Misbegotten Missionary

Green Patches

By: Isaac Asimov

Narrated by: Mike Vendetti

A research spaceship from Earth lands on Saybrook's Planet to investigate a report by an earlier colony ship. The colony ship's captain, Saybrook, had reported that the planet's abundant plant and animal life was all part of a single organism with a unified consciousness. That organism was able to induce pregnancy in all the colony ship's female animals, and all the offspring born had green patches of fur instead of eyes, a sign that they were part of the planetary organism. When Saybrook had the women in his crew examined and confirmed that they were all pregnant, he sent a sub-ether report back to Earth and then destroyed his ship. The crew of the research ship confirms Saybrook's report, while carefully preventing any life from the planet from coming on board, then returns to Earth to recommend that Saybrook's Planet be quarantined. Unknown to the research ship's crew, they carry a stowaway - a part of the planet's fauna specially bred to resemble a length of wiring. If the stowaway manages to reach Earth, it will eventually convert all life there into a single organism with a unified consciousness - and green patches of fur instead of eyes.

Public Domain (P)2014 Mike Vendetti