Student Body (short story)
Student Body is a science fiction short story by F L Wallace. It was first published in Galaxy magazine in 1953 and has been anthologised many times. It was included in The Golden Age of Science Fiction (anthology).
Plot
Humanity is spreading rapidly through the galaxy and a planet known as Glade has been identified as suitable for colonisation. It has a near-Earth climate (and presumably near-Earth gravity and atmosphere). A colonisation expedition lands on Glade; one rocket contains the potential colonists and what equipment they will need, whilst a second rocket returns to Earth to confirm the suitability of the planet and bring more settlers.
Under the energetic leadership of Executive Hafner, the colonists start to assemble agricultural equipment and prepare for planting fast-growing crops that they will need to survive. But Biologist Dano Martin is already concerned that all is not as it should be. Biological Controls have previously surveyed the planet, without actually landing, and cleared it as being benign, but very soon mice appear and attack the crops and food stocks. Attempts are made to control them, but very soon they appear in plague proportions.
Martin thinks he knows what has happpened. The apparently harmless native lifeform, which he dubs the 'omnimal', has the ability to adapt to threats as they appear. They can mutate and reproduce with amazing speed. As they are brought under control, they are replaced with rats. The humans create a robot cat which fights the rats, but only stops them temporarily. They are then further replaced by tiger-like creatures, and these are brought under control.
Martin now knows what the next mutation will be and is proved right when food again goes missing from the fields. With Hafner only partially convinced, he seeks out the new creature. Hafner wants to shoot it, but Martin convinces him not to, knowing that a further mutated creature will be unstopable. They come face-to-face with the creature.
It looked very much like a man.
External links
- Student Body at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Works by F. L. Wallace at Project Gutenberg