Zor Ala paused, drew a deep breath, then went on.
"Those far distant future-men knew that goal to be far more important than any one life or any one race or any galaxy. They knew that no effort should be spared in its ultimate accomplishment.
"That infinite purpose transcended even individual or racial survival, and this almost divinely intelligent and benevolent race knew that the history of Life's development must be reviewed; must be re-examined to determine whether Mankind was the most suitable vehicle for its eventual attainment.
"Following this postulate, they developed the science of Dimensional Time, and devised equipment for investigating the past. There, their first test of Man's fitness for the ultimate purpose was to aid forms of life other than Man.
"First they set up elaborate scientific equipment to provide an artificial evolutionary leap ahead for one form which had diverged from the main stem.
"Knowing full well that if this life-form progressed, Man's whole future would undoubtedly be replaced by an alternate future of insect supremacy, this super-race without hesitation continued its work of producing a tremendous artificial advancement for the rudimentary invertebrates.
"They accomplished this objective by inducing a re-encystment or pupation which carried the invertebrates up the evolutionary ladder countless millions of years in a single stride!
"They fully realized that if their help was successful in aiding this life-form to reach ascendance, that Man's phase—their phase of the future—would no longer exist. But they knew that the infinite importance of the ultimate goal must be placed above all else!
"Thus the Kralons sprang suddenly from low invertebrate stock which had strayed off as a branch of the main evolutionary stem. But they were an artificial race, raised to their pedestal among other life-forms by outside help, rather than through sturdy, solid evolutionary progress."