They watched as the Confederation report came clacking off the teletype,
and they stared at it unbelieving.

"It just doesn't make sense," Jack said. "There _must_ be intelligent
creatures down there. They're sending radio signals."

"Then why a report like this?" Tiger said. "This was filed by a routine
exploratory ship that came here eight hundred years ago. You can't tell
me that any intelligent race could develop from scratch in less than
eight centuries' time."

Dal picked up the report and read it again. "This red giant star," he
read, "was studied in the usual fashion. It was found to have seven
planets, all but one lying within the tenuous outer gas envelope of the
star itself. The seventh planet has an atmosphere of its own, and
travels an orbit well outside the star surface. This planet was selected
for landing and exploration."

Following this was a long, detailed and exceedingly dull description of
the step-by-step procedure followed by a Confederation exploratory ship
making a first landing on a barren planet. There was a description of
the atmosphere, the soil surface, the land masses and major water
bodies. Physically, the planet was a desert, hot and dry, and barren of
vegetation excepting in two or three areas of jungle along the equator.
"The planet is inhabited by numerous small unintelligent animal species
which seem well-adapted to the semi-arid conditions. Of higher animals
and mammals only two species were discovered, and of these the most
highly developed was an erect biped with an integrated central nervous
system and the intelligence level of a Garvian _drachma_."