Old Friends Are the Best

In Short

This short story follows the unintended consequences of bringing a dormant, prehistoric lunar organism back to Earth. Once introduced to a nutrient-rich, Earth-like environment, the plant sheds its silicon-based defenses and begins to exert a powerful, rhythmic influence on its surroundings. As its roots weave through the globe, the organism creates localized gravity wells that pull celestial bodies toward the planet. It is a darkly humorous tale of scientific hubris, where humanity’s attempts to study and then destroy the specimen only accelerate their own inevitable, gravitational collision with their own past.

The Story

The story begins on the moon, where an ancient, dormant organism—the Moonplant—has survived for millennia in the lunar dust. It lives on a geologic timescale, with a pulse that beats only once every hundred years. When humanity eventually colonizes the moon, building sprawling, pressurized cities beneath translucent domes, they unknowingly disturb this creature. An engineer discovers the plant and, impressed by its resilience, sends it to a botanist on Earth for study.

The botanist, Peter W. Merrill, is thrilled by his find. He names the plant after himself and places it in his garden, assuming it is a dead fossil. To his delight, the plant awakens in the lush, oxygen-rich environment of Earth. It sheds its protective silicate walls, begins to feed, and spreads an extensive, hidden root network that eventually spans miles beneath the surface. As the plant thrives, its rhythmic pulse—once centuries apart—accelerates to hundreds of beats per second.

This vibration creates an artificial gravity field at the center of every root network. As the plants multiply across the globe, these fields grow in strength, causing gravity on Earth to shift. Objects roll toward these centers, and the very concept of "down" becomes unreliable. Panic ensues, and the international authorities attempt to destroy the plants by cropping them and poisoning the soil. The attempt fails; the plants are dead, but their root-driven gravity fields persist and intensify.

Humanity, terrified by the chaotic shifts in gravity and the rattling of the planet, flees to the lunar colonies. The moon becomes hopelessly overcrowded, but soon a new threat emerges: the plants are acting as magnetic lures, pulling massive asteroids from the belt toward Earth. Meteor after meteor slams into the planet, precisely striking the centers of the moonplant networks.

As Earth becomes a cratered wasteland, the focus shifts to the final, largest root network located under Australia. The scientists on the moon, observing from above, realize that the planetoid-sized meteors have stopped coming. They speculate that the Australian plant is waiting to complete its work. Suddenly, they notice that the moon itself is being pulled toward the Earth. The realization dawns that the moonplant has been holding its "old friend"—the moon—for the final act. As the moon accelerates toward a collision with the Australian continent, the scientists realize their fate is sealed, ending the story on a note of cosmic irony.

How It Unfolds

The awakening The dormant moonplant is transported from the lunar surface to a botanist's garden on Earth, where the hospitable climate causes it to shed its ancient, protective silicate shell. It begins to thrive, rapidly expanding an invisible, massive root network that weaves beneath the surface of the planet.

The shift in gravity As the plants multiply, their accelerated pulse creates localized, artificial gravity fields that disrupt the planet's physical stability. People realize their world is literally shifting when objects begin to roll toward the plant stumps, leading to widespread social panic.

The migration to the moon Driven by fear of the increasing gravitational tugs, the majority of Earth's population abandons the planet for the lunar domes. The moon becomes dangerously overcrowded as refugees endure squalid, shift-based living arrangements to escape the terrestrial chaos.

The meteor strikes The plants begin pulling asteroids from space, transforming Earth into a cratered landscape through a series of direct, destructive impacts. Each strike coincides with a plant network, confirming that the organisms are intentionally reshaping the planet.

The final collision The scientists realize that the moon itself is being drawn toward the massive Australian root network. They conclude that the plant saved its oldest associate for the final impact, bringing the story to a catastrophic and inevitable conclusion.

The People

Peter W. Merrill is a prideful botanist whose desire for academic glory drives him to treat the extraterrestrial specimen as a personal trophy. He is the catalyst for the disaster, naming the plant after himself and failing to recognize the danger until it is far too late. His mundane life of writing theses and hosting colleagues contrasts sharply with the cosmic scale of the destruction he helps unleash.

The Moonplant is the story’s silent, enigmatic protagonist. It possesses no malice, only a rudimentary memory of a "fuller" past and a biological imperative to grow. It is a creature of deep time, operating on instincts that humanity interprets as either a scientific curiosity or a malicious threat. By the end, its actions reveal a strange, possibly intentional sense of connection to the moon, turning it from a mere organism into a force of celestial order.

The Scientists are a collection of observers who remain detached and analytical even as their world falls apart. Whether they are dismissing the gravity problem on television or debating the nature of the meteors, they are consistently characterized by their single-mindedness. They represent the human instinct to categorize and explain, even when the reality they are observing is fundamentally beyond their control. Their inability to reconcile their scientific detachment with the reality of their impending death provides the final, bitter irony of the narrative.

In Its Own Voice

"It had no awareness of time, and so did not know nor concern itself with the millennia that passed since it first drew up the dissolved silicates from the shifting grey remnants of soil and arranged them inside the walls of the thousand green pods that were its body cells, and settled down to wait."

The narrator describes the plant’s prehistoric, patient state before it encounters the human colony on the moon.

"He decided, as is the way with botanists, to name his--it was now 'his'; having abandoned liberty when it abandoned the moon--to name his plant after himself."

This quote highlights the arrogance of the botanist as he claims ownership over an ancient, indifferent life form.

"The moonplant probably considers the moon an old buddy."

A younger scientist offers this final, macabre theory to explain why the gravitational pull of the Australian plant is targeting the moon.

What It's Really About

At its heart, the book is a meditation on the arrogance of scientific classification and the dangerous vanity of naming the natural world after ourselves. By labeling the moonplant "The Peter W. Merrill Moonplant," the human characters attempt to domesticate a force that is, in reality, far older and more powerful than their entire civilization. The narrative argues that humanity’s desire to control and categorize nature is a profound delusion; we are not the masters of our environment, but merely temporary residents on a planet that can be altered by forces we barely comprehend. It asks whether we can ever truly understand a "life" that functions on a scale of millennia, or if our need to apply human logic to cosmic events is ultimately our undoing.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy the classic, cynical humor of mid-century science fiction will find much to admire here. Jack Sharkey crafts a story that feels like a classic "creature feature" inverted; rather than a monster attacking, we have a plant simply existing in a way that happens to be incompatible with human survival. The prose is clean and rhythmic, moving with a confident speed that mimics the accelerating pulse of the plant itself.

The story is a quick, sharp read, though modern readers should be prepared for the mid-century tone, which includes a casual, almost detached attitude toward the impending annihilation of the human race. It is not a book for those looking for high-stakes character development, but rather for those who enjoy a "big idea" story that treats the extinction of humanity with a dry, ironic wit. What stays with you is the haunting image of the Earth, scarred by craters and shifting under the influence of an organism that was simply trying to return to its original form. It is a bracing reminder of how small our concerns appear when measured against the patient, slow-moving indifference of the cosmos.