Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

home for a whole race. Even in a brief thousand million years, I estimate

that it’s lost about half of it.”

“We could always migrate to the third planet when it got too thin for us,”

Jorn said. “But of course I didn’t know about the radiation hazard; I

withdraw the suggestion.”

“Nevertheless, Mr. Bim, you have made an impor. tant point, even if

inadvertently,” Ertak said. ‘Vhere life can exist, life NN411 arise-the

forests below us now are proof enough of that-and a high radiation level

And all the Stars a Stage III

means a high mutation rate and high evolutionary pressure. We had better

keep a close eye on that satellite, and explore it the moment we’ve consoli-

dated the present world-explore it in force.”

“Hmm,” Kamblin said. “Very true; a disquieting thought.”

“Now: The next problem is to select a landing place. We will need one big

enough for the favelin.”

“Excuse me, Director, but why not boats first?” Ailiss said.

Because we have no need to be that cautious here,” Ertak said. “A boat

can’t carry enough apparatus to make all the necessary tests; they’re

useful primarily for scouting actively hostile planets. The Javelin herself

is the only laboratory at our disposal of sufficient size and resources to

get a significant number of samples and process them thoroughly.”

“Why risk throwing away four or five people?” Dr. Chase-Huebner. agreed.

‘Especially when even their return unharmed coulddt be considered

definitive? Landing the whole ship is a much more economical procedure in

the long run.”

“Very good,” Ertak said. He picked up his microphone.