Code of Ethics

During the first millennium, we did nothing
but observe. They were happy to be rid of
stinging insects and some inconvenient
birds. We all hoped that they would come
to their senses. By the time they had lost
the lizard whose intervention was essential
for pollination of the only species of fruit
tree remaining on the smaller subcontinent,
everyone realized we had waited too long.
Other extinctions followed, more swiftly
than our geneticists had believed possible.
We tried to atone by sending teams from
door to door with our personal apologies,
in their last years.

—F.J. Bergmann