human
Now, speaking carefully,
gpt
Perhaps this soldier type is simply the plain worker bee, all gone to sting! It may be that these bees have given up labor altogether!
human
Still, muttered Smith, under his breath,
gpt
For once he became emphatic.
human
That's what gets me! Why aren't the humans the rulers, doc? Kinney waited until he felt sure the others were depending upon him.
gpt
Smith, the humans on Sanus are not supreme now because they were NEVER supreme.
human
I don't get that.
gpt
Don't you? Look here: you'll admit that success begets success, won't you?
human
Success begets success? Sure! 'Nothing succeeds like success.'
gpt
Well, isn't that merely another way of saying that the consciousness of superiority will lead to further conquests? We humans are thoroughly conscious of our supremacy; if we weren't we'd never attempt the things we do!
human
In other words, the humans on the earth never began to show their superiority until something--something big, happened to demonstrate their ability!
gpt
Exactly! cried Kinney.
human
Our prehistoric ancestors would never have handed down such a tremendous ambition to you and me if they, at that time, had not been able to point to some definite feat and say, 'That proves I'm a bigger man than a horse,' for example.
gpt
Of course, reflected Billie, aloud;
human
Yes; but they don't alter the case. Originally the human was only slightly different from the apes he associated with. There was perhaps only one slight point of superiority; today there are millions of such points. Man is infinitely superior, now, and it's all because he was slightly superior, then.
gpt
Suppose we grant that, remarked the geologist.
human
What then? Does that explain why the bees have made good on Sanus?
gpt
To a large degree. Some time in the past the Sanusian bee discovered that he possessed a certain power which enabled him to force his will upon other creatures. This power was his poisonous sting. He found that, when he got his fellows together and formed a swarm, they could attack any animal in such large numbers as to make it helpless.
human
Any creature?
gpt
Yes; even reptiles, scales or no scales. They'd attack the eyes.
human
But that doesn't explain how the bees ever began to make humans work for them,