Do Unto Others

A nephew narrates his travels with his austere, philanthropic aunt, president of a club that collects alien flora and intervenes on distant worlds. He accompanies her and the Daughters of Terra to Capella IV, a salt-covered waystation where they meet the young planet administrator and confront natives whose philosophic adherence to the Golden Rule complicates external attempts to reform them. The narrator alternates self-deprecating humor and serious reflection, including his psychiatrist's diagnosis of arrested development and ambivalence toward his aunt's moral certainty, while the visit raises questions about cultural misunderstanding, ethical intervention, and personal responsibility.