expression. «God has spoken to me,» I said. «Although I still mourn, I will come out of mourning and we will build wings and we will praise Him with a flight…» I looked around and chose the highest hill. «… from that peak to the center of the valley.» «Ha, Eban,» Yorerie yelled in joy. We built in haste, but with care, for wings are not thrown together lightly. A support breaks in midair and a man tumbles to his death. We had an ample store of dragon's veins for tying, and the women worked to scrape the hides to a thinness, and at last they were ready. Then we three hunters, last of the Strabo family, climbed the hill, careful to stay inside the teeth-spitting range of the hill dragons, and cleared a place, making God's chaos in praise. On the morning we lifted after a run and we soared. Our valley made a nice cup for the creation of updrafts, and we went high, I confident yet keeping an eye on the sky to see the first hint of the white streak of a killbird. None came. «Ha, Eban,» Yorerie yelled in joy, swooping past me on a wing. I dived after him, chased him, yelled my joy. Cree came and zoomed past my head and I found an updraft and climbed and forgot that there ever had been such a thing as a killbird. We flew until the updrafts failed, and we landed, one after the other, on the meadow beside the stream to greet our family, who sang in joy. Nothing would do Yorerie but to make a second flight, so we trudged to the hill and ran and soared. There were, needless to say, many flights of praise in the following time, and then a strange thing happened. It was during the period when there was in the very air a strange tingle, a warning, the spirits talking to our bare bellies. It gave me some concern, but it was not strong, not deadly. Still, I knew not why there was warning in land which had always been safe until, consulting the Seer of Things Unseen, I was told that in our legends the old ones spoke of a time when the spirits of evil moved in the air. I doubted God, then. Had He given us one boon only to curse us in the giving? But in days the spirit was so low that one had to concentrate to feel it, and then it faded, and during that time we had no rain. But while our attentions were on the spirits in the air and we were troubled, Ouree the Unclaimed built a pair of wings, copying them from ours, and announced her intentions of flying. «Women do not fly,» I said. «I have consulted the Seer,» Ouree said. She could be the most stubborn woman upon occasion, as I had found, since she tended my daughter, Margan, and the child I had fathered with her, whom she had named Mar. «There is nothing in our custom which says a woman cannot fly.» «But women have never flown,» I said. «We will consult the Seer,» she said, with tight lips. «Women are not strong enough to fight the winds of the sky,» I said. «I am strong enough to carry a deer,» she said. «Can you say more?» Well, a wise family head, indeed, a wise man, knows when he has no argument. I yielded and, to prevent the breaking of frail female bones, gave Ouree flight lessons, sitting on her desire to leap from the high hill and forcing her to take short and quickly ended glides from low places. She did well, damaging her wings on landing only once. The day came when nothing would do but for Ouree to fly from a high hill, though not the highest. I talked with her at length, warning her of the updrafts and the winds and giving her lessons in how to handle them, and then, white-faced, she ran and leaped and soared beautifully, her bare legs gleaming and her graceful form hanging below the wings in the saddle, and I heard her cry out in joy as she caught the updraft and circled. «Do not climb high,» I yelled at her. «Glide slowly toward the meadow.» «Beautiful,» she yelled. «So beautiful.» And she climbed, the silly female. She went into the air and got the wind off the far hills. «Dive, dive,» I yelled at her. She was being swept slowly toward the rim of hills to the west. «Dive down and get below the hills!» But she was beyond the reach of my voice. I could see the people in the meadow below, and they were waving and shouting and I was shouting, and Ouree was still being swept toward the far rim. She was high. I watched. «All right,» I said, speaking as if she could hear me. «You have gone too far and now you cannot come back into the valley. Stay high, clear the hills. Above all, do not go down within range of the teeth of the dragons. Fly beyond the hills, find a meadow, land, and then fold your wings and walk back, coming all the way around.» Surely, surely, she was wise enough to know her danger. Surely. But she was now realizing her position and was trying to dive back. She was diving for the top of the hill where the dragons were rooted. Then, as I screamed and yelled, unseen and unheard, she came to her senses, soared and disappeared beyond the hills. I made haste down the hill and found the family concerned. «Yorerie,» I said, «you and I. We will go through the dragon's hole and march to meet her. Since we know not where she landed, nor if she will circle to the south or the north, one will go to the south and the other to the north, and we will meet her.» «How will I know when to turn back if I do not meet her?» Yorerie asked. «I have been thinking of extending our range,» I said. «It will be good if you scout all the way around the southern hills to a point directly to the west and then return by another route.» «Yes. You will do the same to the north?» «I will,» I said. «We take note of game signs, of water, of living sites, of fruit