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I' this journey does not reflect any wish on ht my presence would be better for the colony than reatest pleasures would be to shake the hand of the co the old coots of the colony, you'll find many who are still in awe of you Please be patient with theue-tied

Sincerely,

Sel

Sel began quietly to prepare for an expedition southward It would be on foot--there had been no beasts of burden in the original expedition, and he was not going to deprive the colony of any of its vehicles And even though many of the new edible hybrids had spread widely, he meant to pass out of their optimum climate, which meant he would have to carry his food with hi six of the new dogs he had genetically altered to be able to s would hunt, and then he would harvest two of the pairs that could live off the land

New predators turned loose in the wild--Sel knew exactly how dangerous this could be to the local ecology But they could not eat all the native species and would not interfere with the vegetation It would be i later exploration and colonization to find edible and tamable creatures loose in the wild

We aren't here to preserve the local ecology like a museum We're here to colonize, to suit the world for ourselves

Which is precisely what the formics had started to do to Earth Only their approach was etation from the formics' native planet

Yet for some reason they had not done so here He had found none of the species the for of China nearly a century ago This was one of the formics' oldest colonies, and its flora and fauna seeenetically, to have shared common ancestors with the formic varieties It must have been settled before they developed the forun to use on Earth

In all the years till now, Sel had had to devote hienetic research required to keep the colony viable, and then, for the past five years, to governing the colony Now he could go into unexplored lands and learn what he could

He could not go any great distance--he supposed a few hundred kiloe so far that he could not return and report his findings

Ix Tolo helped hi about this and that--his nor too h food, too much water, why this, why not thatit was his constant attention to detail that ood humor

And, of course, Ix had a mind of his own

"You can unpack that other bag," Sel told hi with me"

"Other bag?"

"I'm not an idiot Half the equipment I decided not to take, you've put into another pack, along with more food and an extra bedroll"