"And that—?"
"If the ancestors of the Egyptians came to Terra, they had to have great scientific and technical knowledge to get there. All right—then what happened to the knowledge and the science? The Egyptians certainly didn't take advantage of it."
"They used some of it. No one has been able to prove conclusively how they built the pyramids."
"Slave labor."
"That is not a complete explanation."
"All right—forget the pyramids. What happened to the rest of their science?"
"The answer lies in a basic trend of the Egyptians as a people. They were completely preoccupied with death rather than life. To them, their years of living was only a period in which to prepare for eternity. Their ambitions and talents were directed toward the building of great tombs and the perfect preservation of bodies after death. In the light of this does it seem so strange that they turned their backs on all knowledge except that which aided them in dead directions?"
Mike was regarding Doree with a new respect. "I owe you an apology. You're a smart girl. You've got a brain in your head. I'm so used to carting empty-headed females around the System that I'd forgotten smart ones existed."
"I'm sure you mean that as a compliment, but the fact remains that father and I blundered you into a perilous position. We should have told you about McKee and Talbott. But we didn't think—"