ll the single-celled
bacteria from the ship's tank mingled with the warm, lifeless waters.

The water temperatures were the same. Everything was the same, and the
conditions were very favorable and the bacteria would divide and
redivide and keep on dividing for millions of years.

"We'll hold the ship under light speed," he said. "And in a few
million years we can drop back here and see how evolution is getting
along."

He stood up and she took his hand and moved closer to him. They were
both shivering, despite the warmth of the air.

"But how did life originate in the beginning?" she asked suddenly.

Hugh McCann shook his head in the darkness. "I don't know. We've been
all over the galaxy and haven't found life anywhere. Perhaps it can't
have a natural cause. Perhaps it's always planted. A closed circle
from beginning to end."

"But something--someone--must have started the circle. Who?"

He looked down at the empty cylinder that he had dropped at the
water's edge and then he looked out at the ocean, lifeless no longer.
And once again he shook his head.

"We did, Nora. We're the beginning."

For a long moment their eyes met and held, and then they turned and
walked away from the ocean, back toward the ship, and the people. And
the moonlight glinted off the empty bottle.

THE END

* * * * *

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