"You are alien; tuning the instrument to your very alien minds was a matter of hundreds of years. We have been trying, and only succeeded after the first horde of you came close--landed upon Ungre--and gave us a large thought-input to work on." "But why did your kind fight us from the very beginning?" "Because we know what manner of mind you have. We saw it in action before." "Surely you knew that we would negotiate with you?" "To our disadvantage." "Not necessarily." "Don't be ridiculous," came the thought. "You and I both know that the Solar System is not large enough for both our kinds." "We have no desire to own your world." "No? Then what are you fighting for?" "For the right to negotiate with you--and to uphold our honor. After all, we were fired upon without provocation." "You are the commander of the Terran forces here. Suppose a race came to Terra. Suppose this race was one you knew to be absolutely ruthless, grasping, ambitious, and proud. Suppose you knew this hypothetical race to be the one that used a minor race as subjects in vivisection; and because of valuable minerals on another planet, this race oppressed still another race and held them in ignorance so that the true value of the minerals was not known to the ignorant natives." "You're speaking of the troglodytes of Titan--who haven't the power of reason. Why shouldn't we use their bodies as experimental subjects to aid our researches into the subject of medicine?" "Because they, themselves, are life!" came the scathing thought. "Given the opportunity, they develop reasoning minds and are quite intelligent. Their environment holds them back. Titan is a poor place, destitute of minerals and unproductive of easy living, such as is necessary for civic advancement." "That I do not follow." "In order that a race advance, he must have time to think. That means leisure. His living must come easy enough to give this race time to think, and to dream, and to plan. When scratching a living out of nature becomes a full-time job, little civic advancement can prevail. Also, on Titan, he is already supreme as far as his native enemies go. There is nothing to drive the Titan to his fellows for mutual protection. Each Titan is alone because he has nothing to fear, not even his own kind. "But," continued the Mephistan, "give him the opportunity, and you will find that the Titan can evolve into intelligent life. Say three generations!" * * * * * Guy let this matter drop, and said: "And your other statement pertains to Pluto."