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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Old Friends Are the Best + +Author: Jack Sharkey + +Release Date: October 18, 2010 [EBook #33871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD FRIENDS ARE THE BEST *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h1>OLD FRIENDS ARE THE BEST</h1> + +<h2>By JACK SHARKEY</h2> + + +<p>[Transcriber note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories March +1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">Are you one of those people who save the best things for the +last ... who eat all the chocolate sundae away from under the maraschino +cherry? If so, you are very like the Peter W. Merrill Moonplant.</div> + + +<p>It had no awareness of time, and so did not know nor concern itself with +the millennia that passed since it first drew up the dissolved silicates +from the shifting grey remnants of soil and arranged them inside the +walls of the thousand green pods that were its body cells, and settled +down to wait. Somewhere within its fragile cortex, a tiny pulse of life +beat. It was a feeble pulse, to be sure, and one that a man, unless he +could observe it for a thousand years without blinking, would not be +aware of. As the normal human heart beats seventy-two times a minute, so +did this tiny swelling of tube contract once each hundred years; fifty +tireless years of contraction, then fifty soothing years of relaxation, +bringing the walls of the slender tube together, then letting them ease +apart.</p> + +<p>But it was sufficient for its life.</p> + +<p>The pallid yellow sap was moved about inside the plant, once each +hundred years, and the plasm of the silicon-protected cellular structure +absorbed just the needed amount, bleeding off the waste products between +the very molecules of the silicon buttresses, and patiently waiting the +century out till the second helping came oozing around.</p> + +<p>And so it lay dormant, through heat that could send a man into +convulsions of agony in seconds, through cold that fractional degree +lower than can be achieved in a scientific laboratory. It did not know +where it was, nor what it was, nor how precarious—by cosmic +standards—was its chance of survival, with sap enough stored in the +stiff, coarse roots for only a few more million years.</p> + +<p>It simply was, and knew that it was, and was satisfied.</p> + +<p>Such a tiny organism can have only the most rudimentary of memories, but +it remembered. Once—Once long before, there had been ... more.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Life had been the same, but somehow fuller. When it tried to recall +exactly in what this fullness lay, the memory just was not there; only a +vague recollection of comfort, motion, satiation.</p> + +<p>When the men landed upon the moon in the twentieth century, they did not +find it at first. Locating it would have been comparable to stumbling +upon a solitary blade of grass, imbedded in ice at the South Pole. Men +came to the moon, though, and began to settle there. The first homes +they knew were mere metal shacks, filled with life-giving gases of their +planetary atmosphere, and devoid of all comforts save those necessary +for maintenance of life.</p> + +<p>But men have a way of rising above the status quo, and so, within half a +pulsebeat of the plant, the surface of the moon became dotted with these +iglooic shacks, then pressurized tunnels radiated out in a unifying +network, and soon the Domes began to grow; immense translucent +light-weight structures of enormous strength bubbled up on the moon, and +soon cities were being built beneath them, strange towering fairyland +cities on this satellite where people and architecture alike boasted six +times the power possessed on Earth. The cities soared upward in +glinting, stalagmitic pinnacles whose tapering ends seemed to threaten +the fabric of the Domes themselves, but were in reality still far below +the blue-white curving surface.</p> + +<p>Machines lay buried now in the grey pumice that was the surface of the +moon; machines that drained gases from the oxides and nitrates within +the planetoid and filled the Domes for the people with the life-giving +gases. And still the moon grew more Domes, and more.</p> + +<p>And then, three motions of the tiny plant after the primal landing of +men on the moon, three half-cycles later, a pulse-and-a-half—It was +found.</p> + +<p>The man who found it was an engineer, a man of high intelligence. For, +building on the moon was a perilous undertaking. A man had to know +stresses and strains, had to be able to read gauges that warned of +vacuum pockets beneath the crust of the moon that—if broken into—could +suck the life-giving gases from the metal caissons within which the men +laid the foundations of new Domes. Had it been on Earth, and the workman +unionized and possibly unlettered, it would have had the fate of a +dandelion that stands in the path of a growing subway tube.