Jeff's hands went cold at the possibility that the human species was the product of interstellar meddling, but he put the question to the Mentor in carefully phrased Jamyn.

"You seem concerned at the possibility, small organic friend," said the Mentor, "if I may call you that. By now, I have sensed your friendship and good will. There is no record that the Others did anything to your people except remove a few specimens to educate and put on another planet-we don't know where. It is only Jamya that seems to be getting special treatment. We hope it is because the Others want it for their own home. For that, we Mentors get it ready."

Jeff felt intense relief that the difference the Mentor had detected had lain in their wearing textile material rather than furs-or something like that. And then he felt silly. The evolutionary record of mankind was too smooth to suppose there had been outside meddling.

He looked down at the All-Purpose Pet. "Did the Others want you to develop an All-Purpose Pet?"

The Mentor took a step backward. Its eye patches dimmed. "No, that was my idea. It seemed to me that a Mentor might enjoy a pet. I also thought that some of the offspring of such a pet might be useful as exchange items in dealing with visitors to this planet, but then I found instructions left by the Others forbidding trade. It turned out the Others had also placed a force barrier around the planet to keep outsiders from coming here. That was one of our concerns when your ship suddenly appeared. How did you jump the barrier?"

Jeff said, "We have a special ship that can come or go through hyperspace anywhere."

"I hope," added Norby in a small voice.

Fargo poked Jeff. "Ask if we can exchange something for the All-Purpose Pet. I want Oola back. I have this craving for that little thing. Funny, considering the short acquaintance."

"You spoke of using your pet for trade-exchange with outsiders. Is there anything we can exchange for the creature?" began Jeff. "We have…"

But the Mentor's eye patches shone red, and Jeff stopped.

"No!" The Mentor snatched up his pet and held her in his lower two arms. The upper two arms were drawn up, fists clenched. "I said I would exchange some of her young. She has not had any yet and I do not yet know if she can have young. So I am going to keep her. She is my experiment. I am different from the rest of the Mentors. I am-innovative."

Jeff felt he had better change the subject. "Do you have a name?" he asked.

"I am First."

"Ask about me, Jeff!" said Norby.

"Mentor First, do you have any small robots?"

'Those you see-for gardening, for construction, for discipline with respect to organic creatures, and so on. They are not intelligent, but they obey our commands."

"Do you have any others we don't see?"

"No."

"Do you take commands from the main computer in the castle?"

"No. We are self-controlled under my general guidance, of course. The castle computer does not have the consciousness we do and it is merely our tool."

Jeff could not help thinking that the robot seemed very proud of its own superiority to all the others, and that it was this that led it on to giving information freely-information that might turn out to be useful.

It was almost as though Mentor First caught a whiff of this thought, for he said, "You ask too many questions. You disturb my peace of mind, and your presence here and the thoughts you have induced in me may change the future. I will ask the castle computer to wipe out the memories of you from my mind."

The Mentor's eyes flared red once more. Odd metal eyelids drew up from the bottom, covering the eye patches completely. "Go back to your own time, or we will take forceful measures to destroy you."

There was the feel of danger, and to Jeff it seemed only sensible to retreat into the ship and shut the airlock door. In the viewscreen, he could see Mentor First standing there, waiting for the ship to leave, while Norby was translating to Fargo.

Jeff said, looking a little shamefaced, "I'm sorry, Norby. We didn't find out about your origins, or about the Others-except that they were organic and not robots-but it's getting dangerous here, and I'm sure we might end by changing the future."

Fargo hesitated, then he strode to the control room chair, seated himself in it, and called out, "Norby! Come here and plug yourself in. We can go back to our own solar system, in our own time, and do some exploring for McGillicuddy's asteroid, the one where he found your alien ship. That will keep you out of the hands of the Inventors Union, and it might be more exciting than this. "

"Wasn't this exciting?" Jeff asked.

"What? A reasonable conversation? Very tame!"

"Isn't it exciting to learn things? When the Mentors were new, they had no robot like Norby; that's why he can be here. But Mentor First bioengineered Oola for himself and is emotional about her. And she's here, which is why our Oola couldn't be here. But that still leaves the problem of why the Mentors became so angry and villainous later in time, and we ought to find out why."

Fargo said, "That Mentor First of yours seems to be getting angry and villainous. He's ordering up some machinery and it may be some sort of weapon."

'Then let's leave," said Jeff, "but let's go back to our present time in Jamya."

"Yes!" Norby said, loudly. "I want to find out why I was made. The Mentors here don't know about me, but I'm sure part of me is Jamyn. I know I was never part of these gardening robots because they don't have emotive circuits or imagination. Jeff, take my hand, and I'll try to move the whole ship forward in time to when you and I left Jamya."

"Well," said Fargo, settling back in the chair with a shrug, "back to something old. Everything will continue to be tame."

"You wouldn't say that if you'd been inside the Mentors' computer scanner," Jeff said. "Go forward, Norby. I'll visualize the castle as we first saw it."

This time the ship itself seemed to shiver.

"There's a miniature dragon outside," Fargo said. "I tell you again. Everything will be tame.:'

"Hello," said Zargl. "You're back. You shouldn't be."

Jeff waved at her as he left the Hopeful, followed by Norby and Fargo. Then he waved at Zi, who was coming out of her home rather hurriedly at the sight of the ship.

"This is my sibling, Fargo," he said to mother and daughter dragon, pronouncing the name carefully. He hesitated before choosing the Jamyn word to describe Fargo's relationship to him. There was no Jamyn word for "brother," of course.

Jeff then asked, with a fine air of casualness, "How long have we been gone?"

"Fourteen day/nights," said Zargl. "Ever since you left, the Jamyns have been arguing about what to do if you returned. The Mentors sent word that you are to be captured and taken to the castle if we ever see you again. Isn't that exciting? Of course, they didn't expect you to come with a ship and reinforcements."

"Which probably makes it even more exciting," muttered Fargo, as Norby translated softly for him. "Maybe things won't be so tame at that. Ask this Pseudoreptile to bite me so I'll be able to understand her language."

"Good idea," said Jeff. "Then if things don't live up to your notions of danger and adventure, you'll at least be able to tell Albany that you were bitten by a dragon. And you, Norby, you can tell her how you missed by a couple of weeks again."

Norby said haughtily, "Can you do better, Jeff?"

Jeff, still mindful of his manners, said, "No, I can't. True is true. Zargl, would you bite my sibling, just a little bit. Just a tiny little bit."

Zargl said, "Certainly." She came shyly up to Fargo, and nuzzled his arm. "Your sibling is very attractive," she said to Jeff.