Part 5 (2/2)

”Each of the five of us differed,” he said. ”I held that you were not--not real except as symbols of some abstract truth. One of us, the wisest, believed that you did not exist in any sense at all. But we all agreed that you were not G.o.ds.”

”And of course we aren't,” Jarl Eleven said. ”We're men. We come from the same stock as you. We're not your rulers, but your brothers. Do you understand what I say?”

”No,” Honath admitted.

”Then let me tell you about it. There are men on many worlds, Honath.

They differ from one another, because the worlds differ, and different kinds of men are needed to people each one. Gerhardt and I are the kind of men who live on a world called Earth, and many other worlds like it.

We are two very minor members of a huge project called a 'seeding program', which has been going on for thousands of years now. It's the job of the seeding program to survey newly discovered worlds, and then to make men suitable to live on each new world.”

”To make men? But only G.o.ds--”

”No, no. Be patient and listen,” said Jarl Eleven. ”We don't make men.

We make them suitable. There's a great deal of difference between the two. We take the living germ plasm, the sperm and the egg, and we modify it. When the modified man emerges, we help him to settle down in his new world. That's what we did on Tellura--it happened long ago, before Gerhardt and I were even born. Now we've come back to see how you people are getting along, and to lend a hand if necessary.”

He looked from Honath to Mathild, and back again. ”Do you understand?”

he said.

”I'm trying.” Honath said. ”But you should go down to the jungle-top, then. We're not like the others; they are the people you want to see.”

”We shall, in the morning. We just landed here. But, just because you're not like the others, we're more interested in you now. Tell me, has any condemned man ever escaped from the jungle floor before you people?”

”No, never. That's not surprising. There are monsters down there.”

Jarl Eleven looked sidewise at the other Giant. He seemed to be smiling.

”When you see the films,” he remarked, ”you'll call that the understatement of the century. Honath, how did you three manage to escape, then?”

Haltingly at first, and then with more confidence as the memories came crowding vividly back, Honath told him. When he mentioned the feast at the demon's nest, Jarl Eleven again looked significantly at Adler, but he did not interrupt.

”And finally we got to the top of the chimney and came out on this flat s.p.a.ce,” Honath said. ”Alaskon was still with us then, but when he saw you and the metal thing he threw himself back down the cleft. He was a criminal like us, but he should not have died. He was a brave man, and a wise one.”

”Not wise enough to wait until all the evidence was in,” Adler said enigmatically. ”All in all, Jarl, I'd say 'prodigious' is the word for it. This is easily the most successful seeding job any team has ever done, at least in this limb of the galaxy. And what a stroke of luck, to be on the spot just as it came to term, and with a couple at that!”

”What does he mean?” Honath said.

”Just this, Honath. When the seeding team set your people up in business on Tellura, they didn't mean for you to live forever in the treetops.

They knew that, sooner or later, you'd have to come down to the ground and learn to fight this planet on its own terms. Otherwise, you'd go stale and die out.”

”Live on the ground all the time?” Mathild said in a faint voice.

”Yes, Mathild. The life in the treetops was to have been only an interim period, while you gathered knowledge you needed about Tellura and put it to use. But to be the real masters of the world, you will have to conquer the surface, too.

”The device your people worked out, that of sending criminals to the surface, was the best way of conquering the planet that they could have picked. It takes a strong will and courage to go against custom, and both those qualities are needed to lick Tellura. Your people exiled just such fighting spirits to the surface, year after year after year.

”Sooner or later, some of those exiles were going to discover how to live successfully on the ground and make it possible for the rest of your people to leave the trees. You and Honath have done just that.”

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