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the man—as mentioned—had intelligence.</p> + +<p>Carefully, the fossil—so he presumed—was cut away from the rock in +which it was rooted, and laid gently in a bed of soft cotton, and that +bed in a plastic casing, and the casing in a metal box. The box was +loaded aboard a spaceship and sent to a man back on Earth.</p> + +<p>This man was an eminent botanist, and—eminent or not—he nearly jumped +with joy when he'd opened the box, unsealed the container, plucked away +the cotton, and saw the plant lying there. It was dead, insofar as he +knew, and apparently useless except perhaps as a club, but the botanist +was delighted to receive it. Through his head passed notions of cutting +it in two, then polishing the twin cut surfaces, and studying the cell +structure, so that he might compare its construction with similar—if +there were any—plants of Earth, and then write a learned thesis about +it which would be read only by other eminent botanists, who would all +then curse their luck for not having been friends with any engineers on +the moon. The whole procedure—taking the cosmic view—was almost +pointless, but it would make the botanist happy, at least.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>However, after setting up his instruments, and placing the plant in a +sort of padded vise to steady it against the invasion of its privacy, he +chanced to see a bit of root, broken off by sheer unaccustomed weight on +the planet, lying upon the lab table, and he placed that beneath the +glass lens of his microscope and studied it instead.</p> + +<p>"I'll be damned!" he said. "The plasm is <i>liquid</i>!"</p> + +<p>A few dozen of the shattered cells had indeed let their contents spill +out onto the slide of his 'scope.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," he mused, "if it is viable?"</p> + +<p>Wouldn't <i>that</i> make for an interesting paper, he went on, building his +dreams upon dreams. A moonplant! Growing in my garden! He decided, as +is the way with botanists, to name his—it was now "his"; having +abandoned liberty when it abandoned the moon—to name his plant after +himself.</p> + +<p>And that's how it came to be called the "Peter W. Merrill Moonplant." He +put it in his garden, arranged a small protective wire cylinder around +it, and sprinkled it with water. Then he went into the house to start +typing up his notes for that forthcoming paper.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>As he lay there in the soft loam, feeling the cool trickling of the +water passing over his stiff tendrils, the newly christened Pete felt a +stirring within himself. The sunlight that now struck him was filtered +by an atmosphere, and gentle in its action upon him. Pete prodded his +memory, and suddenly decided that silicates, after all, are not the most +comfortable of linings for one's tender green cells. He seemed to recall +a state of lush, sybaritic softness, in pre-silicate times. Decidedly, +the silicates must go, thought Pete.</p> + +<p>And go they did, molecule by molecule, down into the earth through his +roots, which were now acting as tiny spigots, getting rid of the +scratchy stuff that had bolstered the cell walls against change for +millennia past, leaving Pete softer, greener, livelier, and a constant +delight to the heart of Peter W. Merrill the First, whenever he came out +to tend his plant, between pages of his thesis.</p> + +<p>Pete, after spewing the last hateful molecule away, reversed his tiny +fibre engines, and began to draw in. He drew in all sorts of things, as +the days passed. A lot of minerals, and just enough water to float them +in. Mostly, Pete's growing hunger sought out iron. Pete didn't know why +he wanted iron, any more than a smoker knows why he wants another +cigarette, but Pete's interest in iron was as intense as any smoker's in +tobacco.</p> + +<p>Above the ground, he grew very few inches larger, merely broadening his +dark, green spiral leaves a bit to catch the tiny amount of warmth he +required for growth. But beneath the soil, as with any tuberous plant, +his roots were spread in a rough circular spoke-like pattern that +reached about ten miles in every direction.</p> + +<p>Pete Senior, had he tried to dig his plant up, would have been very much +surprised to find he could not do it. But he didn't try, so his life +went on as usual, with no surprises, which is the way he preferred it, +so he was happy enough.</p> + +<p>It wasn't until his paper had been duly published, and botanical cronies +had shaken the dust from their whiskers and toddled around to see this +enviable possession, that something of the root structure was +discovered.</p> + +<p>"Seems to spread underground," one remarked.</p> + +<p>"Kind of a lunatic crab-grass," another jibed.</p> + +<p>"Sure you're not pulling our leg, Merrill?" said a third. "Seems a bit +stunted."