Moon Flower Read Free Page B

the approved management style. There was just one small but very pertinent point that hadn’t been touched on. “That’s fine,” Callen said. “But do you have any suggestions on how to go about persuading him, one way or the other, if he’s vanished?”
    Borland had evidently been expecting it. “As a matter of fact, I do,” he answered. Callen inclined his head in mild but genuine surprise. “Shortly after the Boise mission arrived — just before Wade disappeared — he filed a request for an assistant to be sent out to work with him at Cyrene. Details of the job spec found their way around the usual circuit, and one of the names that has applied is somebody called Marc Shearer, who as it so happens was Wade’s colleague when Wade worked Berkeley. In fact, Shearer took over his work there after he left.”
    “Did they stay in touch?”
    “Almost certainly. As a former faculty member, Wade worked out a deal that still gave him access to their lab facilities when he needed them.”
    Callen nodded slowly. “It sounds as if Wade and Shearer could have had it set up.”
    “Possibly. But that’s beside the point. The point is that he’s familiar with Wade’s work, and they obviously get along. So it makes Shearer a natural to work with Wade on Cyrene. The disappearances on Cyrene haven’t been widely reported, and so there’s no reason for anyone to see anything amiss. A few words from the right people at Interworld will make sure that Shearer’s application is approved, and that he’s on his way a lot sooner that he expected.”
    “You mean with the Tacoma ? In six days?”
    “Sure. The wheels are already moving.” Borland unfolded one arm to make a casual gesture in the air that said it was all that simple. “And when you get to Cyrene, Shearer will lead you to Wade,” he completed.
     

CHAPTER TWO
    Fifty years before, it had been purely the stuff of fringe fiction and far-out-fantasy movies. Now every month seemed to bring news from robot probes reaching a new world, or human follow-up arriving at a previously located one to send down exploration teams and establish a surface presence. There were some that didn’t orbit a parent but maintained a fixed position intermediate between mutually gyrating binary stars. Several examples of prolate forms had poles extending beyond their atmospheres. Some had barely cooled from incandescence, while others were wastes of frozen methane and ice. Those that supported life included low-gravity environments in which gigantic life-forms flourished, comparable to the great reptiles and other fauna that had once lived on Earth but could never exist under its present conditions. At the other extreme were a high-density microplanet with a species of intelligent insects that farmed fungi plantations and built adobelike dwelling with tools, and a world surfaced entirely by water, where life had moved up onto floating islands formed from coagulated detritus by photosynthetic microorganisms.
    And there were some that had types of life very similar to those found on Earth. A few cases included humanoids in various stages of development. Quite how this could be was still a matter of heated controversy within the scientific community as well as between science and such other departments of learning as philosophy and theology, because according to generally accepted theory accumulations of random change should diverge, not progress toward similar endpoints. So evidently, more was going on than generally accepted theory recognized, which was about as far as any agreement went, and proponents of principles that were contradictory all managed to claim vindication. Whatever the explanation, it seemed that evolution in comparable environments was somehow preprogrammed to unfold along comparable developmental paths.
    Along with everyone else, Marc Shearer was assured that social evolution everywhere was likewise destined to shape itself toward a world of Hobbesean nastiness and