> This may not be a flaw (there are possible
>ways to explain it, I suppose), but as I went
>back and reread "Ironman" I wondered why the
>statues were depections of both male and female
>humans. Since all three Envoys were male, why
>would the aliens have any reason to suspect the
>existance of a second sex? Their physiology was
>obviously extremely, well, alien to our own, and
>the concept of two genders may have been
>completely foreign to them.
> Anyway, that's my guess.

The automatic radio broadcasts that the ship was sending at all times had "all the information they'd need" to build the statues. It's never said exactly what the content of those broadcasts is, but it is implied that they include such things as the next destination of the ship, the ships occupants, and general information about the human species.

>
> -Balanthalus
>
> (BTW, "Stuck" is also my favorite :))

Everybody seems to like that story. I like it, but it's never been one of my favorites. I wrote it initially as a joke, something to do while I was sitting at work on a slow day. I wrote it inbetween bathroom breaks ;-)