and nut trees.» «I will,» Yorerie said. We made preparation. I was worried about Ouree, but she was a solid-minded woman, skilled in the hunt, could be expected to be able to forage on the land for the few days it would take her to walk back around the hills. My only worry was that the land to the north and west had not been explored and there could be more dragons. I thought of Ouree facing a dragon alone, and I was sick inside. Mar had loved her so. She was so gentle and so considerate, and she looked after our children, Margan and Mar, so well. But she would be fine, I told myself. Old Seer would tend the two little girls. I would find Ouree in the wilderness and bring her back. Mar would have wanted that. And thinking of Mar I felt a little surge inside me. Woman. My Mar. Mar, Mar, I said silently, can you understand why I fear so for the safety of Ouree? It is only because you loved her so, my Mar. And as I set out beside the sturdy and dependable Yorerie to fetch back the young woman we'd both loved during the time she lived in the warm cave with us, I could see Mar's face smiling at me with a knowing look in her eyes. Behind us the family waved. Then we were alone, and I heard or felt something, something I'd never heard or felt before, and, fearfully, I looked up. Ref: Z-333-469-123-P-222 X&A Restriction Code Origin: Minutes Board of Determination, Sector Lightning, Headquarters X&A, Mercer. Sub.: III Planet, Life Zone Class Xanthos II sun, sector Sub-Lightning 30-60-97-38. Inhabited Humanoid. Dated: N.Y. 30,500, Month 4, day 24 Pres.: Prof. Anton Bradley Gore. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Prof. Anton Bradley Gore. Prof. Gore announced that the purpose of the Board of Determination was to discuss the discovery of Class 1-A-sub Humanoids, C-Scale primitive, T rating T-1. The purpose of the meeting thus established, the Chairman distributed copies of a report from U.P.X. Old Earth, Capt. T. Willis, Cmmd. A recess was called to allow the board to study the report. Upon reconvening, Chairman Gore called for introductions by the individual board members. The makeup of the board is as follows: Chairman Gore: Some of you may question my being chosen as chairman. If you do, I can't blame you, for this is pretty high terrain for a teacher of literature at Xanthos University. I suppose I was selected since I was called upon, because of my specialty in alien literature, to analyze the hypnoprobe material gathered by members of the crew of the Old Earth. Since I taught the subject, I suppose they decided to use me. You know how those X&A fellows are about aliens. But since my duty is just to preside, I guess I'm as good as anyone, and I won't let any of my uneducated ideas intrude into your thinking. Now if you will stand, beginning with the Admiral, and introduce yourselves. Admiral of Fleet Talltree the Healer: You are overly modest, professor. We've all read your astute theory of the Dead Worlds and your analysis of the Miaree legend. Speaking for myself, I say that I know of no man better qualified to deal with the alien mind. As for myself, I am a Fleet man, entered the Fleet as a mere boy and have served it since, primarily in exploration and alien search. It is quite obvious to all that I am a man of old earth, a healer. I have visited the planet in question and may be able, as this discussion goes along, to give some insight into the inhabitants. Degan the Far Seer: I am here from my post at the observatory on Lightning because I was the only Far Seer willing to leave his job. Moil the Power Giver: I don't know exactly why I'm here, except that such boards are made up, traditionally, of each of the three old earth types and an equal number of you New Ones. Prof. Gore: Moil is being modest in her turn. She was my student, and a brilliant one. She, too, was on the planet. Next, please. Capt. T. Willis: I was in command of the U.P.X. Old Earth when disturbances were noted on a planet of the core star now called Tom Thumb. Prof. Gore: Somewhat facetiously, I must say. And now our U.P. representatives. Ambassador John Zees: I am here because I was on a tour of the Lightning sector planets and was handy. Prof. Gore: Ah, a general modesty seems to be the rule. Let me say that Ambassador Zees is a man who is outstanding in many fields. He is a scholar and a scientist who has worked on the Brett Drive project. He has traveled possibly as much or more than any other living man and knows our United Planets as well as any man. He was a member of the Board of Determination in the Dead Worlds inquiry and his thinking was largely responsible for my theory regarding the events there. Secretary Anne Barker: Well, I won't be modest. I'm Secretary of U.P. Sector Lightning and damned proud of it, being the highest-ranked woman in the U.P. But I will stick to business and won't ask you to vote for me in the coming U.P. Presidential elections. Prof. Gore: Madam Secretary, you already have my vote, so you don't have to ask for it. And now that we're acquainted and you've read the remarkable manuscript which was the result of hypnoprobe on a most curious planet, I'd like to turn teacher for a moment and give you a few of my thoughts. We live in a remarkable time. In just a few hundred years events of singular importance have occurred. First there was the reunion of the two branches of our race with the discovery of our native world and of our remote ancestors, who had changed a bit— Adm. Talltree the Healer: To put it mildly. Prof. Gore: —and for the better: the Healer with his ability to