“Forever?”
She shook her head. “No. We’re going to bring people across from time to time. We’re going to Mars with the intent to form a permanent colony. If nothing else, it will take quite a few people to have a stable breeding population.”
“Have you decided where you’re going to touch down, yet?”
“Oddly enough, no. It doesn’t really matter that much, since we’re going underground as soon as we get there. Surface conditions just won’t make that much difference to us.”
Rice frowned. “But, Anne, it will take ages for you to tunnel out the first level. What are you going to do in the meantime? Live in surface shelters?”
Anne smiled smugly, obviously relishing the moment. “Actually, we intend to be underground within the first week.”
“What?” Rice demanded, eyes staring. “It takes us, what, nearly two years to prepare a new level here. How in hell are you going to have living space underground that quickly?”
“It turns out that the Door singularity is a tunneling device par excellence. All you have to do is choose the diameter you want, then guide the Door through solid rock. The perimeter of the singularity will slice through the rock like butter. On the other side of the Door, there will be a huge rod of solid rock sticking out. We plan to set up a Door on the surface. That way we can just let the rock coming out of the Door fall to the ground. We’ll leave long cylindrical cores of rock side by side on the surface, like a bunch of pencils.”
“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” Rice breathed. “Instant tunnels.”
“Nearly so. By the end of the first week, we’ll have pressure locks installed. In theory, we’ll be able to excavate an entire city for less than what it costs Crisium to do a single level, using conventional blast and laser techniques.”
“Then the same technique can be used here?”
Anne nodded. “Easily… and will be. Someday, Luna will be honeycombed with tunnels. Nothing but three-dimensional living space.”
Rice looked dazed. “Who needs Mars? Luna will be enough to keep us all busy for the rest of our lives, and on down through our great-grandchildrens’ lives.”
Her face split in a slow, dreamy smile. “Ah, but Edgar… where’s the adventure in that?”
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Evolution” is a sequel to “Darwin’s Children,” which appeared in the October 1993 Analog, “Survival of the Fittest” (May 1994), and “The Missing Link” (October 1994).