The visitor, making his way through the main laboratory of The Hill, up to six of the of a big Norwegian seated at an electrono-optical bench. Drawing an pistol, he the scientist seven times, as fast as he the trigger; twice through the brain, five times, closely spaced, through the spine.
"Ah, Gharlane of Eddore, I have been you to look me up. Sit down." Blonde, blue-eyed Dr. Nels Bergenholm, by the passage of the of through his and body, and one hand at a his own.
"But those were not ordinary projectiles!" the visitor protested. Neither person—or rather, entity—was in the least that no one else had paid any attention to what had happened, but it was clear that the one was taken by the failure of his attack. "They should have that of flesh—should at least have you to Arisia, where you belong."
"Ordinary or extraordinary, what matter? As you, in the of Gray Roger, told Conway Costigan a time since, 'I permitted that, as a of futility.' Know, Gharlane, once and for all, that you will no longer be allowed to act directly against any of Civilization, situate. We of Arisia will not in person with your of the two as you have planned it, since the and are necessary—and, I may add, sufficient—to produce the Civilization which must and shall come into being. Therefore, neither will you, or any other Eddorian, so interfere. You will go to Eddore and you will there."
"Think you so?" Gharlane sneered. "You, who have been so of us for over two thousand Tellurian years that you not let us learn of you? So of us that you not take any action to the of any one of your Civilizations upon any one of the worlds of either galaxy? So that you not, now, meet me mind to mind, but upon the use of this slow and us?"
"Either your is loose, confused, and turbid, which I do not to be the case, or you are trying to me into that you are stupid." Bergenholm's voice was calm, unmoved. "I do not think that you will go to Eddore; I know it. You, too, as soon as you have upon matters, will know it. You against the use of spoken language it is, as you know, the easiest, simplest, and way of you from any of the knowledge for which you are so searching. As to a meeting of our two minds, they met just you, as Gray Roger, that which your entire long ago. As a of that meeting I so learned every line and of your life pattern as to be able to you by your symbol, Gharlane of Eddore, you know nothing of me save that I am an Arisian, a which has been from the first."
In an attempt to create a diversion, Gharlane the zone of which he had been holding; but the Arisian took it over so that no being range was of any change.
"It is true that for many of time we our from you," Bergenholm on without a break. "Since the for that will still you, I will tell you what it was. Had you Eddorians learned of us sooner you might have been able to a of power to prevent the of an end which is now certain.
"It is true that your operations as Lo Sung of Uighar were not constrained. As Mithridates of Pontus—as Sulla, Marius, and Nero of Rome—as Hannibal of Carthage—as those self-effacing Alcixerxes of Greece and Menocoptes of Egypt—as Genghis Khan and Attila and the Kaiser and Mussolini and Hitler and the Tyrant of Asia—you were allowed to do as you pleased. Similar upon Rigel Four, Velantia, Palain Seven, and were also allowed to without opposition. With the of Virgil Samms, however, the time to put an end to your pernicious, obstructive, and activities. I therefore a you and those who would otherwise be against you."
"But why now? Why not thousands of ago? And why Virgil Samms?"
"To answer those questions would be to give you valuable data. You may—too late—be able to answer them yourself. But to continue: you me, and all Arisia, of cowardice; an and thought. Reflect, please, upon the of your failure in the of Roger's planetoid; upon the that you have nothing since that time; upon the in which you now yourself.
"Even though the of of your is and mechanistic, and you ours as being 'philosophic' and 'impractical', you found—much to your surprise—that your most physical are not able to affect this of which I am now energizing, to say nothing of the which is I.
"If this is the result of the of the second-in-command of Eddore's Innermost Circle ... but no, my cannot be that at fault. Overconfidence—the tyrant's proclivity to an opponent—these have put you into a false position; but I that they will not to do so in any affair."
"Rest that they will not!" Gharlane snarled. "It may not be—exactly—cowardice. It is, however, something closely akin. If you have against us at any time in the past, you would have done so. If you act against us now, you would be acting, not talking. That is elementary—self-evidently true. So true that you have not to it—nor would you me to you if you did." Cold black level into of Norwegian blue.
"Deny it? No. I am glad, however, that you used the word 'effectively' of 'openly'; for we have been acting against you since these newly-formed to permit of the of life."
"What? You have? How?"
"That, too, you may learn—too late. I have now said all I to say. I will give you no more information. Since you already know that there are more adult Arisians than there are Eddorians, so that at least one of us can his full attention to the direct of any one of you, it is clear to you that it makes no to me you elect to go or to stay. I can and I will here as long as you do; I can and I will you you out of the of space protected by Eddorian screen, you go. The election is yours."