</p> + +<p>"Gravity," said Pete Senior. "Not used to it yet."</p> + +<p>Then they all had coffee and cake, shook hands with Pete Senior, and +went to their homes and laboratories.</p> + +<p>By this time, of course, at the farthest reaches of Pete's root network, +duplicate Petes were popping up above ground, quietly and +unostentatiously (Pete stood barely five inches high), and much like +their parent. They, too, began sending out spoke-like root networks. +Some of them, stronger than others, sent roots for a radius of a hundred +miles, others for a few leagues and no more.</p> + +<p>Eventually, Pete Senior reached an age where his body cells died more +rapidly than they were replaced, that is, he achieved old age, and he +passed from his life, leaving a wife, three children, and an unpaid +fertilizer bill.</p> + +<p>Pete himself, by now was pulsing considerably faster. In fact, +incredibly faster, after his once-a-century contraction of short years +before. His pulse rate was now in the neighborhood of ten per second, +which is a pretty good increase. It soon reached hundreds per second.</p> + +<p>And his offspring weren't far behind him either.</p> + +<p>Since the whole planet was now as interwoven with Pete-type networks as +the inside of a baseball with string, this constant vibration—which +slowly began to beat in a united concentration—began to make itself +felt.</p> + +<p>People started to complain about it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>So scientists with seismographs, and even dousers with willow twigs, +began to seek out the source of this unnerving, almost supersonic, +thrilling of the planet crust. Eventually, they located the tiny green +plants with the spirally leaves at the center—the loudest point—of +each network. Someone recognized the plant, and they confirmed this +someone's suspicions by a check of the Public Library's back issues of +<i>Botanist's Quarterly</i>. It was the moonplant, all right.</p> + +<p>The Peter W. Merrill Moonplant. Yes sir. That's what it was.</p> + +<p>The public, though, was not satisfied with the finding of a <i>name</i> for +the disturbance, and insisted that it be brought to a <i>halt</i> somehow. +Naturally, the International Society of Botanists, Biologists and +Biochemists raised one hell of a fuss about this, but on a democratic +planet they were summarily outvoted, and all spirally little green Peter +W. Merrill Moonplants were—well, not <i>uprooted</i>; that would be +impossible—But they were all cropped flush with the earth wherever +found, and salt, acid, and all manner of nasty things poured into the +stumps.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>However, nothing happened at all to the vibrations.</p> + +<p>People began to get fidgety, and started petitioning their +representatives in government to <i>Do Something</i>. A lot of speeches were +then made, all over Earth, about the noise and general disturbance of +the moonplant roots, but none of them offered a solution to the +increasing racket.</p> + +<p>It was about this time that plumblines started hanging crooked. Oh, it +wasn't detected at first. How could it be, at first? Because you judge +things by plumblines, not vice-versa. However, in a month, when +everything was about five degrees off the vertical, notice began to be +taken.</p> + +<p>When oranges began rolling off the ground in the California and Florida +groves, and huddling in a mound here and there upon the countryside, the +Spirit of Worry injected itself into the public consciousness. Niagara +Falls' spectacular skew-wise splashing toward the Canadian side didn't +set many hearts at ease, either.</p> + +<p>And then someone remembered the moonplants, and saw that each new +apparent gravity-tug was coming from the stump of one of the plants, and +a leading scientist figured out the answer, after getting a snipped-off +segment of moonplant root and testing the hell out of it.</p> + +<p>"It seems," he announced to the world, or that portion of the world that +was watching his appearance on TV; there being considerable competition +with a new series of NBC Specials on another channel, "It seems that +this Peter W. Merrill Moonplant is—er—magnetic, to a certain degree. +Though not magnetism as we know it. It's more as though each plant, +through the positioning of its roots, and the coiling of same, plus a +heavy concentration of iron in its physical makeup, has managed to make +itself—or, rather, the stump of itself, since all such plants were cut +down, a short while back—to make itself the center of an artificial +gravity field. This field seems to grow—Rather, these <i>many</i> fields +seem to grow in strength by the hour, and they have a tendency to topple +things, the gravitational 'tug' being most disastrous near the centers +of the fields. The rims, though the angle of gravity is sharper there, +are safer for stability only because they are balanced by more 'tugs' +from adjoining fields...."