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«Oh, yes! I feel grand.»
«Begin. Stereoplay. Rough draft. Working title: “A Martian Named Smith”. Opener: zoom in on Mars, using stock or bones telled shots, unbroken sequence, then dissolving to miniature matched set of actual landing place of Envoy. Space ship in middle distance. Animated martians, typical, with stock as available or rephotographed. Cut to close: Interior space ship. Female patient stretched on — »
XXXIX
THE VERDICT to be passed on the third planet around Sol was never in doubt. The Old Ones of the fourth planet were not omniscient and in their way were as provincial as humans. Grokking by their own local values, even with the aid of vastly superior logic, they were certain in time to perceive an incurable «wrongness» in the busy, restless, quarrelsome beings of the third planet, a wrongness which would require weeding, once it had been grokked and cherished and hated.
But, by the time they would slowly get around to it, it would be highly improbable approaching impossible that the Old Ones would be able to destroy this weirdly complex race. The hazard was so slight that those concerned with the third planet did not waste a split eon on it.
Certainly Foster did not. «Digby!»
His assistant looked up. «Yes, Foster.»
«I'll be gone a few eons on a special assignment. Want you to meet your new supervisor.» Foster turned and said, «Mike, this is Archangel Digby, your assistant. He knows where every thing is around the studio and you'll find him a very steady straw boss for anything you conceive.»
«Oh, we'll get along,» Archangel Michael assured him, and said to Digby, «Haven't we met before?»
Digby answered, «Not that I remember. Of course, out of so many when-wheres — » He shrugged.
«No matter. Thou art God.»
«Thou art God,» Digby responded.
Foster said, «Skip the formalities, please. I've left you a load of work and you don't have all eternity to fiddle with it. Certainly “Thou art God” — but who isn't?»
He left, and Mike pushed back his halo and got to work. He could see a lot of changes he wanted to make —