to another we say it is because of
love."

Marthasa considered the word. "You would be wrong," he said. "It is just
that in some way we have become indispensable to the Ids. They're
parasites, if you want to put it that way. But they provide us a
relationship we can get nowhere else, and that does us a great deal of
good. That's what I meant when I said it does something to us."

"What about the Id's own culture? Haven't they any community ties among
themselves, or do they ignore their own kind?"

"We've never investigated very much. I suppose some of our scholars know
the answer to that, but the rest of us don't. The Ids have communities,
all right. Not all of them are in service as _sarghs_ at one time. They
have little groups and communities on the outskirts of our cities, but
they don't amount to much. As a race they are simply inferior. They
don't have the capacity for a strong culture of their own, so they can't
exist independently and build a social structure like other people. It's
this religion of theirs that does it. They won't let go of it, and as
long as they hang onto it they can't stand on their own feet. But you
don't need to feel sorry for them. We treat them all right."

"Of course--didn't mean to imply anything else," said Cameron. "Do you
know if there are other Id groups serving in other galaxies?"

"Must be thousands of them altogether. Out beyond the Nucleus, away from
your galaxy, you can't find a planet anywhere that isn't using the Ids.
It's a wonderful setup. The Ids get what they want, and we get _sarghs_
with nothing like the slave relationship you had in mind. With slaves
there's rebellion, constant need of watchfulness, and no genuine
companionship. A _sargh_ is different. He can be a man's friend."

III

They came out of the darkness of Transpace that evening and the stars
returned in the glory of a million closely gathered suns. The Markovian
Nucleus lay in a galaxy of tightly packed stars that made bright the
nights of all their planets. It was a spectacle for Cameron, who had
traveled but little away from the Solar System, and for Joyce who had
never traveled at all.

Marthasa and Sal Karone were with them in the lounge watching the
screens as the ship changed drives. The Markovian squinted a moment and
pointed to a minor dot near the corner of the view. "That's our
destination. Another six hours and you can set foot on the best planet
in the whole Universe!"

If it had be