Superiority

Poul Anderson's "Wings of Victory" and "Turning Point" are spaceship stories. One criterion for such a categorization is that they could be adapted as episodes of Star Trek although, of course, they are better as they are.

In "Turning Point," the problem - at least it is perceived as such - is a humanoid planetary population whose every member from the youngest to the oldest is many times more intelligent than Einstein or even than whichever individual currently possesses the highest IQ on Earth. 

Having rapidly learned technology from humanity, these Jorillians can be expected to build an interstellar civilization that we will neither understand nor be able to participate in. I would say let them get on with it but the human characters believe that such a development would demoralize mankind. I have been told that, in Battlestar Galactica, parts of the galaxy are inhabited, or at least used, by vastly advanced beings whom the regular characters simply avoid. Peaceful coexistence seems perfectly possible. Human beings used to believe that they shared their Terrestrial and cosmic environments with superior beings. Maybe in future they can live with that as a fact?

Familiar Andersonian touches -

Biblical quotation: "'...what is man that Thou art mindful of him?'" (p. 278)

A dramatic pause in a conversation is punctuated or underlined by the wind:

"There was a stillness. I heard the forest sough in the night around us." (p. 279)

The night signifies: no answer yet.

A problem is solved by a sudden moment of realization:

"Haraszthy stiffened. He sat like stone for an entire minute before he raised his face and whooped aloud.

"'Why not?'" (p. 282)

Four stages: stiffening; stillness; whooping; solution revealed later.

Possible solutions: Exterminate or quarantine the Jorillians? Something else?