I levitated myself and looked out over the throbbing land. A few years ago, this land had been covered with vegetation. I had come to take vegetation so much for granted that I'd ceased to notice it. Now it was gone. There were no round fruits growing from tender grasses, no tubers dangling from the fungus trees, no legume vines sprawling over the rocks. Everywhere lay desert, barren dunes shaking their crests with tidal motion. I lowered myself to the ground and dug my big fibrosities into the sod. No green leaves grew there beneath the surface. The soil was dead. "This will seriously interfere with our future, Mjly," I said. "We might eat each other," she replied, "but then there would be no one left." "No one? There are many others here." "The others are dying," said Mjly, blinking her otic nerves eerily. "We soon will be the only ones left." It was indeed a senseless thing to do, to die just because there was no means of going on living. But I must admit that I was tempted for a moment. But I hung onto myself, for there was Mjly, and as long as she lived, there was a reason for me to live too. "It's not a cheerful prospect," I said, "but I suppose death by starvation is the best way out. We will face death as we have lived, cheerfully and fortuitously." "And why should we die, when there is another world so close?" she asked. "Are you suggesting interplanetary flight, my dear?" I was amused again, even though there was little enough left to be amused at. She crinkled her sense of smell in reply, and I realized I was not being amused at the right time. Anchoring herself by magnetic processes, she began to weave the atmosphere delicately with her taste-bud tendrils. Quickly she hollowed the air molecules into a reflective mirror, and brought it to focus on our neighboring world. I levitated myself into a position so that I could look into the mirror. The near planet was quite satisfactory. It was the one you know as the earth. It was young. It was green. Huge fern-like plants grew abundantly on its surface. It was full of food. And near. "The trip could be made by levitation," Mjly said. I hung back. "Animals might live there. We'd be devoured." "I am not afraid," she said. "We might not get hungry for a time. Let us linger here awhile. Later when we get desperate, there will be time enough for interplanetary flight." I hated the thought of stuffing myself full of air enough to last for the long trip. Mjly lowered her visual buds. "I am going to become a mother," she said. "Go then, and become a mother. I'll stay here till I get hungry and then join you." Mjly unflexed her sense of touch and I felt sorry for her. "If I could be sure," I said, "that no wild animals live on the earth, I'd go sooner." She snapped her sense of balance in happiness. "I will go first," said she. "If everything is pleasant and safe, I will return and let you know." I nodded my otic nerves and off she went.