</p> + +<p>Well, he went on this way for an hour or so, and soon his +listeners—those who stayed tuned in—knew what the problem was: "Down" +wasn't going to be "down" much longer. It was going to depend on which +moonplant stump you happened to be near.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The prospect didn't seem too much fun, and people started selling their +homes and such, and booking passage to the moon, where life was +controlled, but carefree, and free of annoying vibrations and rolling +oranges.</p> + +<p>Lunar Real Estate enjoyed a fabulous boom for weeks after the telecast +by the scientist, but it was soon "all filled up," and further +immigrations would have to await the construction of more Domes to house +the newcomers.</p> + +<p>The laggards, understandably, raised a fuss about this callous attitude, +and went moonward anyway until about two-thirds of the Earth's +population was on the moon, the place becoming so hopelessly crowded +that people had to half-rent rooms there, sleeping in alternating shifts +with other half-renters, and spending their waking hours wandering the +streets.</p> + +<p>"Things," sighed one realtor to another, "can't get much worse."</p> + +<p>And that's when the first meteor landed on Earth. In the general +excitement, first about vibrations, then about gravitational fields, +then about packing up and going to the moon, most newspapers had pushed +to the want-ad pages little articles by eminent astronomers, in which +were noted the odd behaviors of certain large planetoids in the asteroid +belt between Earth and Mars. These cosmic hunks of rock seemed to be +"peeling off" the general formation of the ellipse followed by their +fellows, and moving sunward<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> singly or in small homogenous groupings.</p> + +<p>Well, the first one landed and left a dent on Earth where the Congo used +to be, the shock being felt as far north as Oslo, to add to their +vibrational, gravitational and evacuational difficulties.</p> + +<p>Scientists on the moon—being as singleminded as scientists +anywhere—became ecstatic. At last the mystery of the ages was solved: +Who put the pocks in the face of the moon? A Peter W. Merrill Moonplant, +of course! They looked down in rapture as meteor after meteor—drawn +across the countless miles of space by the pulsating gravity fields, +plunged into the Earth, leaving pocks visible to the naked moondweller's +eye. And darned if each meteor didn't strike dead center of each plant +network.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>After about a month, Earth looked almost exactly like the moon had once +looked, with the exception of one locale: Australia, and much of the +Pacific Ocean surrounding it.</p> + +<p>"It will indeed be a titanic meteor that hits there!" the moon +scientists enthused. For their careful check of the records showed that +only one plant had been found on the whole continent of Australia, +toward the eastern coast; which meant that its network probably extended +beneath the Pacific itself, with a gigantic field reaching its hungry +magnetic fingers into space.</p> + +<p>And then someone noticed that no more asteroids had peeled from the +formation. The void between the asteroid belt and Earth was barren of +hurtling rock.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!" the scientists enthused. "It means that each field down +there on Earth ceased its tug the moment its meteor struck it. That +means that once the final meteor lands, the Peter W. Merrill Moonplant +will be dead, and we can get some of the crowd off this place. Earth's a +bit ragged-looking, but after all, it's Home."</p> + +<p>"Funny," said one of the younger scientists, "that the moonplant went so +far afield for meteors, and yet did not disturb the delicate +gravitational balance between Earth and the moon, its own Satellite."</p> + +<p>"Let us hope," said an older scientist, "that this enormous Australian +network has not been saving itself for us." He laughed at this little +pleasantry, but no one joined him, because someone had just peered +through a telescope and noticed that Australia seemed to be getting +larger.</p> + +<p>"You know what?" said the young scientist, finally. "We're falling to +the Earth, to form the largest pockmark of all!"</p> + +<p>"What a spectacle!" cried another scientist. "Pity we won't be alive to +witness it. I wonder why the Peter W. Merrill Moonplant saved us for +last?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly," said the young scientist, "because—as with a wedding—the +groom asks all his relatives to come and see him married, and finally +picks out the person who is to be the Best Man. The moonplant probably +considers the moon an old buddy."</p> + +<p>The older scientists, however, gave this statement the stoniest of +non-replies, and refused even to speak to the hapless young man for the +duration of their journey downward to squashy death against the home +planet.