tendent what was causing the trouble. Blalok scowled. "We've nev

said. "The thing that bothers me i

last six months of his life. I wouldn't doubt that he let his

are easy to see. At any rat

lpr

r fluke. He's a tricky little fello

ne. All I can remember about flukes

larly H.

now Mr. Alexander's over at Old-your

e's J

ion Fourteen. We'll

d night then,

tomorrow." Blalok waved a friendly good night and left the li

symphony in the stereo, his eyes half closed, an expression of peace on

d of surprise. Alexander's eyes snapped open. "Oh-it's

tartled me," she sa

" Alexander in

ctor. There's talk about you all ove

han any of us," Alexander chuckled. "The grapevi

er f

not g

oked at the records. It doesn't

right. How long

But I'll try to clean it up as quickly as possible. I'm

atod

on n

fworld parasi

ter. It's adapted to a hundred different planetary environments, and it keeps spread

on it ri

rting to

e a nightcap-then I'll go back to the house and listen to Henry and Anne's screams about p

s character. Intoxicated, he was a friendlier person. If there was any truth in the ancient cliche abo

der said. "Eight rooms, two baths, a freshener, and thr

lly, I don't think I'm going to have an easy time. Tomorrow I'm g

. I have conf

you should have

ney, but it might be admitting that the Lani might be human. And we've gone to a great deal of tr

dn't do

he became worried about the surviving Lani. He didn't want to be accused of genocide, since the Lani were so human in appearance. So

, it leaked and Grandfather was highly unpopular for a time until the lab reports came in. It cost him over eight hundred Ems and nearl

o wants to learn Lani structure and function. The court rendered an interim decision that the Lani were nonhuman, and armed with this, Grandfather prepared the final tests which were run by a team of court-appointed medics and biologists, who made in vitro and live tests on a nu

hy

ed carefully toward the door, opened

things alone. Certainly he didn't know Alexander well enough to act as a guardian. He turned back to the living area. The stereo was playing something soft and nostalgic as Kennon sank into the chair Alexander had vacated. He let his body relax. It

mammals whose morphology was so close to man's that it had taken the ultimate test to settle

the beginning of mankind's leap to the stars it had been recognized that men must help each other or perish. The spirit of co-operation

rlds. And ultimately it evolved into the only form of central authority that men would accept. Yet basically it was not a government.

to. It also arbitrated disputes, admitted new worlds to membership, and organized concerted human effort a

e. No matter how decadent or primitive a population might be, if it was human it was autom

might have done so. A docked Lani, for instance, would probably pass unquestioned as a human, but the Lan

But there were a few-like the Lani-where similarities were so close that it was impossible to det

ively. Whatever changes had taken place in the somatic characteristics of mankind since the Exodus, they had not altered the compatibility of human germ plasm. Man could interbreed with

s it a

beyond a shadow of a doubt. After all, the human race had been spaceborne for only six thousand years-scarcely time for any real differences to develop. But physical changes had already appeared-and it w

no one bothered to think about it except for

bab

gh

sib

f

like tougher epidermis and depilation of body hair-little things that held alarming implications to Beta's scientists, and to Beta's people. Not too many generations hence a Betan outside his h

there was no assurance that this would happen. And mankind had a hi

ssed that didn't bring some new human world into the Brotherhood, and many of these had developed from that cultural explosion during the First Millennium known as the Exodus, where small groups of colonists in inadeq

But they had failed the test, and were declared animals. Yet it was possible that they had mutated beyond genetic compatibility. If they had, and if it were proved,

mployer, shake the foundation of human civilization, and force ten thousand billion humans to change their comfortable