Robert Sheckley - Kenny

"No matter. We'll send out another group."

"But why not warn them? Prepare them?"

"You still don't get it, Dexter. This group, as far as they're concerned, are the first. The originals. The autochthons. They are The People. They figure out everything for themselves, or they die. They're not an extension of us. In a few generations, they'll forget we even existed. Except perhaps for a few unprovable legends. As far as they are concerned, they are a new race. No one came before them. They are the originals."

"They'll never know we created them?"

The Captain shook his head. "They can conjecture, but they'll never really know."

Dexter watched through the port as the ship lifted. He couldn't see any of The People. They were off in the forest somewhere. And they'd never know.

Then he had a thought.

"Captain, who created us?"

"There are various theories. You know what our leading thinkers say.

They talk about 'The most persuasive conjecture...' But that's all it is. Conjecture."

"Doesn't anyone know, really?"

The Captain looked ahead into darkening space. "If they do, they aren't telling us, Dexter. And we aren't telling them."