“I didn't know that empty rationalization was part of your programming," said Ram. "We would not be fit companions for human beings without it.”

“And when we diverge, it will be impossible for the expendables and the ship's computers on all the ships to know which version of Ram Odin to obey," said Ram. "Therefore I order you and all the other expendables to immediately kill every copy of Ram except me.""I'm so sorry," said the expendable. "One of the versions of Ram Odin did not include the word 'immediately,' and therefore his order was complete a fraction of a second before all the others. He is the real Ram Odin."Ram gave a little half smile. "How ironic. By specifying that you should act at once-"The expendable reached out with both hands, gave Ram's head a twist, and broke his neck. The sentence remained unfinished, but that did not matter, since the person saying it was not the real Ram Odin.”

“I had no idea we planned to be so ruthless.""It was not publicized or even discussed with the political arm of the colonization program. Ruthlessness was necessary but wins no votes.""But this is not our world, to treat however we want!""Visiting here as students of an alien evolutionary tradition would not be either cost-effective or, ultimately, successful. We would inevitably contaminate Garden, or worse yet, become contaminated and bring potentially deadly Gardenian life forms back to Earth. The three continental preserves will be sufficient to allow biologists to study alien life at some point in the future. And if you really thought we would colonize this world without making it 'ours', you'd be far too naive to command this expedition.""I...didn't realize...""You didn't think about it at all," said the expendable. "The selective voluntary blindness of human beings allows them to ignore the moral consequences of their choices. It has been one of the species' most valuable traits, in terms of the survival of any particular human community.""And you aren't morally blind?""We see the moral ironies very clearly. We simply don't care.”

“So our reliance on the computers caused the failure of the mission?" asked the expendable."The mission didn't fail," said Ram. "It succeeded nineteen times. We're just the exhaust trail.”

“What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.”

“Then you're dead, too, sweet little sister.'Oh, yes,' said Valentine. 'They'll believe that. "I didn't know it would kill Andrew. And when he was dead, I didn't know it will kill Valentine too.”

“Are you asking us to impregnate all the females on all the ships with your DNA, so that you can be sure of having progeny?""No!" said Ram in horror. "What a terrible thing for a woman, to wake up pregnant- a violation of trust. It would destroy all nineteen colonies.""Not to mention being embarrassing when all the babies look like you.”