According to the entry in the Catalogue of Galactic Planets of the Imperial Atlas of the Galaxy, the planet's inhabitants called it Gort.

Owing to the star's rapid proper motion, the Zhr coordinates of the star and its planets were utterly obsolete and were being revised by the computer aboard Survey starship AES 74.

The Captain, LCDR Dr. Aceroh Yelriig, had noticed an anomaly in his observations of the planet but, though it needed to be explained by inquiries and observations on the planet's surface, decided not to go down himself.

The bioassay of Gort's atmosphere had revealed the presence of an unknown virus, to which, therefore, it could not be certain that Polymmune would offer immunity. Therefore,he decided to send the android D4QP, who preferred to call himself Andru and who held, for the duration of the expedition, the rank of Brevet Junior Lieutenant.

The android could be decontaminated with ozone and short-wave ultraviolet radiation in concentrations and intensities which would kill a human being. With his silicone skin and nylon hair, Andru could easily pass for human.

Wireless broadcasts from Gort had been fed to LEX, the linguistic analysis program and found to be in a known dialect of Old Vernacular Galactic. Andru had downloaded the dialect and was now fluent in it.

The anomaly was that the Atlas Catalogue stated that there were three races on Gort: Garyphaloderms, Kastanochroderms, and Meladerms, colloquially known as pinkies, brownies, and blackies. Telescopic observation of the planet had revealed only the pink-skinned Garyphaloderms. What had become of the others ?

Starfleet androids are emotionless and wholly objective. This of course, was the kind of report which LCDR Yelriig was seeking. JLT Andru D4QP was dispatched to Gort on a lander to seek out the highest available official and interrogate him.

Andru set down as closely as he could to the largest city on Gort, at what appeared to be an airship landing field and might have been the spaceport, when the rimworlds were part of the Empire, 800 years ago.

There being no other transportation available and androids not being subject to fatigue or pain, Andru walked swiftly into the city. He stopped and asked the first man he met, a rather disheveled-looking pinky, "Who

is the most important official in this city ?"

"What's it to ya ? Fuck off ." snarled the man and swung a punch at Andru who blocked it with his left hand which, like the rest of his body, was made of titanium thinly coated with silicone. The result was inevitable. The man's fist was converted into a mass of shattered bone and mangled flesh.

The man managed to stammer "Da...da...da...da Super." before he fainted. Andru shrugged and continued his walk into the city. He stopped at a fountain to wash the rude man's blood off his left hand.

Noticing a domed building bearing a sign reading "GOVERNMENT HOUSE", he directed his steps toward it assuming that he would find the Super there.

He did. He identified himself to the man at the reception desk and asked to see the Super on Imperial business. The receptionist riffled through some documents and told Andru that he could have an appointment to see the Super in nine days.

Having no emotions, Andru was not annoyed, but he was not to be put off in this fashion. "Perhaps you did not hear me,or have not considered the significance of what I said. I am here on the business of the Ruler of the Galactic Empire, Ashkar III.

It is likely that he would be pleased if the remainder of the Super's appointments for today were to be postponed for an hour to accomodate his business,and very displeased, if they were not. That the Rim is now of interest to the Emperor should be a matter of deep concern to the Super."

The possibility that the Rim might be returned to Imperial hegemony which Andru had implied but not stated finally occurred to the receptionist, who hastily rearranged some index cards and said with an unctuous tone and a false smile, "You may see the Super now, Sir."

Andru introduced himself and explained that the Emperor had sent out 200 survey starships to the Rim to revise the Galactic Catalogue of Stars and Planets.The purpose of this revision had not been disclosed

to the participants. "All that we know is that the Emperor wants up-to-date information about the rimworlds."

This,of course, gave the Super something to think and worry about.

"There is a large discrepancy between the Atlas Galactica entry for this

planet and the present situation. According to the AG, there were three races on this planet 800 years ago. Now, there is only one. What became of the other two ?"

Andru got the impression that the Super had expected that this question would be asked some day and that,now that the day had come ,

he was not at all happy about it. Finally, he said "They became sterile and died off."

"Became sterile ?" asked Andru,"How ?"

"A virus. We Garyphaloderms were immune to it, not so, the Kastanochroderms or the Meladerms."

"How curiously selective" commented Andru. "Surely, there is some explanation for this."

The Super pondered for a moment and then seemed to come to a decision. "This happened 300 years ago, so I guess that it is safe to tell the truth now. "The virus was genetically engineered, 'tailor made', as it were.

Gort was becoming dangerously over-populated. We Pinks were willing to cooperate in programs of population control by contraception,

non-reproductive sex, even abstention, if necessary. Not so the Browns and Blacks. They would tolerate no interference in their sex lives and went on reproducing irresponsibly even when famines occurred in lands where they predominated.

If this continued, famine would reduce us all to savagery. Only war would reduce the population below the starvation level. So, the leaders of the Pinks at the time resolved on genocide as the final solution to the problem of irresponsible reproduction.

From the start, the idea of a plague which would cause only sterility was favored so that none would die of it. A team of Pink virologists and geneticists went to work to develop a racially selective sterility virus.

The ancient mumps virus,for which an effective vaccine had been developed many centuries ago, was the starting point because it was the only virus known to attack the testicles. It still existed in primitive populations which did not practise or could not afford vaccination.

To serve their purpose,it would require drastic modification. First it must be made resistant to the vaccine. That was easily accomplished as was making it much more virulent than it had been. It had to be made specific for the testicles, rather than for the parotid glands as well, so that it would attack only men.(Women have parotid glands also.)

