"At birth, no, but from birth onward you are exposed to infection and you sicken to a greater or lesser degree depending on the concentration of infection around you. Let me answer you this way. Suppose the spaceship were found and examined, what would happen? Among other tools there is a prospecting instrument on board that is a rough approximation of a disintegration beam--it punches neat holes in solid rock by a process that leaves an exceedingly heavy dust behind--for a short while. Then something happens to the molecular bonds of the heavy dust, and the little holes become very big holes. Its principles would take you some years to work out, but its manufacture and operation are fairly obvious. What would be the fate of that very useful tool?" "I can't deny that its possibilities as a weapon would be seized upon, but with such a weapon--" "Ah, yes--no one would dare to go to war. At any rate, not with the country possessing the weapon." "It could stop all war." "If your part of the world threatened the other part of the world and put a halo around the 'or else'. What would the other part of the world do when the first news of the spaceship leaked out, as it would do immediately?" "O. K.--I guess you know as well as I do." * * * * * "I'm not trying to ride you, Phil, but I want you to see that Fear and a desire for the security you can never know in your present state dominate almost every important act. As a people, a race, a species, you are unsane. What am I to do? To die in peace, leaving you as you are, without hope or help, is against every Challon instinct. To leave unrealized the human potential with its tremendous promise is unthinkable. Your race might destroy itself before your secret is rediscovered millennia from now, and the greatest wonder of creation be lost forever. Even the spaceship which I have failed to destroy with its innocent secrets, could destroy you simply by being found. What am I to do?" "I ... think you already have an answer." "Yes, with your consent and only with your consent." "You have it." "You don't know--" "You have it, I said. I trust you." "Man puts his faith in Dog? Well, it will not be for the first time. Remember us, Man, when you come into your own. Now--I must invade your mind, without reserve. You understand? Nothing known to you will be unknown to me. Are you willing?" "Another of those Mickey Finns?"