Gharlane disappeared. So did the Arisian—instantaneously. Dr. Nels Bergenholm, however, remained. Turning, he his work where he had left off, what he had been doing and what he was going to do to it. He the zone of compulsion, which he had been upon every being or hearing, so that no one suspected, then or ever, that anything out of the ordinary had happened. He these and did these in of the that the of which his of the Triplanetary Service as Nels Bergenholm was then being energized, not by the powerful mind of Drounli the Molder, but by an Arisian child too to be of any use in that which was about to occur.
Arisia was ready. Every Arisian mind of adult, or of near-adult was to act when the moment of action should come. They were not, however, tense. While not in any routine, that which they were about to do had been for many of time. They what they were going to do, and how to do it. They waited.
"My is not clear the of events from the that the of which Drounli is a part did not Gharlane of Eddore while he was Gray Roger," a Watchman, Eukonidor by symbol, into the assembled mind. "May I take a moment of this time in which to spread my visualization, for and instruction?"
"You may, youth." The Elders of Arisia—the of that powerful race—fused their minds into one mind and gave approval. "That will be time well spent. Think on."
"Separated from the other Eddorians by inter-galactic as he then was, Gharlane have been and have been destroyed," the pointed out, as he spread his in the public mind. "Since it is that his would have Eddore and to that would have helped us, it is that some will from him to live. Some points are clear enough: that Gharlane and his will that the Arisian not kill him, since it did not; that the Eddorians, of our powers and us their inferiors, will not be to such as atomic-energy-powered screens against third-level until such a time as it will be too late for those to save their from extinction; that they will, in all probability, that the Galactic Patrol which is so soon to come into being will in be the in that extinction. It is not clear, however, in view of the above facts, why it has now necessary for us to one Eddorian upon Eddore. Nor can I or with any the to be in the final out of the race; I data events which and which many, many my birth. I am unable to that my and memory have been so imperfect—can it be that none of that data is, or has been available?"
"That, youth, is the fact. While your of the is of not as as as it will be after more of labor, your of knowledge is as complete as that of any other of our number."
"I see." Eukonidor gave the of a of complete understanding. "It is necessary, and the death of a Eddorian—a Watchman—will be sufficient. Nor will it be either or to Eddore's Innermost Circle that the total mind of Arisia should be able to kill such a entity. I see."
Then silence; and waiting. Minutes? Or days? Or weeks? Who can tell? What time to any Arisian?
Then Drounli arrived; in the of his The Hill—what inter-galactic to the speed of thought? He his mind with those of the three other Molders of Civilization. The and mind of Arisia, and ready, only his coming, itself through space. That tremendous, that unknown of at Eddore's screen in the same as did the that was Gharlane. The Eddorian, however, through without opposition; the Arisians did not.
Some two thousand years ago, when the Coalescence occurred—the event which was to make each of the two with planets—the Arisians were already an race; so that they were then of the of planets. The Eddorians, it is believed, were older still. The Arisians were native to this, our normal space-time continuum; the Eddorians were not.
Eddore was—and is—huge, dense, and hot. Its is not air, as we of small, green Terra, know air, but is a mixture of to only in chemical laboratories. Its hydrosphere, while it some water, is a poisonous, stinking, corrosive, and liquid.
And the Eddorians were as different from any people we know as Eddore is different from the to our space and time. They were, to our senses, monstrous; almost incomprehensible. They were amorphous, amoeboid, sexless. Not or parthenogenetic, but sexless; with a unknown in any Earthly of life higher than the yeasts. Thus they were, to all and purposes and for death by violence, immortal; for each one, after having for hundreds of thousands of Tellurian years and having its to live and to learn, into two new individuals, each of which, in to in full its parent's mind and memories and knowledges, had also a brand-new and a capacity.
And, since life was, there had been competition. Competition for power. Knowledge was while only as it to power. Warfare began, and aged, and continued; the possible only to such as those. Their minds, already powerful, and under the of struggle.
But peace was not of. Strife continued, at higher and higher of violence, until two apparent. First, that every Eddorian who be killed by physical had already died; that the had such powers of mind, such complete of physical as well as mental, that they not be by physical force. Second, that the through which they had been their every to extermination, their sun had to cool; that their would very soon so cold that it would be for them again to live their normal physical lives.
Thus there came about an armistice. The Eddorians together—not without friction—in the of by the use of which they moved their across light-years of space to a younger, sun. Then, Eddore once more at its and norm, was resumed. Mental battle, this time, that on for more than a hundred thousand Eddorian years; the last ten thousand of which not a single Eddorian died.
Realizing the of such endeavor, the a peace of sorts. Since each had an for power, and since it had clear that they neither kill each other, they would and planets—enough galaxies—so that each Eddorian have as much power and authority as he possibly handle.
