See how much information is condensed into each chapter. I had not finished about the Yonderfolk earlier but had to go out.
In Poul Anderson's "What Shall It Profit?," human beings shielded underground from all radiation are immortal but they have to stay shielded underground so what is the point? Such immortality is a dead end. Are the intergalactic Yonderfolk in their almost radiation-free environment naturally immortal? Argens thinks not because quantum processes, viruses, chemicals or other unknown factors also mutate cells. If they are not, then can human beings sell them an antithanatic? It is not always possible to develop a synthetic virus that will destroy any cells that do not conform to a particular race's genetic code.
These Yonderfolk are squat, scaly and several-handed with complicated sponge-like heads. Handicapped by needing radiation shielding within the galaxy, they invited the company to visit them and gave coordinates and velocities for every planet in their system. Valland comments that translating the maths must have been difficult and thus anticipates a problem that will transpire.
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