Evolution

Lewis Cantner was executed without fanfare. No press sensationalizing of his crime was allowed. He died with only the minimum of information being released: Three shots to the chest, just as he had killed his victim. Whenever possible, Lunar law stipulated that a murderer be executed in the same manner as his victim.

Many on Earth were outraged, proclaiming that Cantner’s rights had been violated. Some however, watched as Earth’s convicted murderers were released to roam the streets again and wondered if there might not be something to the Lunar legal system.

“When are you leaving?” Edgar Rice asked.

Anne Lister had circles under her eyes from driving herself ruthlessly, but she was beginning to laugh once in a great while. She was slowly beginning to find joy in life again, in part due to the sleeping child in her arms. “Not yet, Edgar, not yet, but soon. You can count on that. I want my son to grow up in Mars’s gravity field, not Luna’s.”

“We’re going to miss you, Anne.”

“Come with us,” she countered.

He shook his head sadly. “I can’t. At my age, I don’t care to face a gravity double what I’m used to here. Going from this gravity to a lesser one I could handle, but not an increase, not of that magnitude.”

She smiled kindly. “Aren’t you just being lazy?”

He took it without offense. “Probably. Coming to Luna from Earth cured my wanderlust. With luck, I’ll control the Observer in another year or two. That’s my dream, and I’m nearly there. If I were to pull up stakes now, I’d have to give that up.”

“Don’t. If that’s your goal, stick to it.” Her mouth twisted into a sly grin. “Besides, you’ll need the experience before you start The Mars Observer. After all, owning one paper won’t be enough.”

His eyes widened. “Why, you impertinent imp! I do believe you’re trying to put ideas into my head.”

“Oh? You noticed?” she teased.

“All right, all right. I’ll think about it.”

“The place just won’t feel right until you get there.”

“Anne, that’s the thing that you’ve yet to fully realize about the Door. If distance is reduced to nothing, then who cares where we live? I’ll be able to visit you on Mars almost as easily as I do now. There are no barriers where there are Doors.”

“Don’t wait too long, Edgar. We’ll be closing the Door once we’re self-sufficient.”

“Forever?”

She shook her head. “No. We’re going to bring people across from time to time. We’re going to Mars with the intent to form a permanent colony. If nothing else, it will take quite a few people to have a stable breeding population.”

“Have you decided where you’re going to touch down, yet?”

“Oddly enough, no. It doesn’t really matter that much, since we’re going underground as soon as we get there. Surface conditions just won’t make that much difference to us.”

Rice frowned. “But, Anne, it will take ages for you to tunnel out the first level. What are you going to do in the meantime? Live in surface shelters?”

Anne smiled smugly, obviously relishing the moment. “Actually, we intend to be underground within the first week.”

“What?” Rice demanded, eyes staring. “It takes us, what, nearly two years to prepare a new level here. How in hell are you going to have living space underground that quickly?”

“It turns out that the Door singularity is a tunneling device par excellence. All you have to do is choose the diameter you want, then guide the Door through solid rock. The perimeter of the singularity will slice through the rock like butter. On the other side of the Door, there will be a huge rod of solid rock sticking out. We plan to set up a Door on the surface. That way we can just let the rock coming out of the Door fall to the ground. We’ll leave long cylindrical cores of rock side by side on the surface, like a bunch of pencils.”

“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” Rice breathed. “Instant tunnels.”

“Nearly so. By the end of the first week, we’ll have pressure locks installed. In theory, we’ll be able to excavate an entire city for less than what it costs Crisium to do a single level, using conventional blast and laser techniques.”

“Then the same technique can be used here?”

Anne nodded. “Easily… and will be. Someday, Luna will be honeycombed with tunnels. Nothing but three-dimensional living space.”

Rice looked dazed. “Who needs Mars? Luna will be enough to keep us all busy for the rest of our lives, and on down through our great-grandchildrens’ lives.”