"They did. They contacted you by what we call radio. We were sent, frankly, to see what sort of envoy should be sent here to you."
"Ah! There has been a natural confusion. We thought you were here from one of our outer systems where we are having some difficulty raising the right housing. In fact, we were just debating the correct form of grain to transmit to feed the housings on. They are in the awkward stage of having sufficient minds to exist, but insufficient nerve cortex to enable us to enter them. Our local representatives—whom we mistook you for—have been having a very difficult time for several hundred years, but we will soon find the answer. Now, we will be glad to receive an envoy from your system. We are always glad to receive representatives from our successful colonies. As to the type of envoy, anyone with a broad galactic viewpoint will do. We will, of course, be glad to offer housing and the usual facilities."
"When you say housing, you mean bodies?"
"Naturally. Bodies such as these Senators' or my own are the most adaptable for this climate. If you go in to our Ganymede or out to Jove you would have to use a local—er—body, because these human types would melt or suffocate respectively. But the local housings in silica and in ammonia crystal have proved quite adequate for normal locomotion and physical work there. The normal facilities of the sport planets would be available, to be sure. We are quite proud of our slither bodies, I suppose you would call them, in the snow worlds—quite a recent development. I fear we are not too luxurious here, but galactic opinion forces us to make our housings do almost everything they are capable of doing—walk, drive, cook and other such menial tasks. But then at least everyone knows we are not spending the revenue on our own housing—er—our own bodies. Only last century we barely averted a political threat to make all Senators' bodies sleep out in the open weather. But obviously it is much more expensive to keep breeding new bodies than build a shelter such as this one. Even taxpayers can see that."
The Speaker's mind echoed general agreement from the Senators.
"It will come as a surprise," Pat said clearly, "but our system believes we colonized yours."
This met polite and general laughter in which the Speaker joined.
"Perhaps," he said, "you would care to communicate direct with the Senators who were in charge of your system during the developmental stages. Will the Senators please come forward for contact?"
Seven of the minds above the floor of the Senate drifted over to touch peripherally against each other and against Pat and Fred.
"When we first undertook that project," one or all of them said, "your system was entirely unpopulated. On the third planet, we found, however, roughly humanoid apes in isolated caves and by selective breeding we succeeded in making that species into a housing identical with those we use on this planet. Unfortunately, only the less stable minds of the Galaxy were prepared to live quite so far out and we eventually lost touch. Is the same housing still used?"