"This meeting is adjourned!

And with that, the members of the Galactic Council went their separate ways, having voted to give the species in question one last chance. The vote was not unanimous, for there were some among the Council who felt that this particular life form was not worth saving. But the majority ruled, and more than half of the representatives of the nine most advanced intelligent species, members of which comprised the Galactic Council, had agreed to give mankind one last try.

* * * * *

Zuyn was unconscious. The seeding party sent by the Council had collected him and several other specimens and had removed them from their dying planet just in time. A global thermonuclear war had devastated their world, and within a few decades, no advanced life would remain there. What was once a virtual paradise, teeming with life and home to an intelligent race of beauty and culture, would soon be reduced to a desolate world of insects and grass.

Zuyn was taken across the cosmos to a different star system, to a promising planet as yet uninhabited by intelligent life. There he awoke.

His head was pounding. He felt groggy and strangely heavy, but at least he was alive. The last thing he remembered was fleeing as fast as he could from the warship that chased him. He wasn't sure which side the ship was fighting for, but since his people had been neutral, it could have been either side. He had hoped to avoid being caught up in the great war, but in a world gone mad, it seemed no one was safe.

Now he raised his head to look around him. It was green. It was warm. The air smelled sweet, perfumed with flowers and fruit.

He sat up, testing his limbs. He was alive, and he was apparently unhurt, but where was he? And how did he get wherever he was?

As Zuyn stood up, he suddenly realized he was naked. He angrily concluded that his captors had robbed him of his clothes and left him somewhere alone. But was he in fact alone?

Confused and a little afraid, Zuyn moved cautiously through the lush growth. Flowers and fruit abounded. Bees and other insects buzzed about. Birds sang and flitted between the trees.

Zuyn discovered a stream and a meadow. In the distance, he saw mountains. He found squirrels, lizards, deer, other animals he could not identify, but no other humans.

He spent the next several days exploring. Zuyn was not hungry, for there was plenty to eat: a variety of fruit, nuts, fish, even game if he cared to catch it and cook it. He was not cold, for the climate was mild.

But Zuyn was lonely, terribly lonely. He had every reason to be satisfied with his comfortable new surroundings, except he was so alone. He talked to himself, and he tried to talk to the animals, but he was still desperately lonely.

Then the seeding party returned. They brought new equipment with them, highly sophisticated technical wonders. They caused Zuyn to fall asleep, placing him in a state of suspended animation. Using skills acquired over millennia of experimentation and learning, applying the knowledge and abilities of the galaxy's most advanced species, they cloned Zuyn.

Making a small incision in his side, they removed just enough bone, flesh, and skin to begin the process. They duplicated his genes, then altered them. They accelerated the cell division process, carefully controlled the growth, and were pleased with the results.

This time when Zuyn awoke, he was not alone. Another human was by his side. A woman.

Zuyn and his new companion were very happy. They multiplied and began a new civilization. Zuyn was sure he could teach his descendants to avoid the mistakes his ancestors had made.

* * * * *

Many years later, Zuyn himself prepared to die. As he watched the sun go down, perhaps for the last time, he reflected on his strange experiences. He watched his great-grandchildren playing in the field. He knew his children and their children were now spreading out, making use of this glorious new land.

What Zuyn did not know was that there were many other seedlings, like himself, planted on other promising worlds. He had no way of knowing that he, and they, were being observed by representatives of the Galactic Council. And, of course, Zuyn could not foresee the future. He could not see that his new world would someday be called Earth, and that thousands of years later, mankind would once again stand on the brink of extinction. He could not know that the human seedlings on the other planets would all fail, and that Zuyn's descendants would be the last remnants of his species. He had no way of knowing that the Galactic Council would meet again to vote on the fate of man, and that this time, they would vote not to intervene. If human beings were determined to destroy themselves, finally, once and for all, then so be it.

Zuyn could not know any of this. What he did know was that they had made a promising new start. And Zuyn was optimistic.

THE END?