cure cells and improve the health of both branches of the race, the Power Giver with her remarkable gifts of levitation; the Far Seer with his greatly advanced mind which has helped the race to advance and which deals best with pure theory and opens up endless fields for exploration. This reunion, in itself, changed the course of human events. And, for the first time, it gave purpose to a rather neglected branch of the service known as X&A, Exploration and Alien Search. We Old Ones, or mere humans, who left the old earth and forgot our origin, were slightly xenophobic, and with good reason, for before the reunion, we had discovered the grim and terrible destruction of those planets which became known as the Dead Worlds, and we had come face to face with evidence of alien presence, at least in the past, and a power which could gut and kill entire planets. The discovery of true aliens, beings with some pretty impressive psi powers, even though they turned out to be the original race of man mutated following a thermonuclear war on old earth, and the presence of the Dead Worlds, and the return of X&A ships from the colliding galaxies in Cygnus with the remarkable manuscript which has become known as the Legend of Miaree—all served to warn us, and to frighten some of us. We saw the possibility of other life somewhere in our universe, even in our own galaxy, for the size of it is not yet comprehended even by the most astute of us. Until a few months ago, we knew of four races. Ourselves, counting both branches as one; the Dead Worlders, who were indeed deadly, leaving nothing to hint at their nature save their savagery; and the two races of the colliding galaxies. Now all races have shown a remarkable tendency toward one activity, and that activity is killing each other. The Dead Worlds are indeed dead, and the events of the Dead Worlds Expedition of LaConious of Tigian, which made discoveries still quite puzzling to us, served to reemphasize the threat which still hangs over man. The two remarkable humanoid races of the Cygnus galaxies died in mutual destruction. Old earth was ravaged by war. It is saddening to me to realize that of all known races in our universe—of course, there may be and most probably are others which we have not yet encountered—none to our knowledge has lived in peace with itself. It is this aspect of the new encounter with an alien species which, I feel, must occupy much of our thought. Why are intelligent species warlike? Why do they belie their intelligence and, in the case of the Dead Worlds and the Cygnus civilizations, destroy themselves, or as in the case of old earth, ruin a planet and almost wipe out a race? I hope that each of you has studied the available information, especially the hypnoprobe material dealing with the story of Eban the Hunter. Ha—I find myself addressing you as students. Now, to add to our understanding, I think a description of the planet and its people and an account of events would be instructive. Admiral Talltree? Adm. Talltree the Healer: To keep things in order, I call upon Captain Willis, who was in command of the nearest X&A ship when detection of activity was made on the planet called Tom Thumb. Capt. Willis: We were on a routine probe on the outskirts of Lightning Sector. Detection was made by our Far Seer. He sensed thermonuclear radiation coming from a source which was not a natural star, and I blinked back to headquarters for permission to investigate. We went in after taking all precautions. As you say, Professor Gore, we all remember the Dead Worlds and the old earth, and newks popping off makes my hair stand on edge. We found a life-zone planet circling a Xanthos II type sun, a three planet, as are most life-zone planets, and our instruments measured considerable radiation, concentrated on one landmass. We sent down a Healer and he reported back that it was pretty hot, too hot even for him with his radiation resistance, and that the populace, apparently a stone-age culture living in a devastated land which had once before been reduced by newks, was dying by the hundreds. I say hundreds only because that was the number of people. The landmass was quite thinly populated by nomadic tribes. The salvo of newks—our officer estimated over two hundred hits in the ten-megaton range using high neutron radiation—had blanketed the entire landmass. It seemed strange as hell to us for a salvo of heavy newks to be targeted at a landmass peopled by stone-age men. We started a search for the origin of the salvo and found radiation levels to be much lower on the other large landmass of the planet, but the winds aloft were carrying the residue of the salvo over and it was pretty hot. We sent down Lieutenant Moil to take a look, and she reported back that the landmass was thickly peopled, with concentrations in the mountainous areas. I knew I had something. Those were men down there, even if they were pygmies, or dwarfs. They were about thirty inches in height and they lived in sort of stone age with some tools fashioned of metal from the scraps left by a highly technological culture. But they were men. So I held off and waited for a team headed by Admiral Talltree to arrive. Adm. Talltree the Healer: As is the rule, we did not make overt contact with the aliens. My team, consisting of myself, Moil the Power Giver and Lieutenant Elk the Healer, member of the Old Earth's crew, made observations, and after several days of overflight, using instruments, we found the source of the salvo. There were one hundred launch silos in a small valley in the hear