This time there was only silence. Finally, the Grand Examiner lifted both forelegs and crossed them in a formal bow. “Your protest is acknowledged. The ceremony shall continue, under the ancient rules set down by the Progenitors.”

The Gubru commander had no choice. It bowed in return. Then it swiveled and flounced outside, angrily pushing aside a crowd of its guards and aides, leaving them cackling, disturbed, in its wake.

The Examiner turned to a robot assistant. “What were we discussing before the Suzerain arrived?”

“An approaching craft whose occupants claim diplomatic protection and observer status,” the thing replied in Galactic One.

“Ah, yes. Those.”

“They are growing quite perturbed, as Gubru interceptors now seem about to cut them off, and may do them harm.”

The Examiner hesitated only a moment. “Please inform the approaching envoys that we will be only too happy to grant their request. They should come directly to the Mount, under the protection of the Uplift Institute.”

The robot hurried off to pass on the order. Other aides then approached, waving readouts and picting preliminary reports on still more anomalies. One after another of the holo-screens lit up to show the crowd that had arrived at the base of the hill, tumbling out of rusty boats and surging up the unguarded slopes.

“This event grows ever more interesting,” the Grand Examiner sighed reflectively. “I wonder, what will happen next?”

It was after sunset and Gimelhai had already sunk below a western horizon turbid with dark clouds by the time the worn-down survivors finally passed through the last examination screen to collapse in exhaustion upon a grassy knoll. Six chens and six chimmies lay quietly close to each other for warmth. They were too tired to engage in the grooming all felt they needed.

“Momma, why didn’t they choose dogs to uplift, instead? Or pigs?” One of them moaned.

“Baboons,” another voice suggested, and there was a murmur of agreement. Such creatures deserved this kind of treatment.

“Anybody but us,” a third voice summarized, succinctly.

Ex exaltavit humilis, Gailet thought silently. They have lifted up the humble of origins. The motto of the Terragens Uplift Board had its origins in the Christian Bible. To Gailet it had always carried the unfortunate implication that someone, somewhere, was going to get crucified.

Her eyes closed and she felt a light sleep close in immediately. Just a catnap, she thought. But it did not last long. Gailet felt a sudden return of that dream — the one in which a Gubru stood over her, peering down the barrel of a malevolent machine. She shivered and opened her eyes again.

The last shreds of twilight were fading. Bitterly clear, the stars twinkled as if through something more refracting than mere atmosphere.

She and the others stood up quickly as a brightly lit floater car approached and settled down in front of them. Out stepped three figures, a tall, downy-white Gubru, a spiderlike Galactic, and a pudgy human mel whose official gown hung on him like a potato sack. As she and the other chims bowed, Gailet recognized Cordwainer Appelbe, the head of Garth’s local Uplift Board.

The man looked bewildered. Certainly he must be overawed to be taking part in all this. Still, Gailet also wondered whether Appelbe was drugged.

“Urn, I want to congratulate you all,” he said, stepping just ahead of the other two. “You should know how proud we are of all of you. I’ve been told that, while there are certain test scores that are still in dispute, the overall judgment of the Uplift Institute is that Pan argonostes — the neo-chim-panzees of Earthclan — are, or, well, actually have been ready for stage three for quite some time.”

The arachnoid official stepped forward then. “That is true. In fact, I can promise that the Institute will favorably consider any future applications by Earthclan for further examinations.”

Thank you, Gailet thought as she and the others bowed again. But please, don’t bother picking me for the next one.

Now the Grand Examiner launched into a lengthy speech about the rights and duties of client races. She spoke of the long-departed Progenitors, who began Galactic civilization so long ago, and the procedures they set down for all succeeding generations of intelligent life to follow.

The Examiner used Galactic Seven, which most of the chims could at least follow. Gailet tried to pay attention, but within her troubled thoughts kept turning to what was certainly to come after this.

She was sure she felt underfoot an increase in the faint trembling which had accompanied them all the way up the mountain. It filled the air with a low, barely audible rumbling. Gailet swayed as a wave of unreality seemed to pass through her. She looked up and saw that several of the evening stars appeared to flare suddenly brighter. Others’ fled laterally as an oval distortion inserted itself directly overhead. A blackness began to gather there.

The Examiner’s aeolian speech droned on. Cordwainer Appelbe listened raptly, a bemused expression on his face. But the white-plumed Gubru grew visibly impatient with each passing moment. Gailet could well understand why. Now that the hyperspace shunt was warmed up and ready, every passing minute was costing the invaders. When she realized this, Gailet felt warmer toward the droning Serentini official. She nudged Michaela when her friend seemed about to doze off, and put on an attentive expression.

Several times the Gubru opened its beak as if about to commit the ungraceful act of interrupting the Examiner. Finally, when the spiderlike being stopped briefly for a breath, the avian cut in sharply. Gailet, who had been studying hard for months, easily understood the clipped words in Galactic Three.

, ” — delaying, dawdling, stalling! Your motives are in doubt, incredible, suspect! I insist that you proceed, move along, get on with it!”

But the Examiner scarcely missed a beat, continuing in Galactic Seven.

“In passing the formidable gauntlet you faced today, more rigorous than any testing I have heretofore witnessed, you have demonstrated your worthiness as junior citizens of our civilization, and bring credit to your clan.

“What you receive today, you have earned — the right to reaffirm your love of your patrons, and to choose a stage consort. The latter decision is an important one. As consort you must select a known, oxygen-breathing, starfaring race, one that is not a member of your own clan. This race will defend your interests and impartially intercede in disputes between you and your patrons. If you wish, you may select the Tymbrimi, of the Clan of the Krallnith, who have been your consort-advisors up until now. Or you may make a change.

“Or, you may choose yet another option — to end your participation in Galactic civilization, and ask that the meddling of Uplift be reversed. Even this drastic step was prescribed by the Progenitors, as insurance of the fundamental rights of living things.”

Could we? Could we really do that? Gailet felt numb at the very idea. Even though she knew that it was almost never allowed in practice, the option was there!

She shuddered and refocused her attention as the Grand Examiner lifted two arms in a benediction. “In the name of the Institute of Uplift, and before all of Galactic civilization, I therefore pronounce you, the representatives of your race, qualified and capable of choosing and bearing witness. Go forth, and do all living things proud.”

The Serentini stepped back. And at last it was the turn of the ceremony sponsor. Normally, this would have been a human, or perhaps a Tymbrimi, but not this time. The Gubru emissary did a little dance of impatience. Quickly, it barked into a vodor, and words in Galactic Seven boomed forth.