The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham Page B

you would not have offered yourselves. Nevertheless, it is one which you will not be able to learn too well, nor teach too often. In the hands of each and every one of you lies a civilization. Every man and woman of you is at once the receptacle and the potential fountain of all that Forta signifies. You have the history, the culture, the civilization of a planet. Use it. Use it well. Give it to others where it will help. Be willing to learn from others, and improve it if you can. Do not try to preserve it intact; a culture must grow to live. For those who cling too fondly to the past there is likely to be no future. Remember that it is possible that there is no intelligence elsewhere in the universe, which means that some of you will hold a trust not only for our race, but for all conscious life that may evolve.
    ‘Go forth, then. Go in wisdom, kindliness, peace, and truth.
    ‘And our prayers will go out with you into the mysteries of space …’
    … I
have looked again through the telescope at our new home. Our group is, I think, lucky. It is a planet which is neither too young nor too old. Conditions were better than before, with less cloud over its surface. It shines like a blue pearl. Much of the part I saw was covered with water – more than two-thirds of it, they tell me, is under water. It will be good to be in a place where irrigation and water supply are not one of the main problems of life. Nevertheless, one hopes that we shall be fortunate enough to make our landing on dry ground or there may be very great difficulties …
    I looked, too, at some of the places to which other Globes are bound, some small, some large, some new, with clouded surfaces that are a mystery. One at least is old, and in not much better case than our own poor Forta – though the astronomers say that it has the ability to support life for several millions of years. But I am glad that our group is going to the blue, shining world: it seems to beckon us, and I am filled with a hope which helps to quieten my fears of the journey.
    Not that fears trouble me so much now; I have learnt some fatalism in the past year. I shall go into the Globe, and the anaesthetic gas will lull me to sleep without my being aware of it. When I wake again it will be on our shimmering new world … If I do not wake, something will have gone wrong, but I shall never know that …
    Very simple, really – if one has faith …
    This evening I went down to look at the Globes; to see them objectively for the last time. Tomorrow, in all the bustle and preparation there will be no time for reflection – and it will be better so.
    What a staggering, amazing – one had almost said impossible – work they are! The building of them has entailed labour beyond computation. They look more likely to crush the ground and sink into Forta herself than to fly off into space. The most massive things ever built! I find it almost impossible to believe that we can have built thirty of these metal mountains, yet there they stand, ready for tomorrow …
    And some of them will be lost …
    Oh, God, if ours may survive, let us never forget. Let us show ourselves worthy of this supreme effort …
    It
can well be that these are the last words I shall ever write. If not, it will be in a new world and under a strange sky that I continue …
    ‘You shouldn’t have touched it,’ said the Police Inspector, shaking his head. ‘It ought to have been left where it was until the proper authorities had inspected it.’
    ‘And who,’ inquired Mr Fontain coldly, ‘are the proper authorities for the inspection of meteors?’
    ‘That’s beside the point. You couldn’t be sure it was a meteor, and these days a lot of other things besides meteors can fall out of the sky. Even now you’ve got it up you can’t be sure.’
    ‘It doesn’t look like anything else.’
    ‘All the same, it should have been left to us. It might be some device still on the Secret List.’
    ‘The Police, of course,