Dorn was an adorable little replacement; a joy to all of his parents, both primary and secondary, and his elected father.  And as with any new replacement the community at large relished his every breath, and of this Dorn was quite aware, but remained humbled.  Dorn was an active and agile little replacement as well.  Beneath flops and folds of curly flaxen waves his adolescent thoughts were scurry of continual inquisitorial processes.  Nothing escaped his thirsty eyes, curious little hands, and his ravenous quest for knowledge of the world around him.  Today's lesson as he tramped over hill and dale near the family apartments, was the peculiar enterprises of a small flop-ear which inhabited those parts of the county in great - sometimes destructive - numbers; they were voracious vegetarian who loved feasting on anything of the leaf or root variety, and were quite prolific as well.  Presently, Dorn caught up with this young flop-ear amid feast hors d'œuvre of an orange root vegetable.  It methodically chewed at the fruit with the speed and precision usually reserved for fine machinery; Dorn was fascinated, and amused.  Slowly, he crept up near the small beast which upon noticing the youth, continued with the business at hand.  Strange it is the trust that exists between most mammalian juveniles; a kinship of the small and fury, or the young and innocent.  This theory, however, never seemed to apply to the young Bushy-tailed Tree Skeeters; skittish from birth, and trusting of no creature, they would eat till they dropped, horde great quantities of nuts and bulbous roots, and what they couldn't hide they would bury.  Bushy-tailed Tree Skeeters also did not believe in banks.  But they were the exception; the young flop-ear was of the trusting nature.   And this is usually a peaceable situation to behold; except when a young, male, replacement is thrown into the mix.

Geology and structure also interested Dorn a great deal, as did biology and anatomy.  Only moments ago his investigation had brought to his attention a fine rock specimen, hard, darkish gray, and with shiny, milky-crystalline streaks running through it in perfectly straight lines.  One side of this geological marvel came to a very sharp edge, and he had only just avoided cutting himself.  So lacking any malice or bad intent, and in the spirit of détente, Dorn introduced his good friend Mr. Rock to his new friend Mr. Flop-ears in a manner that left Mr. Flop-ears ears much further apart than Dorn had thought possible, and a red sticky liquid had gotten all over his new tunic.  So, feeling confused by recent developments, and feeling a little distraught, and now filled with more questions than his inborn intuition could negotiate through, he picked up his friend Mr. Rock, and the unusually quiet Mr. Flop-ears, and headed in the general direction of home.

The basic replacement among the People came with bundles of pre-programmed genetic advantages.  Telepathic, and certain other brain enhancements were not some of them; they were earned.  But disease or infection were practically non-existent among the People, and the protection encoded into the genes of the replacements accounted for most of that immunity.  A quick response, and rapid adaptability to changes in environmental conditions - heat, cold, atmospheric pressures, humidity, dryness, plus an acute sense of smell, taste, incredible dexterity, and superb hearing were but a few of the standard features built into those of the People, and their replacements.  The bodies of the People were mostly self repair - self healing, which rendered them very long lived, and almost, but not quite, eternal.  Because of this they had very little need of many replacement on their long voyages between star - except when approaching a planet to be colonized, or when they approached the time to begin construction on a new ship world, the population was kept fairly steady.  At those special times before colonization or ship building they would dramatically increase replacement production.  So for most of the time the arrival of a new replacement was a very rare, and very cherished and celebrated event. Celebrated they are by the new mothers, the newly elected father, and the entire body of the People.  At present the People were not building any ships, and they were millennia from any star; Dorn was very special indeed; protected and cherished by all.  Mr. Flop-ears was not so luck, and the People also wasted nothing.

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