"I figured that much out myself," said Docchi. "At least in the beginning we look very much alike to them, as they do to us. Appearance doesn't count."
"True, but that was not my point. I haven't reached it. When you looked at the—uh—butterfly that spoke to you in that high squeaky voice you were wondering how he learned our language so well in such a short time. You were thinking: are they all as smart? Can I trust him?"
"We've got to trust them," said Docchi grimly. "We're a long way from support. And they did ask us to stay."
"But trust all of them, every individual butterfly, under any circumstance? Or just some?"
"We're dealing with a government," said Docchi. "We aren't concerned with individuals. There must be deviations in what they're like. Some won't be trustworthy." He paused. "But of course a government is a reflection of what its citizens are." He paused again, came to a dead stop. "And so, for the aliens, we are average humans."
"That's what I meant," said Jeriann. "A cross section of what they'd find on Earth. But of course they can't go to Earth and see for themselves—not yet. And so they had to make the best choice of what was at hand."
They started walking again and Docchi leaned against her. "I think you're right. The general's expedition, all specialists and experts, including the military, who are specialists of another kind, was not a representative group. The butterflies could study them forever but they wouldn't get a true picture.
"But they had to know exactly what humans are like, what their potentialities are, and how they live together. And so they took us."
"It seems strange," said Jeriann, sliding her arm around him. "Until now I've never thought of us as normal. But even if the aliens had refused both of us and asked for another group of colonists they wouldn't have done as well. Colonists for a special planet are specially selected—hardiest, strongest, most aggressive or discontented—there would always be something to throw them off.
"But accidents cut across everything, age, intelligence, sex, occupation. Name it and it's here. We're the only representative group that ever left Earth or ever will."