“Every ship will contain a Ram Odin and a Noxon,” said Noxon. “And a couple of dozen mice. So if there’s a backward-moving ship, it will have me there to turn it around, and it’ll have the mice to see if they can detach it from the original outbound ship without the ship having to come all the way back to Earth.”

“Makes sense,” said Ram Odin.

“Only to the insane,” said Wheaton.

“Maybe we can preserve the native biota to a greater degree than it was preserved on Garden,” said Noxon. “Maybe we can preserve the ancestors of these monster aliens, and help to shape their evolution so it doesn’t get so dangerous. We know the ship’s computers can be programmed to prevent the development of high technology because they did it on Garden.”

“Or we can wipe out all the native life and make a new Earth,” said the alpha mouse.

“Whether or not we have nineteen or twenty ships,” said Noxon, “we can create as many wallfield generators as we want, and the expendables to tend them, right?”

“Yes,” said the alpha mouse.

“Yes,” said Ram Odin. “Very interesting. Wallfolds no matter what.”

“So the deal I offer is this. All the wallfolds have the same technology cap as on Garden. Every wallfold has an expendable or two. But we create enough wallfolds that besides having enough for several—or twenty—human colonies, we also have one or two wallfolds which have only mice as their sentient occupants.”

“How generous,” said the alpha mouse.

“Irony is still a lie,” said Noxon. “Hear me out. We also have a couple of human colonies that are shared with mice. Joint colonies. To see what happens. To see if we and you can grow and develop together, cooperatively or at least without slaughtering each other.”

“Unlikely,” said the alpha mouse.

“Why not?” said Ram Odin.

“I think it’s very likely,” said Noxon. “Especially because the ship’s computers will be programmed to wipe out any wallfold where either the humans or the mice find a way to exterminate the other species.”

“Maybe we can interbreed,” said the alpha mouse.

“I hope not,” said Noxon. “And we also have two or three wallfolds where the aliens are allowed to continue their evolutionary development—but with the same technology cap. At least one of those will also have mice.”

“The aliens should all have mice,” said the alpha mouse.

“They will have expendables. If possible, expendables redesigned to look like them. If not, then the same ones we have. They’ll all be supervised.”

“And that’s the plan?” said the alpha mouse. “You thought of this all by yourself?”

“It’s the obvious way to proceed,” said Noxon. “Everybody gets a home.”

“A reservation,” said the alpha mouse.

“A place to develop independent of the others.”

“But with a cap on what we can achieve,” said the alpha mouse.