Gateway Essentials
2 total works
The Conversationalist sat among the boxes, trying to interest the friends in history. "The Compulsory Transfer Act was passed in 2056," he was saying, "with the dual object of reducing the birthrate and preventing the wastage of valuable minds through death. It might fairly be said to have changed the face of civilisation."
"I'll say!" rasped one of the friends.
"If it wasn't for the Act, I'd have been in a physical body now, instead of being in this damned box!"
"If it wasn't for the Act, you'd have been dead this last hundred and fifty years," pointed out the Conversationalist.
"You've probably has four physical bodies by now, a total of one hundred and sixty years of active life. And just twenty years in a box. That's not bad!"
The problem of immortality had been solved in the 21st century: when you reached forty, your brain was transferred to the head of a six-month-old infant. In that way, you obtained another forty years of life, until you could do it all over again. But nobody could have foreseen the dramatic manner in which the birthrate would fall - resulting in a growing waiting list for host bodies, and the creation of Friendship Boxes to house the brains of those who waited. The Friendship Boxes proliferated: a grumbling section of the community, a constant source of embarrassment to every politician...Until the day it all came to a head.
If an alien creature can so perfectly imitate a human being that not only is it physically and mentally indistinguishable from a man but it actually believes itself to be one, what do you do with it? Is it human?
This is the question which confronts Alex Stordahl, supervisor of the harsh planet Marilyn. Initially nobody had suspected anything unusual about the largely reptilian animal life. Then Stordahl discovered the amorphs - shapeless in their natural state, but possessing a unique defence mechanism: when closely approached by a possible aggressor, they could adopt the form least likely to be attacked by the creature.
When it transpires that the creatures are harmless they are quickly absorbed into the colony to provide extra labour. The the ruthless owner of the development corporation arrives from Earth. He wants to test the amorphs, and brings with him a group of four brilliant, but totally egotistical men. And trouble soon starts...