Birthright

“We could all kneel down in front of the Kragans and pray while their firing squad mowed us down,”

said the second woman with a laugh.

“Or write down your touching little speech and put it in a bottle in the hope that someone will find it someday,” added the third woman.

“Stop your snickering!” snapped the man. “If we're going to die, at least we ought to go about it right.” “And what is the right way for a race to die?” said the second woman. “Not by sitting around moaning and cackling, that's for sure!” said the man. “Don't you want somebody to know we've been here, that this is where Man met his end?” “Who do you propose to tell?” asked the second woman. “I don't know,” said the man. “Somebody.” He looked around the cave and his eyes fell on the device. “Everybody.” He walked over and knelt down next to it. “At least they'll know we didn't go out like lambs to the slaughter, that we fought to the very end to preserve all that was Man.” He reached out and pressed the button.

It was glorious.

EPILOGUE: 587TH MILLENNIUM

Eons passed, and Man—or something very like him—slithered out of the slime, sprouted limbs, developed thumbs. He stood erect, saw the stars for the first time, and knew that they must someday be his....

AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD

Every science fiction writer ought to take a shot at a galaxy-and-eons-spanning novel. With Olaf Stapledon, it wasStar Maker .

With Isaac Asimov, it was theFoundation Trilogy . With me, it wasBirthright: The Book of Man . I wrote it in 1979, sold it to New American Library in 1980, and thought I was done with it. Little did I know.

My editor, Sheila Gilbert, thought it was a shame to waste two million worlds, twelve thousand sentient races, and seventeen thousand years of future history, and asked me if I would be willing to setThe Soul Eater , which I'd already sold to her, in the “Birthright universe.” I replied that if she'd settle for four or

five references to races and planets that had been mentioned inBirthright: The Book of Man , I had no objection. And that's what I did, and that was the end of it. Until I sold herWalpurgis III and theTales of the Galactic Midway tetralogy and theTales of the Velvet Comet tetralogy, and she asked me to placethem into the Birthright Universe (it had by now

become a proper noun) too.