Although mumps is usually transmitted as an upper respiratory infection, it was considered desirable that the modified virus be capable of being transmitted sexually.

The most important, indeed crucial, modification, however, was to link ther virus strongly to the melanism gene. Without this linkage, it could sterilize the entire human race on Gort.

Seven years of intensive research were required to customize the virus

to meet these requirements. Once it appeared that success had been achieved, the virus was tested by exposing the black custodian at the laboratory to it without his knowledge.

He developed head cold symptoms within 24 hours. Three days later,orchitis set in. The patient's sperm count was measured immediately after the onset of orchitis. It was found to be 210 million. After the swelling of the testes subsided, 12 days later, the patient was masturbated,and the prostate gland and seminal vesicles were masssaged to purge them of accumulated sperm. Ten days later,a sperm count sample was taken. There were no viable spermatozoa.

One essential observation remained to be made . The head virologist of the project, Dr.Vorost heroically volunteered to be exposed to the virus.

His sperm count was determined to be 170 million.

Dr. Vorost inhaled the virus-bearing aerosol intended to be used to disseminate the virus. He was thereby exposed to a much higher concentration of the virus than the custodian had been. Ten days after exposure, he had still developed no symptoms either of an upper respiratory infection or of orchitis. His sperm count, taken another ten days later remained 170 million.

The effectiveness of the aerosol was tested by discharging it from an airship passing at a low but not suspiciously low altitude over a stadium where an athletic event was being held.

The members of the competing teams were entirely of the brown and black races. The spectators were of all races. The aerosol, once discharged, immediately became invisible. The odor and taste were not distinctive enough to attract attention. No one realized what he was inhaling or, for that matter, that he was inhaling anything unusual.

All members of both teams developed head colds followed by extremely painful swelling of the testicles. Unexpectedly, many members of the teams, especially the blacks, later showed signs of eunuchism and tests for serum testosterone yielded extremely low values.

It was more difficult to follow the medical histories of the spectators, who,of course, dispersed after the game. However, there were no reported cases of orchitis among the pinks.

For some now obscure reason, it was decided to precipitate an epidemic rather than trust the enhanced contagiousness of the virus. Inasmuch as the air transport industry was largely controlled by Garyphaloderms,it was easy to arrange for dissemination of the virus by dispersal of an

aerosol from the air, the necessary equipment being installed aboard freight airships, where it would attract the least attention.

That is to say, the spread of the virus within the continents was left to

mormal contagion, but its distribution to the continents was ensured by

aerial dispersal of the virus-bearing aerosol. In this way, a catastrophic epidemic was achieved in about forty days. Then, nature was allowed to take its course.

Being unaware of all this, the immune pinks were, for the most part, compassionate and solicitous toward the afflicted browns and blacks, though a few were unkind enough to say that it served them right for cluttering the world by over-population.

The virus behaved as intended which is fortunate in one way. The preliminary testing was done so unscientifically and inadequately that it is almost miraculous that the immunity of the pink race proved to be as effective as intended. The virus could easily have got out of control and exterminated all human life on this planet.

There were no reported cases of fatalities resulting from viral orchitis.

It is the only plague in human history to have killed no one. However, during the course of one long human lifetime, two entire races had been exterminated. Technically, it was a great success. Morally, of course, it was indefensible.

It was and is recognised, of course, that the Garyphaloderms are less than perfect. Some of us ought never to reproduce. Most of them are sociopaths and most of those spend time in prison. That provides us with an excellent opportunity assure that they do not pass on their undesirable genes.

When a man [the process is slightly more complicated for females] is admitted to prison, blood samples, for testing for numerous diseases, and a semen sample, ostensibly for DNA testing, are obtained from him. The samples are each several millilitres, of which a few microlitres are required for the actual tests.

Inasmuch as spermatozoa do not belong in the blood stream, it was not difficult to condition the leucocytes to treat spermatozoa as foreign organisms and attack them. Antibodies against spermatozoa are produced.Each inmate is encouraged to donate about a litre of blood to the blood bank, of which, some is diverted to produce a large quantities of anti-spermatozoon antibodies.

Later, all inmates are given immunization against a host of diseases. Among the numerous injections is one of antibodies to his own spermatozoa. Once the leucocytes become accustomed to treating his spermatozoa as foreign, all of the sperm cells in his body are rapidly destroyed including those in the seminiferous tubules which, clogged with dead spermatozoa, cease to function. He is sterile.

It is more difficult to obtain ova surreptitiously from a female. Anaesthesia must be used, but otherwise, the procedure is similar to that used with the male.

Thus, we weed out our sociopaths and improve the genetics of our race.

Well, what do you think of our population control policies, past and present ? "

"Technically excellent. Morally dubious, at best. The genocidal plague violates both the official Galactic Ethical Code in effect at the time, and the present one. The history of the Rim Worlds,if it is ever written, will not treat you kindly.

The devious and surreptitious way in which your prisoner sterilization program is carried out is equally morally unacceptable. Why not just tell them what is going to be done ? It might act as a deterrent."

"Because these sociopaths, vile as they are, usually have lawyers whose machinations would prevent anything at all from being accomplished. What they don't know benefits society.

It will be many years before the revision of the Atlas Catalogue is complete, and then, it will not be difficult to keep it out of the hands of lawyers, now that we know that it must be done."

Andru thanked the Super for his cooperation and left, reflecting that it was just as well that an android had been sent on this mission. A human would doubtless be seething with righteous indignation.