"Hi, Willie," Tom said as he looked at the thin chest with the small neat hole low on the left side. "So he did shoot you, didn't he." He opened the first aid kit. "I'll get you back to the ship and you'll be O.K." He started putting a dressing on the wound. Willie looked at him with his bright blue eyes. "Never mind, Tom. I just got to stay here in spite of the Captain." His voice was so low Tom had to lean closer to hear him. Willie coughed slightly and winced with the pain. Tom finished the bandage. He knew there was nothing he could do; Willie was hurt inside and only a doctor could help him. But there were no doctors here. He wanted to do something for him to make him more comfortable. He started to put an arm under him to move him out of the pool. "I'll get you out of this water," he said. "No. Tom," Willie said. "Leave me here. I crawled all night to get here. I want to die in this pool." "In the water?" Tom said in surprise. "Yes, in the water. Don't you understand? I thought you would." He stared up at the white tracing of the clouds in the sky. Tom waited, silently. He knelt there, the sun burning hot on his back. "I wanted to stay," Willie said. "I had to stay. Didn't you feel anything about this planet, Tom?" Tom thought a moment. "I did feel a little," he admitted. "On the way over here. Like it would be a nice place to live." "That's it," Willie smiled. "Don't you see. Here was this planet, ripe for life, but without life. Then the seeds of the ferns got blown off Earth and drifted here. But it needed more, it needed animal life to complete the cycle. "Then we got 'blown off Earth.' Bart for the glory, Pudge for the ride, you for the excitement, and me--me--because I had to, I guess. Because I couldn't stand it back there. Seeds, all four of us, and not knowing it. That's why we had to land. That's why one of us had to stay and I guess it was just me. Now the rest of you can go back to Earth." Willie coughed, much longer this time. Then he lay back exhausted. "Tom," he whispered, "look at the edge of my camp. In the ferns." Tom walked over to the edge of the camp. He looked at the yellow-green ferns, wondering what Willie meant. Then he saw it. The faint steaming from the packed dead ferns under the growing ones, the spreading dark spot, the already darker green of the plants growing around the spot. Willie had brought the seeds of decay with him, as well as the seeds of life. The dead plants were decaying for the first time on this planet. This spot would spread until the whole planet was covered with dark green; and life would be as it was on Earth.