"I'm sure of it. Our world did it with no better. Millions and millions of other worlds did it. Why can't this one do it? Of course it can."
"May I ask a couple of questions?" This thought came from the tall, trim, soldierly Chief of Staff.
"Of course, General Cordeen."
"We have all been taking it for granted that you four belong to some super-human race; some kind or other of Homo Superior. Do I understand correctly your thought that your race is Homo Sapiens, the same as ours?"
"Why, of course it is," Lola answered in surprise. "The only difference is that we are a few thousand years older than you are."
"You said also that there were 'millions and millions' of worlds that have solved the problems facing us. Were all these worlds also peopled by Homo Sapiens? It seems incredible."
"True, nevertheless. On any and every world of this type humanity is identical physically; and the mental differences are due only to their being in different stages of development. In fact, every planet we have visited except this one makes a regular custom of breeding its best blood with the best blood of other solar systems. And as to the 'millions and millions,' I meant only a very large but indefinite number. As far as I know, not even a rough estimate has ever been made—has there, Clee?"
"No, but it will probably turn out to be millions of millions, instead of millions and millions; and squared and then cubed at that. My guess is that it'll take another ten thousand years of preliminary surveying such as we're doing, by all the crews the various Galaxian Societies can put out, before even the roughest kind of an estimate can be made as to how many planets are inhabited by mutually fertile human peoples."
For a moment the group was stunned. Then: