RELUCTANT GENIUS
By O. H. LESLIE
It is said that Life crawled up from the slime of thesea-bottoms and became Man because of inherentgreatness bred into him before the dawn of time.But perhaps this urge was not as formless as we think.
Buos was chastising Laloias they sped throughthe ionosphere of the greenplanet. But like the airy creatureshe was, Laloi ignoredthe criticism and rippledzephyr-like through a clumpof daffodils when they completedtheir descent.
"So pretty," she sighed.She flung her incorporealsubstance around each flower,absorbing their unifiedbeauty of scent, sight, andfeel. Buos shrilled himselfinto a column of wind to expresshis displeasure at herattitude.
"Stupid, silly, shallowthing!" he said. "If the othersonly knew how you behaved—"
"And you'll be glad to tellthem, of course," she said,extending her fingers of airinto the roots of the wind-bentgrass. She rolled acrossthe hill ecstatically, and Buosfollowed in grumbling billowsof energy.
"I don't carry tales," hereplied, somewhat mortified."But we're here as observers,and you insist upon makingthis world a plaything ..."
"I love it," she said happily."It's so warm andgreen."
Buos whipped in front ofher angrily. "This is an assignment,"he snapped, hisemotion crackling the airabout him. "We have a purposehere."
"Purpose!" she groaned,settling over a patch ofcrowded clover. "How manycenturies will this assignmentlast?"
"This world is young,"said Buos. "It will taketime."
"But how long?" she askedmournfully. "Our worldwill be shrivelled and deadbefore these people have theknowledge to rescue us. Whycan't we spend our liveshere ..."
"And leave the others behind?"said Buos stiffly."Selfish being," he said sadly."This world cannot supportone-fourth our number."
"Oh, I know, I know," Laloisaid. "I do not mean tosay such things. I am twistedby my sorrow ..." As if toexpress her self-abnegation,she corkscrewed out of theclover and into a thin spiralof near-nothingness.
"Settle down, foolish one,"said Buos, not unkindly. "Iknow your feelings. Do youthink I am not tormented aswell, by the slow pace ofthese Earth-things? Crude,barbaric beings, like childrenwith the building blocks ofscience. They have such along way to go ..."
"And so few know," saidLaloi despairingly. "A handfulof seeing minds, tens ofmillions of ignorant ones.Not even first principles—they'restupid, stupid!"
"But they will learn,"Buos said stubbornly. "Thatis historical fact. Someday,they will know the true meaningsof matter and light andenergy. Slowly, yes, slowly.But in terms of their growth,it will seem like great speedto them ..."
"And in terms of ourworld," said Laloi, spinningsadly over the ground, "theymay be far too late ..."
"No!" In his excitement,Buos forgot himself and entwinedwith the flowing formof the she-creature, and theresult was a rending of theair that cracked like heatlightning over the field. "No,"he repeated again. "Theymust not be too late. Theymust learn. They must buildfrom the very ground, andthen they must fly. And thentheir eyes must be lifted tothe stars, and desire must extendthem to all the universe ..."
"It seems so hopeless—"
"It cannot be! Our destinyis not extinction. They mustcome to us, in fleets of silver,and replant our soil, and sendtowers of green shooting intoour sky, breathing out air."