search until hunger forced his return to the ship. He had been able to detect no life and was completely unaware of his close proximity to the planet’s dominant species. It had been considered neither practical nor particularly desirable to build a microscope into the space suit. Simplicity and the least possible weight had been the watchwords here as with everything designed to go aboard the ship.

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In any case, a microscope would have done Brown little good in trying to detect the submicroscopic beings of the Rell.

The Rell, who had somewhat lost their fear of Brown, hastily retreated when they saw him returning to the still awesome ship.

“But are you sure he’s completely self-powered?” the speculative bank queried. “No Rell inside him at all?”

“There are many Rell-like beings in various parts of him,” replied the interpretive bank. “Some help digest his food, others are predators, and still others their enemies. But most are too big and clumsy to have developed intelligence, and even the small ones appear completely mindless.”

“But where do the thought waves come from? We all felt them.”

“It’s hard to accept but we are almost forced to conclude they are emanating from the mobile unit itself, or rather from the living part within the cocoon.”

“You’re positive they aren’t the product of some of the Rell-beings inside?”

“Almost positive. The mesh insists not. In fact, it claims this is an un-Rell like type of intelligence, though that appears to be a contradiction in terms. The thought pattern is completely outside our experience. In fact, it is so alien we haven’t broken it down yet to the meaning behind it.”

“But if the Rell inside are too large to have developed intelligence, how could this gigantic monster in which they live have done so?”

“We cannot yet say. Remember, the theory that intelligence cannot develop in creatures above a certain size is unproven, even though never before challenged. We’ve watched other races die through failure to adapt to change so apparently it is true of Rell-like creatures on this world. But who can say about organisms on another world or of the unprecedented size of this one? Completely different physical laws may apply.”

 Prev. P 9/13 next