`` it is in her right , '' said weston , `` the right , or , if you will , the might of life herself , that i am prepared without flinching to plant the flag of man on the soil of malacandra : to march on , step by step , superseding , where necessary , the lower forms of life that we find , claiming planet after planet , system after system , till our posterity - whatever strange form and yet unguessed mentality they have assumed - dwell in the universe wherever the universe is habitable . ''