The Werewolf Principle

'Not another man. A woman. The other was a woman.

And that was it, of course, he thought. Theodore Roberts, not knowing, had said the other man.

'But Horton? You are Horton's daughter.

She shook her head. 'There was an Elaine Horton, but she died. Committed suicide. Rather horribly and for some sordid reason. It would have wrecked the senator's career.

'Then you…

'That's right. Not that I knew anything about it. When the senator set out to dig up the facts about the old Project Werewolf, he had found out about me. He saw me and was struck by my resemblance to his daughter. Of course I was in suspended animation then, had been for years on end. We were very naughty people, Andrew. We did not turn out at all the way they thought we would.

'I know, he said. 'I know. I'm a little glad right now we didn't. So you knew all the time…

'Just recently, she said. 'The senator, you see, had Space across the barrel. They wanted very much to keep the Werewolf business under wraps. So when he came to them, frantic with grief at his daughter's death, crazy at the thought he was a ruined man, they gave me to him. I thought I was his daughter. I loved him as my father. I had been brainwashed, conditioned, whatever it is that they do to you, to make me think that I was his daughter.

'He must have pulled a lot of weight. To hush up his daughter's death and then take you…

'He was the one who could manage it, she declared. 'He was a lovely man, such a lovely father — but ruthless when it came to politics.

'You loved him.

She nodded. 'That's it, Andrew. In many ways, he still is father to me. No one can ever guess what it took for him to tell me.

'And you? he asked. 'It cost you something, too.

'Don't you see, she said. 'I couldn't stay. Once I knew, I simply couldn't stay. I would have been a freak, as much as you. Living on and on. And once the senator should die, what would be left for me?

He nodded, understanding, thinking of two people, two humans, facing that decision.

'Besides, she said, 'I belonged with you. I think I knew it from the first — from that moment you stumbled, all soaked and cold, into that old stone house.

'The senator told me…

'That I didn't want to see you, that I didn't want to talk with you.

'But why? he asked. 'But why?

'They were trying to scare you off, she said. 'They were afraid you wouldn't go, that you'd try to cling to Earth. They wanted you to think there was nothing left for you on Earth. The senator and the mind of Theodore Roberts and all the rest of them. Because we had to go, you see. We are the instruments of Earth, the gift of the Earth to the universe. If the intelligences of the universe ever are to find out what is happening, what has happened, what will happen, what it's all about, we can help in the doing of it.

'Then we are of Earth? The Earth still claims us…

'Of course, she said. 'Now that they know about us, the Earth is proud of us.

He held her body close to his and knew that Earth finally was, and for ever would be, home. That wherever they might go, humanity would be with them. For they were the extensions of humanity, the hand and mind of mankind reaching out into the mysteries of all eternity.