</p> + +<p>Romanticism and Science just don't mix.</p> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Ergo: Earthward</p></div> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Old Friends Are the Best, by Jack Sharkey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD FRIENDS ARE THE BEST *** + +***** This file should be named 33871-h.htm or 33871-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/7/33871/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Old Friends Are the Best + +Author: Jack Sharkey + +Release Date: October 18, 2010 [EBook #33871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD FRIENDS ARE THE BEST *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + OLD FRIENDS ARE THE BEST + + By JACK SHARKEY + + +[Transcriber note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories March +1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: Are you one of those people who save the best things for the +last ... who eat all the chocolate sundae away from under the maraschino +cherry? If so, you are very like the Peter W. Merrill Moonplant.] + + +It had no awareness of time, and so did not know nor concern itself with +the millennia that passed since it first drew up the dissolved silicates +from the shifting grey remnants of soil and arranged them inside the +walls of the thousand green pods that were its body cells, and settled +down to wait. Somewhere within its fragile cortex, a tiny pulse of life +beat. It was a feeble pulse, to be sure, and one that a man, unless he +could observe it for a thousand years without blinking, would not be +aware of. As the normal human heart beats seventy-two times a minute, so +did this tiny swelling of tube contract once each hundred years; fifty +tireless years of contraction, then fifty soothing years of relaxation, +bringing the walls of the slender tube together, then letting them ease +apart. + +But it was sufficient for its life. + +The pallid yellow sap was moved about inside the plant, once each +hundred years, and the plasm of the silicon-protected cellular structure +absorbed just the needed amount, bleeding off the waste products between +the very molecules of the silicon buttresses, and patiently waiting the +century out till the second helping came oozing around. + +And so it lay dormant, through heat that could send a man into +convulsions of agony in seconds, through cold that fractional degree +lower than can be achieved in a scientific laboratory. It did not know +where it was, nor what it was, nor how precarious--by cosmic +standards--was its chance of survival, with sap enough stored in the +stiff, coarse roots for only a few more million years. + +It simply was, and knew that it was, and was satisfied. + +Such a tiny organism can have only the most rudimentary of memories, but +it remembered. Once--Once long before, there had been ... more. + + * * * * * + +Life had been the same, but somehow fuller. When it tried to recall +exactly in what this fullness lay, the memory just was not there; only a +vague recollection of comfort, motion, satiation. + +When the men landed upon the moon in the twentieth century, they did not +find it at first. Locating it would have been comparable to stumbling +upon a solitary blade of grass, imbedded in ice at the South Pole. Men +came to the moon, though, and began to settle there. The first homes +they knew were mere metal shacks, filled with life-giving gases of their +planetary atmosphere, and devoid of all comforts save those necessary +for maintenance of life. + +But men have a way of rising above the status quo, and so, within half a +pulsebeat of the plant, the surface of the moon became dotted with these +iglooic shacks, then pressurized tunnels radiated out in a unifying +network, and soon the Domes began to grow; immense translucent +light-weight structures of enormous strength bubbled up on the moon, and +soon cities were being built beneath them, strange towering fairyland +cities on this satellite where people and architecture alike boasted six +times the power possessed on Earth. The cities soared upward in +glinting, stalagmitic pinnacles whose tapering ends seemed to threaten +the fabric of the Domes themselves, but were in reality still far below +the blue-white curving surface. + +Machines lay buried now in the grey pumice that was the surface of the +moon; machines that drained gases from the oxides and nitrates within +the planetoid and filled the Domes for the people with the life-giving +gases. And still the moon grew more Domes, and more. + +And then, three motions of the tiny plant after the primal landing of +men on the moon, three half-cycles later, a pulse-and-a-half--It was +found. + +The man who found it was an engineer, a man of high intelligence. For, +building on the moon was a perilous undertaking. A man had to know +stresses and strains, had to be able to read gauges that warned of +vacuum pockets beneath the crust of the moon that--if broken