Dr. Alan Chaffee: [walks into the barn where the children are] Another man is dead. Why do you hate us so much, Mara?
Mara Chaffee: It isn't a matter of hate. It is a biological obligation.
[short pause]
Mara Chaffee: You are thinking of what happened to the others. Then our actions shouldn't surprise you. We have to survive no matter what the cost; we are the only ones left now.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: I don't see why we can't reach an understanding. Why can't we just live together?
Mara Chaffee: If we coexist, we shall dominate you. That is inevitable. Eventually you will try to eliminate us. We are all creatures of the life force. Now it was set us at one another to see who will survive.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: That's a cruel sport.
Mara Chaffee: Life is cruelty. We all feed on each other, exploit each other in some way to survive.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: [shakes his head] I don't agree with you.
[walks over to where Mara is sitting]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: I think that adaptation is the key to survival. Cooperation and symbiosis...
[kneels by Mara's desk]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: and compassion.
Mara Chaffee: Why do you think your own survival depends upon emotion from us? Shoul we pity you? Empathize with your plight?
Dr. Alan Chaffee: [bangs his fist on Mara's desk]
[shouting]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: You should feel! You should feel something!
[stands up]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: Without feelings, you're nothing. You're just second-rate mimics of a higher organism. That's right, higher organisms. We're your superiors in our capacity to love. Without compassion you're a doomed species.
Mara Chaffee: Emotion is irrelevant. It is not our nature.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: [looks back at David] Well, I'm not so sure you're right about that, Mara.
