To compare his own motives with those of my gracious director was so
absurdly egotistical that I made a note to check back with this same
individual on my next round. Amusement is rare in my occupation, as you
can conceive, and I appreciated the humor of this supremely confident
bit of carbon trash, thinking he could play creator!
His project seemed harmless, so I left without disturbing him further.
On my next call I did search out Prime again, and great was my surprise
to discover that not only had he managed to invest automatic growth
and reproduction into a few complex molecules, but that he had
attacked the problem from an entirely new concept, so far as I have yet
determined.
* * * * *
On the southern tip of the land continent where I discovered Prime,
still near the ocean, I found him surrounded with a growth which he
called vegetation. Then he bade me examine the content of the salt
water, and I beheld tiny aquatic creatures of many varieties, some
active, some vegetative, but all reproducing with lusty prolificity.
"What are these land growths?" I asked.