"Are you a biologist, an ecologist, a chemist?"

"No."

"Then on what do you base your opinion?"

"I observed them at close range for six weeks."

"Then it's only a feeling you have...?"

"You know there are no experts on a thing like this. It's neverhappened before."

"Granting their intelligence--granting even that what you have saidconcerning their adaptability is correct--what do you suggest we do aboutit?"

"Slow down the change. Give them a better chance. If they can't make itthe rest of the way, then stop short of our goal. It's already livable here.We can adapt the rest of the way."

"Slow it down? How much?"

"Supposing we took another seven or eight thousand years?"

"Impossible!"

"Entirely!"

"Too much!"

"Why?"

"Because everyone stands a three-month watch every two hundred fiftyyears. That's one year of personal time for every thousand. You're askingfor too much of everyone's time."

"But the life of an entire race may be at stake!"

"You do not know that for certain."

"No, I don't. But do you feel it is something to take a chance with?"

"Do you want to put it to an executive vote?"

"No--I can see that I'll lose. I want to put it before the entiremembership."

"Impossible. They're all asleep."

"Then wake them up."

"That would be quite a project."

"Don't you think the fate of a race is worth the effort? Especiallysince we're the ones who forced intelligence upon them? We're the ones whomade them evolve, cursed them with intellect."

"Enough! They were right at the threshold. They might have becomeintelligent had we not come along"

"But you can't say for certain! You don't really know! And it doesn'treally matter how it happened. They're here and we're here, and they think