"It was close," IT admitted. "Had your sages not started learning in earnest how to transport your species across the stars when they did; had you delayed by a single stellar cycle, you would not have been able to leave your planet in time to avert extinction."

"But you were watching us," I protested. "You could have taught us what we needed; decades or even centuries earlier."

"Indeed, but that kind of knowledge is only ever granted to the worthy."

"And how do you determine a species worthy?"

"You survived."