Chapter III

The Temple of Embassy gleamed in ethereal beauty under the beams of Neeoorna's five moons. Its ivory pillars lifted slender fingers to the black basalt dome. About its periphery an arched court circled to the entrance where its massive metal gates were embossed with crouching griffins.

Jonathan and Adatha Za passed along the magnificently marbled corridors and entered a deep council room tiered with seats. He paused in the doorway and stared.

On saltwhite benches the representatives of a thousand worlds turned and looked at him. There were reptiles from Neeoorna, lavendar-tinted Zarathzans, blobous creatures from distant Sarboola, thought things of far galaxies, ethereal Tartulians, and queer black beasts that had the intelligence of genius. Against one wall glass enclosures held beings from planets so cold they needed artificial refrigeration to live here. Near the opposite side of the chamber, steamy glass vases held other life forms whose structure needed tremendous heat to exist.

There was a tall round rostrum of some glimmering metal raised like a throne in the center of the room. There stood Shar Bytu, towering over the assembled hundreds. There was a flash of his greenish forearm, and Jonathan stepped forward.

"Approach us, Jonathan Morgan," Shar Bytu called. "We of Neeoorna and the worlds of our universes have waited for you. You are the only Earth creature we could contact, though we tried many. Come, join us."

As he went down the aisle, Jonathan cast sidewise glances at the utterly alien beings that stood and looked at him. Here and there, though, he saw others like himself and the Zarathzans. Humans. Men with two arms and two legs. Women with lissome figures and soft red mouths. He felt a little warmer, and held his head higher, after seeing them.

He came up the steps and stood beside Shar Bytu. The reptile nodded, smiling somewhat.

"We had set great hopes on you. Earthling. Before your eyes you see creatures of bafflement and wonder tinged with a near-despair. The shadowy flames are a mystery and a menace to us. We had hoped--we had hoped strongly, that you might bring the solution to their strange deadliness. I know now they are as queer to you as to us."

"There's more than those flames that's queer to me," replied Jonathan grimly. "First on the list is how I ever managed to get here at all. Where I got all those tricky powers from--"

"That," deprecated Shar Bytu by a gesture of his six-clawed hand. "That is but a simple explanation. You will understand it when I point it out. You are merely the ultimate goal of evolution."

"Oh," nodded Jonathan, and wondered if he looked blank.

"What is the ultimate goal of evolution but perfection?" resumed the reptile. "On Earth Nature has experimented with the dinosaur, the bird, the fish. One by one she discarded them because they were not fit to survive their environment. But all the while Nature was learning. It was making strides. It tested and discarded. The reptile and the early forms of bird and fish and insect life were tossed into the discard. Nature knew there was something lacking.

"She made man. She gave man the inherent ability to fit himself to any environment. She gave man a brain, a brain that gave off energy in the form of thought. Measured energy. Electrical energy. Energy that can be measured and graphed. But Nature, prodigal in her gifts, was also prodigal with man's mind. She gave man nine million brain cells--far more than he ever used. Only a great genius used one percent of those cells!

"Then why was Nature so lavish? In man she had reached her absolute ultimate. There only remained for man to perfect the tremendous, unguessed power of his brain. By thought! By sending out beams of sheer solid thought, by dipping into those millions of brain cells for the ultimate power, the power that would make man--perfect!"

Jonathan closed his eyes, shuddering. He opened his eyes and looked at Shar Bytu.

"How do you know all this?" he whispered.

* * * * *

He thought in the frightened core of him of changes in the space-time continuum, that unguessable eons may have rolled past since last he left the Earth. That Earth was old beyond thought--

Shar Bytu chuckled, "No, I do not have the gift of prophecy, nor am I repeating history. Except by analogy. For as Nature has treated us of a hundred and sixteen suns, so Nature will treat man. Nature and evolution are inexorable, being linked with time. And so she will produce the perfect man--the man absolutely adapted to his own environment.

