KREOTOPIA — Stephen Brown

The Degeneratron is an international research project to send probes to distant galaxies. It is also a money-sucking white elephant. After six years and two hundred and twelve billion dollars its only accomplishment is a tenuous connection to a single, boring planet. That planet, a foggy, smelly gravel pile supports a single life form: smelly Kreote plants. Nothing else. No insects. No bacteria. Not even a lousy virus. Trevor Tarklington has drawn the short straw and is taking new equipment to squeeze further knowledge from the planet before the connection is lost forever. Trevor's daily reports form the first part of this story.

Trevor's capsule arrives off target and crushes the foot of Aaron Hurleman, the person waiting to help him from the transport capsule. In his panic to leave the cramped cylinder, Trevor also breaks Aaron's nose. Aaron's injuries send him back to Earth, leaving the team short-handed. The two remaining members are Dan Dennison, project manager and expert at everything, and Deborah, a short, round, silent woman with no patience for clumsy new arrivals.

Dan explains that with Aaron gone it would be best it Trevor remained for the duration. That solves two problems. The first is manpower. The second is that Dan has been keeping a secret from the controllers back on Earth, and he doesn't want Trevor to return and give it away. The secret is that there is a another form of life, one that makes even less sense than the smelly Kreote plants. It consists of an army of cartoon-like bugs who parade in columns while humming marching tunes. Dan intends to solve the problem of the planet's bizarre life forms himself. He wants no interference from Earth.

The disgusting smell of the planet is due to the oil produced by the Kreote plants. The first explorers reported that it has a mild narcotic effect. It causes dreams. The oil has another property. If one oil molecule develops a flaw, other oil molecules copy the flaw. Dan suspects that the planet is a giant library, constantly storing and refreshing memories. The plants produce the oil that copies and stores the memories. The bugs cultivate the plants, but where do the memories originate?

During their explorations, they discover portals to a real world, one rich with plants, animals and clear skies, but their connection to Earth is failing. They have to return immediately. Dan tells Trevor and Deborah that they must go back to report what they've discovered so far, but he is going to remain. There is an unexplored world right at his finger tips.

Trevor and Deborah return to the cylinder, but at the last moment, Deborah decides that she can't abandon Dan. As soon as Trevor crawls inside, she slams the hatch shut and sends him back alone. Trevor realizes that all of their records are back on the fog world. He has nothing to back up his tales of marching bugs and alternate worlds. Worse, the people on Earth will have to take his word for it that he didn't deliberately abandon the rest of the team to slow starvation on a hellish planet.....