lding
himself upright with dignity by the base of an alien rock, and still
smiling, never once moving to close his helmet, he died.

* * * * *

There was a long pause. The old man was done.

They looked at him with the deep compassion that his own race had denied
to those who were different or lesser than themselves.

One of Them arose and gently spoke.

"And now you are the last of your kind, as alone as Wainer was. We are
sorry."

There was no bitterness in the old man's voice. "Don't be. Wainer was
content to die, knowing that he was the link between us and You. Yet
neither he nor You could have been if humanity had never existed. We had
our place in the endless flow of history. We were, so to speak, Wainer's
parents and Your grandparents. I, too, am content, proud of the children
of Man."

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