_Nothing can happen to me; you, maybe, but not
me._

* * * * *

Even though I knew exactly what to expect, it was impossible not to jerk
back involuntarily with the others.

We were in the star ship, clustered around a bell jar. The jar contained
a small specimen of the killer that I'd dug up gingerly and brought back
for evidence.

I'd introduced water into the jar, and the first reaction had just taken
place.

"Watch closely," I cautioned.

Again it happened--innocently at first and then too swiftly for the eye
to follow. One of the little protuberances seemed to swell
slightly--_Ping._ Something struck the wall of the bell jar hard enough
to evoke a clear, sharp, resonant note.

"I don't know the exact range of a mature specimen," I said, grimly,
"but I saw leaves shake a good twenty yards away."

"A seed," one of the crewmen breathed. "Nothing but a tiny,
insignificant _seed_."

Moya shook his head.

"A deadly missile, son, wearing or containing a virulent poison. And
people used to blather about curare."

I began to draw concentric arcs on the chart.

"I kept fetching water and testing and retreating all the way back to
the plain. Pretty soon there's not going to be any place safe within
miles of where these mutants can take root. Near the plain's camp,
they're still innocuous--the original species. The propagation response
is triggered by rain, all right, but the seeds just pop out, and, of
course, the poison is undoubtedly weak--a bother only to insects."

"But they weren't a problem--" Moya interjected.

"Time," I said. "Five years. Look here on the chart. I figured this to
be the center: the first team's permanent camp on the hill. Now what
happened there? Heaters to destroy immediate vegetation, and
_Radio-Frequency_ beams to kill insects and their larvae over a wider
area. R-F--don't you see? Cells react to certain portions of the radio
spectrum. Some are destroyed, depending upon intensity. Some behave
strangely--the 'marching protozoa,' the 'dancing amoeba.' In others,
chromosomal aberrations occur, resulting in mutations. Remember the
experiments with yeasts, garlic, grains? The growth of some
microorganisms is stimulated by R-F irradiation."

"Then these glorified flytraps got mad at what was happening to their
innards and decided to fight even harder for survival?"

"You're anthropomorphizing," I told Moya, "but that's the way I see it.
They just resp