Search Worlds Without End

A man does not step into the same river twice. He never goes through the same door.

To Kurt Yardley, this is amply borne out by the train of circumstance which follows the forced landing of his freighter Charib on the bleakly inhospitable plains of an unlisted planet. Life has evolved without a familiar organic base and is ready to defend itself against the encroachment of another species. Its very structure could bring unimaginable wealth to metal-hungry cultures and there are those on Charib who are prepared to sidestep the Inter Galactic Code of consideration for all forms of life in pursuit of personal gain.

Yardley, fighting for survival on two fronts, faces his personal moment of truth in a confrontation which takes him to the threshold of destruction. In Asia Vance, a blonde navigation executive, finds reason to make a new start in human relations which have previously gone badly for him. Commitment is giving hostages to fortune and, in the struggle for existence, puts a handicap weight on the sensitive. When he is finally brought to face a replay of an old situation, he cannot, by his own efforts, exorcise the ghosts of his past.

In opposing the Triopus project, Grant Kirby was one by himself. Powerful commercial and political lobbies saw him as a threat and wanted him silenced. Was there in fact, a menace in the green planet or was he rationalizing his own growing disillusionment with Earth and its social pattern? Kirby himself only found the answer when the Triopusians entered the equation in a form nobody could expect.

F. S. Hartley was making the best of a bad job. The rebuilding programme at his school was drawing on all his skills in crisis management. Today, the digger had just cut the main power line--again, the School Inspector was threatening the whole future with talk of 'comprehensive education' and 'mergers' with rival schools, the boiler room was filling up with water, and then, as ever, there was the distraction of Mrs Gleave. And, it was only 10:30 in the morning. But today was not going to be just a typical day in the life of Wellington Mixed Secondary School. Today, the workmen unearthed something...