"No. I never had the occasion, but I've seen guardsmen run remote surveillances, and even exert control when necessary. They didn't have any trouble. We could try it, anyway."
Lanko sat up. "We could try it," he admitted, "but I know what would happen. I did try it once, and I found out a lot of things—quick." He looked into space for a moment. "How old are you, Banasel?"
"Why, you know that. I'm forty-one."
Lanko nodded. "So am I," he said. "And our civilization is a few thousand years old. And our species is somewhat older than that. We were in basic Guard training, and later in specialist philosophical training together. It took ten years, remember?"
"Sure. I remember every minute of it."
"Of course you do. It was that kind of training. But how old do you think some of those young guardsmen we worked with were?"
"Why, most of 'em were kids, fresh from school."
"That they were. But how many years—our years—had they spent in their schooling? How old were the civilizations they came from? And how old were their species?"
Lanko eyed him wryly.
Banasel looked thoughtfully across the room. "I never thought of it that way. Why, I suppose some of their forefathers were worrying about space travel before this planet was able to support life. And, come to think of it, I remember one of them making a casual remark about 'just a period ago,' when he was starting citizen training."