugh from Wilboro, a member of Lian Li’s class. “It’s always useful to have yet more power to draw on, I’ll say that. But if you ask me cosmic flight is the thing we should all be working for.”

There were smiles. Wilboro adhered to a school of thought in which “cosmic flight”, as it was called, was almost an obsession. To people of his persuasion spaceflight within the galaxy—or even within the local galactic group, which would not be long in coming now—was scarcely spaceflight at all. In the same way they regarded all local projects—Mars and Venus made habitable, the Earth turned into a veritable paradise—as no more than routine. What they were aiming for was a method of transport that could take men to the limit of the Hubble Sphere and beyond.

After a while the discussion broke up. When the group began to disperse Lian Li loitered near Antan, trying to think of something to say.

She turned to him. “Are you going to join a star project when you’ve finished here, Lian Li?”

“Probably, Antan. But first I might stay in Solsystem for a while. I’ve got interested in submersible work. I’ve already been to one of the subatlantic mines. Next I want to look at the ocean project on Mars.”

“There’s bound to be some submersible work on the second Altair mission. Why don’t you apply for that?”

“Will you be on it?”

“Oh, yes, I’ll be going. I’ve got some pictures I took out there. Would you like to see them?”

“Thank you, I would.”

“Come on, they’re in my apartment.”

He followed her along the corridors of the college, watching her hips swinging beneath her simple gown and feeling a hot excitement which vaguely distressed him. He tried to suppress this feeling, but it was like a tide: it came on and on.

The holos she showed him were gorgeous. He gazed from orbit on the new planet glowing in the light of Altair. He looked on weird landscapes, vast mountains, muddy oceans and great caverns.

“No oxygen in the air yet,” she told him. “We were really lucky: only some anaerobic biology in the sea, and nothing on land. We can transplant the entire Terran biosystem.”

Lian Li knew the problem. As a rule Earth-type planets were already possessed of their own biosystems, which would have to be swept away if terraforming was to take place. Even though none found so far had produced an intelligent species, there were still qualms about exterminating an entire biota.

Rising, she turned her back to him to place the holos in a drawer. Lian Li also rose. As she bent to the small task the nape of her neck was presented to him. Her hair was caught up in a fillet and only stray blonde strands floated loose. Lian Li had but to bend towards her and press his lips to the warm, delicious curve, placing his hands on her hips. …

Flushed and unhappy, he withheld the urge. He was already in enough trouble on that score.

She straightened, turning to him with a bright smile. “Well. Maybe we’ll be working on Altair III together.”

“I’ll think about it,” he said, trying not to sound flustered.