the Solar System and required a complete rewriting of the very origins of Mankind.
“Yes, you are right,” Hunt said, after a while. “The Lunarians grew-we would say ‘evolved’-from the forms of Earth life that were left on Minerva after the Ganymeans and other Minervan kinds died out. It took twenty-five million years for them to evolve. By fifty thousand years ago, they had become an advanced race; they built spaceships, machines and cities. Has anybody told you what happened after that?”
“No. But I was intending to ask.”
“Is it true that Minerva possessed a moon?”
“A satellite that orbited the planet?”
“Correct.”
“Yes.”
Hunt nodded to himself in satisfaction. It was as he and the other scientists of Earth had deduced from their investigations of the Lunarian finds.
“And tell me,” he asked as a check. “Did Earth possess a moon twenty-five million years ago?”
“No. Earth had no satellite then.” Hunt could have been mistaken, but he was sure that ZORAC was learning to convey emotional colorations by the inflection of its voice. He could have sworn that there was surprise in that response.
“Today, Earth has a moon,” he said. “It has had a moon for approximately fifty thousand years.”
“Since the time when the Lunarians became an advanced race.”
“Exactly.”
“I see. A connection is clearly implied. Please explain.”
“When the Lunarians destroyed Minerva, the planet exploded broke into pieces. The largest piece now orbits the Sun as its
most distant planet, Pluto. The other pieces, or most of them, still orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. I assume you know this, since the Ganymeans were surprised when they found that the Solar System had changed.”
“Yes, I know about Pluto and the asteroids,” ZORAC confirmed. “I knew that the Solar System had changed and that Minerva was not present. But I did not know about the process by which it had changed.”
“Minerva’s moon fell toward the Sun. Lunarians were still alive
on the moon. It came near to Earth and was captured. It became Earth’s moon, and still is now.”
“The Lunarians who were alive must have traveled to Earth,” ZORAC interrupted. “During the time that followed, they increased their numbers. Earthmen have evolved from Lunarians. That is why they look the same. I can compute no alternative. Am I right?”
“Yes, you’re right, ZORAC.” Hunt shook his head in admiration. With hardly any data at all to go by, the machine had unerringly arrived at the same conclusion that had taken the scientists of Earth more than two years to piece together, after some of the most vigorous argument and dissent for many decades. “At least, we believe that that is right. We cannot prove it conclusively.”
“Sorry. Conclusively?”
“Finally. . . for certain.”
“I see. I reason that the Lunarians must have traveled to Earth in spaceships. They must have taken machines and other things. I suggest that Earthmen should look for these things on the surface of the Earth. This would prove what you believe is true. My conclusion is that you haven’t tried, or alternatively you have tried but have not succeeded.”
Hunt was flabbergasted. Had ZORAC been around two years earlier the whole puzzle would have been solved in a week.
“Have you been talking to an Earthman called Danchekker?” he asked.
“No. I have not met the name. Why?”
“He is a scientist and reasons the same things as you. We have not yet found any traces of things that the Lunarians might have brought with them. Danchekker predicts that such things will be found one day.”
“Did the Earthmen not know where they had come from?”
ZORAC inquired.
“Not until very recently. Before that it was believed that they evolved only on Earth.”
“The life kinds that they evolved from on Minerva had been taken from Earth by the Ganymeans. The same life kinds were left to live on Earth also.
“The Lunarians who did not die and went to Earth were an advanced race. The Earthmen of now did not know of them until recently. Therefore they had forgotten where they came from. I
reason that there must have been very few Lunarians who did not die. They became unadvanced and forgot their knowledge. After fifty thousand years they became advanced again, but they had forgotten the Lunarians. As they found new knowledge, they would see remains of life kinds from many years ago everywhere on Earth. They would see the sameness as their own life kind. They would reason that they evolved on Earth. Recently Earthmen have discovered Lunarians and Ganymeans. Now they have deduced the true events. Otherwise they would not be able to explain why Lunarians looked the same as them.”