She looked. There was a vast curving blackness which masked the stars.
Beyond it there was a reddish glare, as if of some monstrous burning.
But the color was not right for a fire. Not exactly.
"A city?" asked Babs breathlessly.
"A volcano," Cochrane told her. "I've staged shows that pretended to
show intellectual creatures on other planets--funny how we've been
dreaming of such things, back on Earth--but it isn't likely. Not since
we've actually reached the stars."
"Why since then?"
"Because," said Cochrane, half ironically, "man was given dominion over
all created things. I don't think we'll find rivals for that dominion. I
can't imagine we'll find another race of creatures who could
be--persons. Heaven knows we try to rob each other of dignity, but I
don't think there's another race to humiliate us when we find them!"
After a moment he added:
"Bad enough that we're here because there are deodorants and cosmetics
and dog-foods and such things that people want to advertise to each
other! We wouldn't be here but for them, and for the fact that some
people are neurotics and some don't like their bosses and some are crazy
in other fashions.
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