"We of Neeoorna did this to you, by certain--ah--methods. We operated on you by means known to our scientists for ages. When we have an atavar in our clinics, we open his mind fully to enable him to throw off all connection with past ages. So it was with you. It was not difficult.

"As a result, you are a man immune to harm. You have absolute control over your body, over inanimate objects that exist about you. Once you are aware of what danger threatens, you may avert it by so arranging the electronic groupings within your body either to merge and blend with the danger, or harden into a shield of antidote or corrective.

"Of course, as your brain evolved, it needed the body to feed it, to give it energy. Thus the body became an essential part of it. But the body changed, too, the body will respond to any environment, as a necessary corollary of the brain.

"In short, you are the ultimate evolution. It became the perfect tool of the mind. It did _anything_ the mind ordered it to. So of the third planet of the Sun Duryu. Or Sol."

* * * * *

Jonathan drew a deep breath. He knew with deepest conviction that he had heard truth, bizarre as it was. He was not a man any more. He knew that, within himself. He was as far beyond man, or would be now, with study, as men were above the Neanderthals. He was ultimate man. Man in his final stage. Man multiplied by all the powers that be. Man to the _n_th degree.

Man n_th_!

"Now that I'm here, I've failed you," he grunted hoarsely.

"Not yet. Oh, no. Many of us have failed. They are no longer--here. We still hope that you may, out of your experiences on Earth, construct us an edifice upon which our scientists may find some clue, some hint. All we ask is some idea as to what it is we face. Just a thought. One tiny clue.

"But now you must see how we fight ourselves."

A gigantic, bulbous being, a fishbelly-white due to the heavy cloud formation that sheathed its native planet five light years from Neeoorna, rose to his feet. He turned his many-faceted eyes to the rostrum.

"Shar Bytu," he intoned sonorously, "I ask the right of test for us of the planet Moratoyo. We would seek to cast a shower of atoms at the flames. We have made recent improvements over our former weapon--"

Shar Bytu nodded, and his clawed hand brought an ebony mallet upon the rosewood pulpit where he stood.

"So granted. Session adjourned. The guests of Neeoorna will meet at the proving grounds."

In silence the scientists filed from their seats. Jonathan caught sight of Adatha Za among the Zarathzan delegates, and ran to her. Her hand nestled warmly in his. She flashed her dark eyes at him and smiled.

"I'm more out of place here than an Atheist in church," he said. "Stick to me. I still have to get my bearings."

Her fingers tensed on his, squeezing. He heard her whispered, "I will."

The proving grounds lay semi-circular behind a great green spread of lawn. At the north end of the vast field an arc of white marble terraces lifted rosy columns to the sky. Below the pillars stretched marble benches, now rapidly filling with emissaries.

The Moratoyons marched to a gleaming gun set in concrete in the center of the dusty field behind the lawn. The gun shone a queer white, with two red domes surmounting its breech, and fitted on either side with knobs and levers. It quivered and gleamed in the heat haze that shifted over the proving sands.

Jonathan felt Adatha Za press against him with thigh and shoulder. She choked a whisper to his ears, "It is their atom-gun. It cannot be compared with some others we have seen, but if they've improved it--" her voice broke with a soundless sob. "We hope it may work. But we are--afraid."

Jonathan could almost feel the anxiety and hope around him like a living thing. From the somewhat transparent thought beings of Sallarsee to the robotmen of Kankang, each sat watchful; grim, intent. Those who had lips tensed them to thin lines. Those who had eyes narrowed them expectantly. The others floated or stood, quiescent.

The Moratoyons on the field moved swiftly. They clamped brakes and levers down and locked them; spun wheels and twisted dials. From the steel and cement cradle where it rested, the great cylinder of dull white metal lifted its blunt nose slowly, almost cautiously, and aimed it at the sky.

"It shoots atoms supercharged with light-photons," whispered Adatha Za.

The chief scientist of all Moratoyo paused and looked at Shar Bytu, who nodded. The Moratoyon whirled, shouting harshly, watching his men leap for the firing dials.

