Childhood's End

...There were figures moving below, and the camera swooped down upon them like a bird of prey.

.....“This will distress you,” said Karellen. “But remember that your standards no longer apply. You are not watching human children.”

.....Yet that was the immediate impression that came to Jan’s mind, and no amount of logic could dispel it. They might have been savages, engaged in some complex ritual dance. They were naked and filthy, with matted hair obscuring their eyes. As far as Jan could tell, they were of all ages from five to fifteen, yet they all moved with the same speed, precision and complete indifference to their surroundings.

.....Then Jan saw their faces. He swallowed hard, and forced himself not to turn away. They were emptier than the faces of the dead, for even a corpse has some record carved by Time’s chisel upon its features, to speak when the lips themselves are dumb. There was no more emotion or feeling here than in the face of a snake or an insect. The Overlords themselves were more human than this.

.....“You are searching for something that is no longer there.” said Karellen. “Remember—they have no more identity than the cells in your own body. But linked together, they are something much greater than you...”

(Excerpt from Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood`s End", Chapter 23)

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