The Darkside Of The Sun

about the universe cannot be freed from the Creapii taint because they ultimately derive from Creapii minds and emotions. That’s why they are the great ambassadors of interracial harmony, and why they try so hard to be everything but Creapii.’
    ‘So you invented us,’ said Dom. ‘At least that theory is true? You wanted to get, uh, different points of view?’
    ‘Close again. All we had to do was make it easier for intelligent life to evolve. That at least is not difficult; it’s well within the range of your sciences. Though it was damn difficult to hit the right combination for cold-helium life. By the way, I have a small bomb surgically implanted in me. The Earthmen did it. Very subtle. I wouldn’t worry; I have inactivated it.’
    Ig paused and scratched an ear.
    ‘We left artefacts to tantalize,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid we cheated. Be sure that before we left we were very thorough in cleaning up the galaxy. On some worlds we had to build an entirely new crust, down to the fossils. We had to replace metals in the grounds as ores, replenish oilfields, relay coal measures – we wanted to make sure you had a start in life. We gave you reconditioned worlds, but we left you the Towers and the Chain Stars and so on. All cultural fakes, I’m afraid. Made to awe rather than inform. But we had to leave the clue. That was artistically correct.’
    ‘The dark side of the sun,’ said Dom. ‘It was two clues. If you hadn’t wanted us to translate it, we never would have done. That was clue one. After all, we couldn’t even have translated Phnobic without the phnobes there to help us out. And the sun – you turned your back on intelligence, and became dull-minded animals.’
    ‘Please! Swamp igs are reasonably bright, considering their environment. We selected our new selves with care. Believe me, it is pleasant to have no enemies and to lie in the warm mud. We had to build in safeguards – a genetic twist to make us lucky animals, so that we were venerated rather than hunted. And an alarm, so that when the time came we would remember. These little bodies have made good hiding places.’
    ‘I’ll just ask again: why me?’ said Dom.
    ‘You live at the right time. You are naturally cosmospolitan. You come from Widdershins. That was our world, once. Long ago, of course. You are rich, there is a certain amount of glamour attached to your position. Let’s say it was fate.’
    He squinted through the canopy at the glowing, heatless fires of interspace.
    ‘Excuse me,’ said Dom. ‘But you don’t look like a super-race.’
    Ig’s paws were darting rapidly across the console of the matrix computer. He looked up and stared at Dom—
    —Dom rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. A few seconds later he tried to remember what he had seen during that moment of contact, but it had gone now, leaving only an impression of greatness and understanding.
    ‘Thank you,’ said Ig quietly. ‘You see, people expect an advanced race to land in golden ships and say, “Throw away your weapons, cease fighting among yourselves, and join the great galactic brotherhood.” It isn’t like that. Young races do that.’
    ‘What happens now?’
    ‘Now?’
    ...we will meet you, came the thought. Together, perhaps, we will see the universe as it really is. And when we meet you, we will do so as equals. We are all mere subspecies of the one race of bright sun dwellers, after all. And the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts. Now …
    ‘Now,’ said Ig, ‘we will talk.’
    The fleet hung against the shimmering bulk of Widdershins. Other ships were flashing into existence all through the system, as the followers homed in on the interspace shadow. The radio was a gabble of many tongues.
    ‘They’re going to fight it out!’ moaned Joan. ‘Oh my God, they’re going to fight!’
    The control deck of the Earth command ship was dominated by the big state-of-space circle-screen. They watched the incoming ships form a rough pattern. Their commanders had been doing some very rapid diplomacy.
    Asman walked over from one of the control desks, shaking his head.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ he began. ‘Widdershins, eh? Are you Widdershines Jokers, then? You were only a small colony to begin with, it’s not inconceivable …’
    The ship trembled. Something was rising out of interspace, a great bulk with a voice that boomed through the pick-up system.
    ‘ HO THERE! I WILL PROSECUTE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST THE