“The Infinites” May 1953

A crew of three visits asteroids to prospect for minerals. They come across an asteroid with all the necessary conditions to sustain life, yet is does not. They are preparing to send some pigs (at one point referred to as “hamsters” p. 132) to the surface to see if it is safe when they are hit with a blast of radiation. They evolve several million years in a moment, gainer greater tactile and cognitive powers, but lose their hair and become physically weaker. Blake becomes a megalomaniac and wants to return to earth and conquer it, then the whole universe, under the guise of helping humanity. He kills Sylvia with a disk weapon he has invented. They are heading back to Terra, but Blake’s plans are threatened when five embodiments of pure energy arrive. They kill Blake and resurrect Sylvia. They are the hamsters/pigs, who have evolved much further than the humans, due to the fact that they were the first to feel the radiation and that they had, evolutionarily speaking, much further to go. Sylvia and Eller are returned to their normal states by the advanced hamsters, who have no interest in the human race, whose potential for advancement, not to mention ethical behavior, is considerably less than their own.