Sanctuary in The Sky by John Brunner

begin to get the distinctive shapes. I have more, and a copy of the report published by the team that did the work. Aside from the usual propaganda, there’s some good stuff in it.”
    She glanced at Lang. “How does it strike you?” she said c h illengingly.
    “I think,” said Lang quietly after a pause, “that you’re right to interpret the picture that way, but wrong in your further assumptions. A ship on Pagr, with Waystation out here, implies—to me at any rate—that someone came from here to there. And most likely, also to Glai, to Cathrodyne, to Alchmida, to Lubarria, and”—he gave a sidelong glance at Vykor—“to Majkosi.”
     
    X
    Vykor half expected a torrent of indignant counter-argument from the two archeologists, and in fact they looked at each other for a moment, their expressions suggesting that they were on the point of uttering some such retort.
    But it didn’t come. They relaxed slowly, and Ligmer was the first to speak—almost shamefacedly.
    “As a matter of fact,” he said, “this really is the obvious answer, isn’t it? Only there are obstacles. This theory has been put forward a dozen times over the past few centuries, since Waystation was first discovered, and each time it has foundered on some obstacle that seemed insuperable.” He gave Usri a brief glance. “And I don’t think Pagr has ever given it serious thought.”
    “Don’t you?” said Usri wryly. “I hope no monitors are listening, because this is highly subversive and could cost me my rank and my right to visit Waystation—but I spent half the time I was in school arguing the pros and cons of what- we call the Bringer theory. The main objections—leaving out matters of planetary pride—were that no one had claimed discovery of prehistoric space-flight relics on any other world than Pagr—and if they were there, no one would be likely to hush them up, would they?—and the fact that the peoples of the different worlds of the Arm are so different physically. Their cultures are also widely different, their ways of thinking, even. And an argument advanced against this theory of the Bringer, also, was the fact that the male-dominated social order of all the other worlds of the Arm coincided with what tradition declared to be the condition obtaining on Pagr before our modern society evolved.”
    Lang nodded. “And so what is the presently accepted theory concerning the origin of man, here in the Arm?”
    Ligmer and Usri looked at each other again. “Depends which planet you’re talking about,” said Ligmer, grunting. “On Cathrodyne there’s no generally accepted theory; some people support the Bringer theory, as Usri calls it, but rather few. Since human beings are pretty widespread through the galaxy, the opinion is that on oxygen-high worlds with seas and the right temperature man is statistically the most likely being to evolve."
    Lang shook his head, without saying anything; Ligmer, however, chose to interpret it as a disdainful comment, and went on hotly, “Whereas on Pagr, of course, they give out that man first evolved there and then infected the whole galaxy!” “And on Lubarria they still say what they were saying on Cathrodyne a mere century or so ago ! ” snapped Usri. “That man was created by some mystical dual principle—the stars male and the planets female, or the other way round—which he reflects in his own being. I must say that the priests of this cult certainly act as though the only principle they have is a sexual one—”
    “You won’t find a Cathrodyne above the level of a moron who takes that rubbish seriously today!” Ligmer broke in. They were practically shouting at each other when Lang coughed, and they calmed down sheepishly.
    “Well, there are one or two supposedly insuperable obstacles to the Bringer theory which don’t seem to me to be so hard to overcome,” Lang said in judicious tones. “The fact that space-flight relics have only been found on Pagr, for instance.