One after another the dials spun.

The firing pin was punched.

"God!" choked Jonathan hoarsely, staring in numb horror.

Where once the gun stood bright and shining there was a faint red mist that hung close to earth, beating bloodily in the flood of the arc carbon-dioxide lamps as though welling with life. Then it began to dissipate as a faint breeze wafted across the field.

There was a little hole in the ground, where the gun had been.

Jonathan became aware slowly of Adatha Za's hand that clung like a vise about his left wrist. He looked at her, saw her eyes convulsively closed; saw two tears trickling from beneath her long dark lashes.

Her moist red mouth trembled as she whispered, "They all fail. All of them. Like that. One moment they are here. Then they are gone. It is almost as if they destroyed themselves."

Jonathan put an arm around her naked shoulders and hugged her against his chest.

"Buck up," he grated. "We aren't licked yet. Why, hell! We haven't started to fight, yet!"

He saw Morka Kar sneering at him from two stadium seats away, his thin mouth curling in fanatical contempt. He felt the hate beat redly from the man's eyes. Jonathan bared his teeth in answer to that fierce, unspoken taunt.

He said, loud enough for the Zarathzan to hear, "One of us will find a way. We're bound to. There's a key to that riddle. There has to be. The universe can't end--not like this--"

"Perhaps," said Morka Kar loudly, "the Earthling might amuse the shadows by--tumbling?"

Jonathan didn't know until later that Adatha Za put out a hand to restrain him. He was away like a sprinter, and his big left fist was lifting, swiftly. His fist hit Morka Kar, a little to one side of his jaw.

It snapped the Zarathzan's head around and backwards, and lifted him off his feet, and dropped him three seats below.

* * * * *

Morka Kar lay there outstretched, unmoving. Jonathan grinned hugely and rubbed his knuckles. It began to penetrate after a while that the others were staring at him in complete horror.

Adatha Za gasped and sobbed, then came and stood silently beside him, her soft hand reaching for his fist. She held her dark head high, and her eyes glared defiance.

"A beast--"

"--useless to expect help from things still ruled by emotion--"

"--a mistake. Shar Bytu should not--"

He heard the murmurs and the whispers, but Adatha Za was speaking, saying, "Morka Kar insulted him before the assembly was called. He is not like us, this Earthling. He fights when he is attacked!"

Shar Bytu waddled forward, his reptilian face grave. He blinked a little curious, at Jonathan.

"We cannot have disturbances among ourselves," he said. "We need scientific and philosophic calm to meet the shadow menace."

"It wasn't what he said," Jonathan said softly. "It was the way he said it. He was asking for it."

"Asking for what?" puzzled Shar Bytu, looking about.

The reptile, moving his ponderous head in looking for what Morka Kar had asked, struck Jonathan as unconsciously funny. He grinned, and was buoyed up.

He said, "I'm sorry. I don't want to break up any gathering like this. Apparently my action strikes you as something primitive. I don't look at it that way at all. I didn't ask to be brought here, or to be given the powers to make the trip. Now that I'm here, however, I'll do everything I can to help. Naturally. But no Zarathzan's going to walk all over me whenever he feels like it."

A snarl answered him. Morka Kar was climbing unsteadily to his feet, aided by two Goqualian metallic robotmen.

"Shar Bytu," fumed the Zarathzan, shaking off the hands that held him. "It has been long since a being of my standing indulged in personal combat, but I wish to meet this Earthling. Just the two of us. Face to face, mind to mind, in mental monomachy!"

Adatha Za went white. Shar Bytu looked gravely unhappy.

Shar Bytu whispered, "I had hoped to learn something from the Earth man--"

Jonathan interrupted, "You're all conceding victory to Morka Kar. Maybe so, maybe not. That isn't just what I want to say, though. The main thing that occupies us is the problem of the flames, or shadows.

