Proteus in the Underworld
bulged in strange places. The skulls had foreheads that came far out over the eyes. Limbs possessed what looked like second joints between shoulder and elbow, and between hip and knee.
    It would take a long time to study the contents of the hyper-bank in the detail that they deserved. Sondra began to download the descriptive and pictorial data for later analysis.
    It was a task that could be done without much concentration. As she worked another thought came drifting into her head. The Carcon Colony used form-change equipment, but its needs were likely to be very different from the standard applications on Earth. Different how? That knowledge was surely vital to anyone trying to solve the problem of the feral form.
    So why hadn't anyone before Bey Wolf mentioned to Sondra the importance of knowing just what went on in the Carcon Colony?
    She was beginning to worry about that question when the display that she was using suddenly went blank. An interrupt appeared in place of the Carcon Colony index and grabbed her attention.

    ]TO: OFFICE OF FORM CONTROL, EARTH HQ.(ADDED INTERNAL OFFICE ROUTING: SONDRA DEARBORN)FROM: FUGATE COLONY.SUBJECT: ANOMALOUS FORM.REPORT TO OFFICE OF FORM CONTROL: NEWBORN 06:21, USF STANDARD DATE. HUMANITY TEST APPLIED, 8:23. TEST PASSED, 8:24. CONTROLS FAILED SAME DATE 8:24 UPON EMERGENCE FROM TESTING TANK. MAXIMUM GEE TRANSFER HAS BEEN MADE TO EARTH, SHIPMENT TO HQ OFFICE OF FORM CONTROL, ON 8:25. ARRIVAL EARTH ORBIT 8:27. WARNING: THIS FORM CANNOT BE TAKEN TO THE SURFACE OF EARTH. IN ADDITION, FORM MUST BE HANDLED AT HIGHEST LEVEL OF SECURITY. IT IS DANGEROUS. FOUR COLONY MEMBERS WERE ATTACKED, TWO WERE INJURED.

    Sondra hardly read the rest of the message. She was receiving it through a high-level override of her standard communication channel. That, along with the office's internal routing, implied something else: responsibility for sorting out the problem with this form, like the feral one that she had shown to Bey Wolf, would be hers.
    The new form was being dumped right into her lap.
    She cringed at that particular mental image, even as another thought rushed in: now not even Denzel Morrone could point to the wild form as an isolated, unique, never-to-be-repeated incident.
    * * *
    Sondra felt out of her depth. Just when she was hoping to understand the Carcon Colony, a new form and a new place had been thrown at her.
    At least she had heard of the Carcon Colony— vaguely—before the first form appeared; but what and where was the Fugate Colony?
    Sondra resisted the urge to dash off to Transportation and seek the most rapid way of getting to space. The new form would not arrive at Earth orbit for another twenty-four hours. And this time she intended to know a lot more about its origin before she was forced to confront it.
    Fugate Colony. History, location, size, inhabitants. Sondra remained at her terminal and set the data trail. While the key words were being pursued and the information collected, she had time to wonder again about the value of her training. Two years ago her doctorate in form-change theory, with its dissertation on the Capman C-forms and the Wolf multiforms, had seemed the perfect preparation for a career in the Office of Form Control. Now it appeared useless. Particularly in view of the information that was flashing onto her display.

    The Fugate Colony was established by the followers of the psychologist and physician Reuben Mikhlin. Mikhlin argued that (1) the size of the human brain at birth produces a head that is almost too wide for the birth canal; (2) there is a tendency for babies to be born prematurely to reduce this problem; (3) thus the actual size of a baby's brain is less than it should be; (4) the human brain would continue to increase in size if it were not constrained by the birth process and by the rigid bone structure of the skull; (5) an increased mature body size would be required to support the larger brain size (employ directed hyper-trail for GIANTISM);
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