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This plan was already underway by the time the Silkie planetoid made its round of the sun and again
headed out toward far Neptune.
Now they were back, and they had found an unfortunate situation. Somehow, Earth science, virtually
ignored by the early visitors, had achieved a method for training the Silkie perception system.
The Earth Silkies had become a loyal-to-Earth, tight-knit, masterful group of beings, lacking only the
Power.
Cemp read all this in E-Lerd s thought, and then, because he was amazed, he questioned him about
what seemed a major omission in his story. Where had the Silkie planetoid come from?
E-Lerd showed his first impatience. These journeys are too far, he telepathed. They take too long.
Nobody remembers origins. Some other star system, obviously.
Are you serious? Cemp was astounded. You don t know?
But that was the story. Pry at it as he might, it did not change. Although E-Lerd s mind remained closed
except for his telepathed thoughts, O-Vedd s mind was open. In it Cemp saw the same beliefs and the
same lack of information.
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But why the tampering with human biology and the inter-mixing of the two breeds?
We always do that. That s how we live in a relationship with the inhabitants of a system.
How do you know you always do that? You just told me you can t remember where you came from
this time or where you were before that.
Well ... it s obvious from the artifacts we brought along.
E-Lerd s attitude dismissed the questions as being irrelevant. Cemp detected a mind phenomenon in the
other that explained the attitude. To space Silkies, the past was unimportant. Silkiesalways did certain
things, because that was the way they were mentally, emotionally, and physically constructed.
A Silkie didn t have to know from past experience. He simply had tobe what was innate in Silkies.
It was, Cemp realized, a basic explanation for much that he had observed. This was why these Silkies
had never been trained scientifically. Training was an alien concept in the cosmos of the space Silkies.
You mean, he protested, incredulous, you have no idea why you left the last system where you had
this interrelation-ship with the race there? Why not stay forever in some sys-tem where you have located
yourself?
Probably, said E-Lerd, somebody got too close to the secret of the Power. That could not be
permitted.
That was the reason, he continued, why Cemp and other Silkies had to come back into the fold. As
Silkies, they might learn about the Power.
The discussion had naturally come around tothat urgent subject.
What, said Cemp, is the Power?
E-Lerd stated formally that that was a forbidden subject.
Then I shall have to force the secret from you, said Cemp. There can be no agreement without it.
E-Lerd replied stiffly that any attempt at force would require him to use the Power as a defense.
Cemp lost patience. After your two attempts to kill me, he telepathed in a steely rage, I ll give you
thirty seconds
What attempts to kill you? said E-Lerd, surprised.
At that precise moment, as Cemp was bracing himself to use logic of levels, there was an interruption.
An impulse band a very low, slow vibration touched one of the receptors in the forward part of his
brain. Itoperated at mere multiples of the audible sound range directly on his sound-receiving system.
What was new was that the sound acted as a carrier for the accompanying thought. The result was as if
a voice spoke clearly and loudly into his ears.
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You win, said the voice. You have forced me. I shall talk to you myself bypassing my unknowing
servants.
9
Cemp identified the incoming thought formation as a direct contact. Accordingly, his brain, which was
programmed to respond instantaneously to a multitude of signals, was trig-gered into an instant effort to
suction more impulses from the sending brain ... and he got a picture. A momentary glimpse, so brief that
even after a few seconds it was hard to be sure that it was real and not a figment of fantasy.
Something huge lay in the darkness deep inside the planetoid. It lay there and gave forth with an
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