into--could +suck the life-giving gases from the metal caissons within which the men +laid the foundations of new Domes. Had it been on Earth, and the workman +unionized and possibly unlettered, it would have had the fate of a +dandelion that stands in the path of a growing subway tube. + +Unfortunately, the man--as mentioned--had intelligence. + +Carefully, the fossil--so he presumed--was cut away from the rock in +which it was rooted, and laid gently in a bed of soft cotton, and that +bed in a plastic casing, and the casing in a metal box. The box was +loaded aboard a spaceship and sent to a man back on Earth. + +This man was an eminent botanist, and--eminent or not--he nearly jumped +with joy when he'd opened the box, unsealed the container, plucked away +the cotton, and saw the plant lying there. It was dead, insofar as he +knew, and apparently useless except perhaps as a club, but the botanist +was delighted to receive it. Through his head passed notions of cutting +it in two, then polishing the twin cut surfaces, and studying the cell +structure, so that he might compare its construction with similar--if +there were any--plants of Earth, and then write a learned thesis about +it which would be read only by other eminent botanists, who would all +then curse their luck for not having been friends with any engineers on +the moon. The whole procedure--taking the cosmic view--was almost +pointless, but it would make the botanist happy, at least. + + * * * * * + +However, after setting up his instruments, and placing the plant in a +sort of padded vise to steady it against the invasion of its privacy, he +chanced to see a bit of root, broken off by sheer unaccustomed weight on +the planet, lying upon the lab table, and he placed that beneath the +glass lens of his microscope and studied it instead. + +"I'll be damned!" he said. "The plasm is _liquid_!" + +A few dozen of the shattered cells had indeed let their contents spill +out onto the slide of his 'scope. + +"I wonder," he mused, "if it is viable?" + +Wouldn't _that_ make for an interesting paper, he went on, building his +dreams upon dreams. A moonplant! Growing in my garden! He decided, as +is the way with botanists, to name his--it was now "his"; having +abandoned liberty when it abandoned the moon--to name his plant after +himself. + +And that's how it came to be called the "Peter W. Merrill Moonplant." He +put it in his garden, arranged a small protective wire cylinder around +it, and sprinkled it with water. Then he went into the house to start +typing up his notes for that forthcoming paper. + + * * * * * + +As he lay there in the soft loam, feeling the cool trickling of the +water passing over his stiff tendrils, the newly christened Pete felt a +stirring within himself. The sunlight that now struck him was filtered +by an atmosphere, and gentle in its action upon him. Pete prodded his +memory, and suddenly decided that silicates, after all, are not the most +comfortable of linings for one's tender green cells. He seemed to recall +a state of lush, sybaritic softness, in pre-silicate times. Decidedly, +the silicates must go, thought Pete. + +And go they did, molecule by molecule, down into the earth through his +roots, which were now acting as tiny spigots, getting rid of the +scratchy stuff that had bolstered the cell walls against change for +millennia past, leaving Pete softer, greener, livelier, and a constant +delight to the heart of Peter W. Merrill the First, whenever he came out +to tend his plant, between pages of his thesis. + +Pete, after spewing the last hateful molecule away, reversed his tiny +fibre engines, and began to draw in. He drew in all sorts of things, as +the days passed. A lot of minerals, and just enough water to float them +in. Mostly, Pete's growing hunger sought out iron. Pete didn't know why +he wanted iron, any more than a smoker knows why he wants another +cigarette, but Pete's interest in iron was as intense as any smoker's in +tobacco. + +Above the ground, he grew very few inches larger, merely broadening his +dark, green spiral leaves a bit to catch the tiny amount of warmth he +required for growth. But beneath the soil, as with any tuberous plant, +his roots were spread in a rough circular spoke-like pattern that +reached about ten miles in every direction. + +Pete Senior, had he tried to dig his plant up, would have been very much +surprised to find he could not do it. But he didn't try, so his life +went on as usual, with no surprises, which is the way he preferred it, +so he was happy enough. + +It wasn't until his paper had been duly published, and botanical cronies +had shaken the dust from their whiskers and toddled around to see this +enviable possession, that something of the root structure was +discovered. + +"Seems to spread underground," one remarked. + +"Kind of a lunatic crab-grass," another jibed. + +"Sure you're not pulling our leg, Merrill?" said a third. "Seems a bit +stunted." + +"Gravity," said