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."I am almost afraid to guess," replied the Appraiser, layingthe bag on the table.All the members of the party gathered around as he beganwithdrawing items: a blood-stained communicator, bent out ofshape; the floating shade, now broken, that the Exobiologist usedto protect her head from the rays of the sun; a torn piece ofclothing; and finally, a single gleaming white bone.The instant the bone was placed on the table, the Mysticbegan screaming.We were all shocked into momentary immobility,not only because of the suddenness of her reaction, but because itwas the first sign of life she had shown since joining our party.She continued to stare at the bone and scream, and finally, beforewe could question her or remove the bone from her sight, shecollapsed."I don't suppose there can be much doubt about whathappened," said Bellidore."The creatures caught up with theExobiologist somewhere on her way down the gorge and killed her.""Probably ate."".her too," said the Stardust Twins."I am glad we are leaving today," continued Bellidore."Evenafter all these millennia, the spirit of Man continues to corruptand degrade this world.Those lumbering creatures can't possiblybe predators: there are no meat animals left on Earth.But giventhe opportunity, they fell upon the Exobiologist and consumed herflesh.I have this uneasy feeling that if we stayed much longer,we, too, would become corrupted by this world's barbaricheritage."The Mystic regained consciousness and began screaming again,and the Stardust Twins gently escorted her back to her quarters,where she was given a sedative."I suppose we might as well make it official," saidBellidore.He turned to the Historian."Would you please check thebone with your instruments and make sure that this is the remainsof the Exobiologist?"The Historian stared at the bone, horror-stricken."She wasmy _friend_!" it said at last."I cannot touch it as if it werejust another artifact.""We must know for sure," said Bellidore."If it is not partof the Exobiologist, then there is a chance, however slim, thatyour friend might still be alive."The Historian reached out tentatively for the bone, thenjerked its hand away."I can't!"Finally Bellidore turned to me."He Who Views," he said."Have you the strength to examineit?""Yes," I answered.They all moved back to give me room, and I allowed my mass toslowly spread over the bone and engulf it.I assimilated itshistory and ingested its emotional residue, and finally I withdrewfrom it."It is the Exobiologist," I said."What are the funeral customs of her race?" asked Bellidore."Cremation," said the Appraiser."Then we shall build a fire and incinerate what remains ofour friend, and we will each offer a prayer to send her soul alongthe Eternal Path."And that is what we did.#The ship came later that day, and took us off the planet, andit is only now, safely removed from its influence, that I canreconstruct what I learned on that last morning.I lied to Bellidore -- to the entire party -- for once I mademy discovery I knew that my primary duty was to get them away fromEarth as quickly as possible.Had I told them the truth, one ormore of them would have wanted to remain behind, for they arescientists with curious, probing minds, and I would never be ableto convince them that a curious, probing mind is no match for whatI found in my seventh and final view of Olduvai Gorge.The bone was _not_ a part of the Exobiologist.The Historian,or even the Moriteu, would have known that had they not been toohorrified to examine it.It was the tibia of a _man_.Man has been extinct for five thousand years, at least as wecitizens of the galaxy have come to understand him.But thoselumbering, ungainly creatures of the night, who seemed soattracted to our campfires, are what Man has become.Even thepollution and radiation he spread across his own planet could notkill him off.It merely changed him to the extent that we wereno longer able to recognize him.I could have told them the simple facts, I suppose: that atribe of these pseudo-Men stalked the Exobiologist down the gorge,then attacked and killed and, yes, ate her.Predators are notunknown throughout the worlds of the galaxy.But as I became one with the tibia, as I felt it crashingdown again and again upon our companion's head and shoulders, Ifelt a sense of power, of exultation I had never experiencedbefore.I suddenly seemed to see the world through the eyes of thebone's possessor.I saw how he had killed his own companion tocreate the weapon, I saw how he planned to plunder the bodies ofthe old and the infirm for more weapons, I saw visions of conquestagainst other tribes living near the gorge.And finally, at the moment of triumph, he and I looked up atthe sky, and we knew that someday all that we could see would beours.And this is the knowledge that I have lived with for twodays.I do not know who to share it with, for it is patentlyimmoral to exterminate a race simply because of the vastness ofits dreams or the ruthlessness of its ambition.But this is a race that refuses to die, and somehow I mustwarn the rest of us, who have lived in harmony for almost fivemillennia._It's not over._-the end-
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