"Much as I hate to admit it, I'm afraid I'm not much help against them. You see, when you gave me the powers of ultimate evolution, my scientific and other knowledge didn't keep pace with them. There are thousands of Earth men who would have made better ambassadors than I. Apparently I was more psychic, perhaps more malleable in brain structure, than they. I don't presume to know the whys and wherefores of that. I'm here and I'm glad I'm here. If I can help, I will.

"But--much as I hate to admit it, I'm out of my depth. Those shadows, or whatever it is out there in space, is beyond me. So if you lose me--which I hope you don't--you aren't losing too much."

Jonathan took a deep breath; went on, "A poet on Earth once said something about not loving a woman loved he not honor more. Well, I love the universe, but I'm not hiding behind any danger to it when a man wants to fight me for a woman I--love."

He heard Adatha Za's quickened breathing; felt her hand touch his arm and squeeze. He stood there with her hand on his arm and looked about him, at the thought beings and the robotmen and the reptiles. On a few faces, on the faces of those who looked most like men, he read a grave applause. On the features of the others, a blank attention, as though he spoke of geology to a monkey. They just couldn't get his viewpoint at all.

But Morka Kar did, and he snarled. His sullen mouth writhed and his eyes glowed fiercely as he glanced from Adatha Za to Jonathan.

"Another thing," grated Jonathan, and he looked Morka Kar full in the eyes, "I may be an animal, but I know others who possess animal characteristics--no matter what they mistakenly call themselves."

Morka Kar fought in the metal arms of the robotmen who flanked him. Shar Bytu turned and fixed him with a cold eye.

"You will be still, Zarathzan," he whispered icily. "I have long heard your taunts to one or another of our group. As yet the deputation from Zarathza has not attempted the flames, though I have heard many words spoken by them of it."

Morka Kar quieted swiftly.

"The mental monomachy will occur tomorrow at this place. Until then I forbid Morka Kar and the Earthling to meet. If harm befalls either of them, the other shall pay with his life. See to it."

He turned and waddled away. Morka Kar seethed a glance at Jonathan, then followed the reptile. The others split into groups, silently transmitting puzzled thoughts.

* * * * *

Adatha Za sat on the stone bench and looked up at him, and her red mouth was rueful. Her eyes beneath the dark fringes of her lashes accused him.

"I had hoped that some day you would visit Zarathza with me," she said softly. "Now you--"

"Now nothing has changed," grinned Jonathan, dropping beside her and taking her soft hands between his. "Shar Bytu made me infinite, didn't he? How can Morka Kar hurt me?"

Her eyes widened in concern. "But Morka Kar is also infinite, as you put it. He will fight your mind. You do not know the sciences that Morka Kar knows. Not knowing what he can do against you, you will be helpless. He will stun your brain, drive it mad, then--destroy it."

"If I can't think as fast as that bullying windbag, I'm willing to be destroyed."

Adatha Za sounded annoyed. "It is not a question of thinking _fast_, although that does enter into it. It is more a matter of knowing how to oppose the weapons that Morka Kar will create to fight you."

"--that he will _create_?"

"Certainly. Of old on Zarathza, men carried swords and shields. Later they used percussion guns, still later, atomic disintegrators. But as the years passed into eons, and as life on Zarathza evolved, it was discovered that these weapons were of no use against a trained mind that could shoot a bolt of mental force against the weapon to destroy it. So men went naked into combat and there they thought up their weapons swiftly, through force of mind alone. Their opponents met their mental creations with defenses and weapons of their own. The more unusual the weapon, the easier it was to decide the victor."

Jonathan whistled.

"My ideas on weapons stop about at a .45 caliber automatic. A sword is useless. So's a bow and arrows. Or a spear. You say Zarathza had atomic disintegrators a long time ago, eh?"

The girl shivered.

"Atomic disintegrators are seen only in museums today," she whispered. "And you of Earth do not even have them. Lallista! You are a dead man walking around."