Pete Senior. "Not used to it yet." + +Then they all had coffee and cake, shook hands with Pete Senior, and +went to their homes and laboratories. + +By this time, of course, at the farthest reaches of Pete's root network, +duplicate Petes were popping up above ground, quietly and +unostentatiously (Pete stood barely five inches high), and much like +their parent. They, too, began sending out spoke-like root networks. +Some of them, stronger than others, sent roots for a radius of a hundred +miles, others for a few leagues and no more. + +Eventually, Pete Senior reached an age where his body cells died more +rapidly than they were replaced, that is, he achieved old age, and he +passed from his life, leaving a wife, three children, and an unpaid +fertilizer bill. + +Pete himself, by now was pulsing considerably faster. In fact, +incredibly faster, after his once-a-century contraction of short years +before. His pulse rate was now in the neighborhood of ten per second, +which is a pretty good increase. It soon reached hundreds per second. + +And his offspring weren't far behind him either. + +Since the whole planet was now as interwoven with Pete-type networks as +the inside of a baseball with string, this constant vibration--which +slowly began to beat in a united concentration--began to make itself +felt. + +People started to complain about it. + + * * * * * + +So scientists with seismographs, and even dousers with willow twigs, +began to seek out the source of this unnerving, almost supersonic, +thrilling of the planet crust. Eventually, they located the tiny green +plants with the spirally leaves at the center--the loudest point--of +each network. Someone recognized the plant, and they confirmed this +someone's suspicions by a check of the Public Library's back issues of +_Botanist's Quarterly_. It was the moonplant, all right. + +The Peter W. Merrill Moonplant. Yes sir. That's what it was. + +The public, though, was not satisfied with the finding of a _name_ for +the disturbance, and insisted that it be brought to a _halt_ somehow. +Naturally, the International Society of Botanists, Biologists and +Biochemists raised one hell of a fuss about this, but on a democratic +planet they were summarily outvoted, and all spirally little green Peter +W. Merrill Moonplants were--well, not _uprooted_; that would be +impossible--But they were all cropped flush with the earth wherever +found, and salt, acid, and all manner of nasty things poured into the +stumps. + + * * * * * + +However, nothing happened at all to the vibrations. + +People began to get fidgety, and started petitioning their +representatives in government to _Do Something_. A lot of speeches were +then made, all over Earth, about the noise and general disturbance of +the moonplant roots, but none of them offered a solution to the +increasing racket. + +It was about this time that plumblines started hanging crooked. Oh, it +wasn't detected at first. How could it be, at first? Because you judge +things by plumblines, not vice-versa. However, in a month, when +everything was about five degrees off the vertical, notice began to be +taken. + +When oranges began rolling off the ground in the California and Florida +groves, and huddling in a mound here and there upon the countryside, the +Spirit of Worry injected itself into the public consciousness. Niagara +Falls' spectacular skew-wise splashing toward the Canadian side didn't +set many hearts at ease, either. + +And then someone remembered the moonplants, and saw that each new +apparent gravity-tug was coming from the stump of one of the plants, and +a leading scientist figured out the answer, after getting a snipped-off +segment of moonplant root and testing the hell out of it. + +"It seems," he announced to the world, or that portion of the world that +was watching his appearance on TV; there being considerable competition +with a new series of NBC Specials on another channel, "It seems that +this Peter W. Merrill Moonplant is--er--magnetic, to a certain degree. +Though not magnetism as we know it. It's more as though each plant, +through the positioning of its roots, and the coiling of same, plus a +heavy concentration of iron in its physical makeup, has managed to make +itself--or, rather, the stump of itself, since all such plants were cut +down, a short while back--to make itself the center of an artificial +gravity field. This field seems to grow--Rather, these _many_ fields +seem to grow in strength by the hour, and they have a tendency to topple +things, the gravitational 'tug' being most disastrous near the centers +of the fields. The rims, though the angle of gravity is sharper there, +are safer for stability only because they are balanced by more 'tugs' +from adjoining fields...." + +Well, he went on this way for an hour or so, and soon his +listeners--those who stayed tuned in--knew what the problem was: "Down" +wasn't going to be "down" much longer. It was going to depend on which +moonplant stump you happened to be near. + + * * * * * + +The prospect didn't seem too much fun, and people started selling their +homes and such, and booking passage to the moon, where life was +controlled, but carefree, and free of annoying vibrations and rolling +oranges. + +Lunar Real Estate enjoyed a fabulous boom for weeks after the telecast +by the scientist, but it was soon "all filled up," and further +immigrations would have to await the construction of more Domes to house +the newcomers. + +The laggards, understandably, raised a fuss about this callous attitude, +and went moonward anyway until about two-thirds of the Earth's +population was on the moon, the place becoming so hopelessly crowded +that people had to half-rent rooms there, sleeping in alternating shifts +with other half-renters, and spending their waking hours wandering the +streets. + +"Things," sighed one realtor to another, "can't get much worse." + +And that's when the first meteor landed on Earth. In the general +excitement, first about vibrations, then about gravitational fields, +then about packing up and going to the moon, most newspapers had pushed +to the want-ad pages little articles by eminent astronomers, in which +were noted the odd behaviors of certain large planetoids in the asteroid +belt between Earth and Mars. These cosmic hunks of rock seemed to be +"peeling off" the general formation of the ellipse followed by their +fellows, and moving sunward[1] singly or in small homogenous groupings. + +[Footnote 1: (Ergo: Earthward)] + +Well, the first one landed and left a dent on Earth where the Congo used +to be, the shock being felt as far north as Oslo, to add to their +vibrational, gravitational and evacuational difficulties. + +Scientists on the moon--being as singleminded as scientists +anywhere--became ecstatic. At last the mystery of the ages was solved: +Who put the pocks in the face of the moon? A Peter W. Merrill Moonplant, +of course! They looked down in rapture as meteor after meteor--drawn +across the countless miles of space by the pulsating gravity fields, +plunged into the Earth, leaving pocks visible to the naked moondweller's +eye. And darned if each meteor didn't strike dead center of each plant +network. + + * * * * * + +After about a month, Earth looked almost exactly like the moon had once +looked, with the exception of one locale: Australia, and much of the +Pacific Ocean surrounding it. + +"It will indeed be a titanic meteor that hits there!" the moon +scientists enthused. For their careful check of the records showed that +only one plant had been found on the whole continent of Australia, +toward the eastern coast; which meant that its network probably extended +beneath the Pacific itself, with a gigantic field reaching its hungry +magnetic fingers into space. + +And then someone noticed that no more asteroids had peeled from the +formation. The void between the asteroid belt and Earth was barren of +hurtling rock. + +"Wonderful!" the scientists enthused. "It means that each field down +there on Earth ceased its tug the moment its meteor struck it. That +means that once the final meteor lands, the Peter W. Merrill Moonplant +will be dead, and we can get some of the crowd off this place. Earth's a +bit ragged-looking, but after all, it's Home." + +"Funny," said one of the younger scientists, "that the moonplant went so +far afield for meteors, and yet did not disturb the delicate +gravitational balance between Earth and the moon, its own Satellite." + +"Let us hope," said an older scientist, "that this enormous Australian +network has not been saving itself for us." He laughed at this little +pleasantry, but no one joined him, because someone had just peered +through a telescope and noticed that Australia seemed to be getting +larger. + +"You know what?" said the young scientist, finally. "We're falling to +the Earth, to form the largest pockmark of all!" + +"What a spectacle!" cried another scientist. "Pity we won't be alive to +witness it. I wonder why the Peter W. Merrill Moonplant saved us for +last?" + +"Possibly," said the young scientist, "because--as with a wedding--the +groom asks all his relatives to come and see him married, and finally +picks out the person who is to be the Best Man. The moonplant probably +considers the moon an old buddy." + +The older scientists, however, gave this statement the stoniest of +non-replies, and refused even to speak to the hapless young man for the +duration of their journey downward to squashy death against the home +planet. + +Romanticism and Science just don't mix. + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Old Friends Are the Best, by Jack Sharkey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD FRIENDS ARE THE BEST *** + +***** This file should be named 33871.txt or 33871.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/7/33871/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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