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• As the writhing, teeming mass of Mind Worms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror.
  Stay calm! Use your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail....
• We are symbols, and inhabit symbols. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), "The Poe
• Having now established a secure perimeter, we have made ourselves relatively safe from enemy incursions.
  But against the seemingly random attacks by Planet's native life only our array of warning sensors can help us, for the Mind Worms infiltrate through every crevice and chew through anything softer than plasmasteel....
• As we approached we were confronted by the ruined splendor of Sparta Command.
  The true immensity of the place became instantly apparent as our Quantum Tank crunched over the rubble and parked next to a shattered bunker, but the extent of the destruction took weeks to assess....
• From the delicate strands, between minds we weave our mesh
  a blanket to warm the soul....
• SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else.
  Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them...
• No longer mere earthbeings and planetbeings are we, but bright children of the stars!
  And together we shall dance in and out of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness until the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn again to the beginning....
• In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies.
  It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth....
• We welcome you, earthdeirdre and earthwheat and earthtree as honored gue
  for you add great power to our ancient song-- planetfungus and planetworm and planetmind sing and play here, and you are welcome among us....