"Hey," chuckled Jonathan, grabbing her arms and pulling her around to face him. "Chin up. I may not know much about weapons, but I'll bet I've still got a trick or two up my sleeve. I'll show that windbag where he gets off. You wait. You'll see."

Her eyes begged his for reassurance. She lay close against him and her mouth quivered into a smile.

"You were--joking me, then? You do know of weapons that you haven't mentioned?"

"Sure," he boasted gaily. "Lots of them. Brass knuckles. Galloping dominoes. A ginrickey. A mickey finn. The Brooklyn Dodgers."

"I am so glad," she whispered. "That makes me feel so much better."

She did not see his frown as she walked with him across the white composition walk toward their guest quarters. He wasn't thinking of himself. He was wondering what Morka Kar would do to her--after he got through with him.

"Just the same," the girl was saying, "I think that I will show you some of the weapons Morka Kar may use. Those, at least, that I know. We will go and sit together beneath the moons, and I will teach them to you, one after the other."

Jonathan looked at her red mouth and grinned, "I'll show you a weapon, too. On Earth we call it a--kiss."

The night was warm and the moons that hurtled across the Neeoornian sky shed a pale lustre on the gardens where Adatha Za and Jonathan Morgan sat. Between her legs lay a box filled with strips of queerly colored metals, vials of shining dull and iridescent chemicals, containers and compartments of tubes and alloys.

"It is from these that Morka Kar will fashion his weapons," she said, fingering the objects before her. "From the mints provided by the monomachy coffer, he will be enabled to throw weapon after weapon at you. For instance, this--from this he will make a molecular magnetizer that will cause the molecules that make up your body so to attract each other that your body will shrink in upon itself--assume the density of a dwarf star--fall through the earth to the center of this planet! Or with this he could form a ray that is hot as the hottest sun in the universe. He may not use that. It is a weapon that even Morka Kar fears. It is too deadly. Were it to escape his mental control, it could blow up the entire planet. Now from this tube--"

Jonathan listened dutifully. He was in this away over his head, and no amount of last minute cramming would help. To assimilate this knowledge would require years. He wasn't quitting, but he realized that if he did win, it would be by some method purely Earthian, and not by a study of Zarathzan weaponry.

He looked at Adatha Za. He put his hands on her soft shoulders and turned her toward him. Her eyes were questioning.

"We have a weapon on Earth, too," he whispered. "It's a kiss. Do you Zarathzans have the kiss?"

With arched brows the girl followed his thought, then shook her head a little disdainfully, saying, "No. That does not seem to be any sort of armament I know. Is it a good weapon?"

"The best there is on a night like this--with a girl like you."

* * * * *

Her mouth was warm and soft and moist beneath his. His lips held hers for a long time before he let her go. She opened her long-lashed eyes slowly, staring at him.

"That is no weapon," she accused softly. She put her arms up and drew his head down again, whispering, "--but I like it. I should really study it some more."

This time it was the girl whose lips clung.

Jonathan laughed, "For a Zarathzan you catch on pretty quickly."

"I'm a scientist," she retorted.

Nestled in his arms, with her hair flooding his chest and shoulder, Adatha Za said, "I wish--I wish that you and I could go back to Zarathza together, Jonathan Morgan. In my villa beside the Jaralayan Sea I would love to study this kiss-weapon of yours. It is such a nice weapon, even though it does frighten me a little."

She gasped suddenly and tried to sit up, but Jonathan's long arms held her.

"Now what's eating you?" he wanted to know.

"That kiss--how many times have you experimented with that weapon on Earth?"

Jonathan chuckled, "Next thing you'll be telling me I do it like an expert!"

Head to one side, Adatha Za surveyed him. At last she nodded pertly, laughing a little.

"Yes, I think you do. And no one ever became perfect without practice!"

"Don't forget. Shar Bytu made me a perfectionist."

Adatha Za sighed as she nestled back into his arms, and whispered, "There are some things, Jonathan Morgan, that even evolution can't do."