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to use all of our advances without harming each other or our environment.”
    After Brianna nodded, the doctor continued. “From satellites we’d launched early in our space programs, we mapped the planets in our solar system. After we achieved interplanetary travel, we sent an expedition to the planet that circles our sun exactly opposite of ours, Mediria, a planet whose surface is 90
    percent water, and discovered it was inhabited. Medirians are able to breathe in both air and water and are almost as scientifically advanced as we are. What’s more, even though they didn’t look exactly like us, they are human.”
    “How can you tell?”
    “Be patient,” Lorilana said gently. “I want you to not only understand what is happening, but also why.”
    Brianna swallowed. That statement was entirely too ominous.
    “The Medirians are a friendly people and greeted us with enthusiasm,” continued the doctor. “Treaties were signed and trade established. As our space travel grew more advanced, we set up shuttle systems between our two planets. Now, it takes less than an hour to travel from one to the other.”
    “Since human life was found on another planet in our own solar system, the Academy concluded that it also might exist on others. Once the space drive was perfected, the Academy, which over the years had acquired a great deal of power in our government, mandated that we should search out human life on other planets. This mandate was formulated for the betterment of the human race. The Academy felt that humans from all planets could help each other improve life. And for years, that’s what we practiced. As time went on, during our explorations, we discovered three other planets with human life, two as advanced technically as ours and the other content with its pastoral life.
    You can learn the histories of these planets from the computer files at your leisure.”
    “About 150 years ago, the Academy began to change. A small group of members sought to revise some of the bylaws— only small things, at first. However, as their party gained in numbers, more radical changes were put into effect. All peoples living on the five planets whose races were known to be human were acknowledged as such. However, life indigenous to newly discovered planets would have to meet certain criteria.”
    Lorilana shifted in her chair. “Originally, these new criteria did not alarm many people. They were broad and everyone from the five plants easily fit into them. However, when we charted a new planet with what appeared to be human life, we learned just what had been enacted.”
    The doctor’s expression darkened. “Five years ago, a planet was discovered on the opposite end of the galaxy from yours. Its inhabitants were humanoid in form. When one of them volunteered to have a transmitter inserted, we discovered that they were extremely intelligent. They called their planet Wafhkte. The Academy scientist assigned to that particular ship asked if one of their number would be willing to volunteer to undergo a few tests. Since his people had been treated with respect, he who had received the transmitter volunteered under the condition that two of his people be present as witnesses.”
    “No sooner had he and the other volunteers boarded the ship, than all three were drugged. One of them was dissected immediately. Another was given an electronic brain scan that left him in a vegetative state. The last was given mithrin.”
    Brianna’s eyes grew wide with horror. What had happened to those unknown aliens paralleled too closely what had almost happened in Dr. Gustovson’s lab. In a small voice she asked, “What’s mithrin?”
    Rising to her feet, Lorilana sighed. Rubbing her arms, she paced from one side of the small room to the other. “We Drakians are very open about our sexuality and are extremely hedonistic. We think nothing of strolling about our private quarters naked, even with guests present if they are close personal