What that there were not that many in their native space? There were other spaces, an number of them; some of which, it was certain, would millions upon millions of of only two or three. By mind and by machine they the continua; they the hyper-spatial and the drive; they their planet, space-ship-wise, through space after space after space.
And thus, after the Coalescence began, Eddore came into our space-time; and here, of the of already and the millions more about to come into existence, it stayed. Here was what they had wanted since their beginnings; here were enough, here were for the of power, to the insatiable. There was no longer any need for them to each other; they now whole-heartedly—as long as each was more—and more and MORE!
Enphilisor, a Arisian, his mind as was its wont, with the Eddorians in this space. Inoffensive, naive, innocent, he was measure at their of his greeting; but in the his mind to their attacks, he learned the them.
The mind of the Elders of Arisia, however, was not surprised. The Arisians, while not as as their opponents, and peaceful as well, were ahead of them in the pure science of the mind. The Elders had long of the Eddorians and of their through plenum after plenum. Their Visualizations of the Cosmic All had long since forecast, with certainty, the which had now occurred. They had long what they would have to do. They did it. So as to set up no opposition they entered the Eddorians' minds and sealed off all knowledge of Arisia. They withdrew, tracelessly.
They did not have much data, it is true; but no more be at that time. If any one of those minds had been any for alarm, any point of doubt, they would have had time in which to able to the Arisians out of this space a to the Eddorians—the as yet designed Galactic Patrol—could be forged. The Arisians could, then, have by alone all the Eddorians the All-Highest and his Innermost Circle, safe their then shield; but as long as they not make a clean they not attack—then.
Be it that the Arisians were not for themselves. As or as a they had nothing to fear. Even less than the Eddorians they be killed by any possible of physical force. Past masters of science, they that no possible of Eddorian kill any one of them. And if they were to be out of normal space, what matter? To such as theirs, any space would as well as any other.
No, they were for an ideal; for the peaceful, harmonious, liberty-loving Civilization which they had as throughout, and the of of, two Island Universes. Also, they a weight of responsibility. Since all these races, and yet to appear, had from and would from the Arisian life-spores which permeated this particular space, they all were and would be, at bottom, Arisian. It was that Arisia would them to the of such a rapacious, such a tyrannical, such a of monsters.
Therefore the Arisians fought; if insidiously. They did not—they not—interfere openly with Eddore's of world after world; with Eddore's of Civilization after Civilization. They did, however, see to it, by and the of blood-lines upon planets, that the of the level of was definitely and upward.
Four Molders of Civilization—Drounli, Kriedigan, Nedanillor, and Brolenteen, who, in fusion, the "Mentor of Arisia" who was to to every of Civilization's Lens—were for the Arisian program of upon the four of Tellus, Rigel IV, Velantia, and Palain VII. Drounli upon Tellus two lines of blood. In male line of the Kinnisons to long the of Tellurian history. Kinnexa of Atlantis, of one Kinnison and sister of another, is the of the blood to be named in these annals; but the line was then already old. So was the other line; its length, male and female, by red-bronze-auburn and gold-flecked, eyes.
Nor did these mix. Drounli had it for them to mix until the penultimate stage of should have been reached.
While that stage was still in the Virgil Samms appeared, and all Arisia that the time had come to the Eddorians openly, mind to mind. Gharlane-Roger was curbed, and sharply. Every Eddorian, he was working, his every line of blocked.
Gharlane, as has been intimated, a and his Arisian blocker, with results already told. At that failure Gharlane that there was something amiss; that it had been for over two thousand Tellurian years. Really for the time in his long life, he to Eddore; to his and to take with them as to what should be done. And the and of all Arisia was only an him.
Arisia Eddore's screen, and in the of impact that screen down. And then, and all by the planet's defenders, the Arisian split. The Elders, all the Molders, the Eddorian who had been that screen—threw around him an of force—yanked him out into inter-galactic space.
Then, in resistlessly, they the out. And the died under their probings, the Elders of Arisia learned that the Eddorian and all of his had known. They then to Arisia, their younger, weaker, partially-developed to do they against Eddore.
Whether the attack of these would be stopped at the second, the third, the fourth, or the screen; they would the itself and do some being off; was immaterial. Eddore must be allowed and would be allowed to that with ease. For to come the Eddorians must and would that they had nothing to from Arisia.
The battle, however, had been won. The Arisian now be to every of the which was to come. It was no at which the Arisians arrived, since their all in that the only possible method of out the Eddorians would also of end their own usefulness as Guardians of Civilization.
Such an outcome having been necessary, however, the Arisians it, and toward it, unhesitatingly.
