But the invaders were tearing through s.p.a.ce at for-midable speeds. Nor was the terrifying trellis properly in phase; whoever controlled it could not control its precise adjustment; its scissor action was too slow-many ships hurtled through its interstices and into the ranks of the Yinnisfar fleet.

Flagship came through. The trellis snapped uselessly behind it. A quick glance at the schematic showed Prim he had only about forty ships left, raggedly out of for-mation.

"Superfusers-fire!" he roared.

n.o.body in that immense melee of armour had ever been in a s.p.a.ce battle before. The galaxy in its tired old age had long since hung up its swords. Of all the astute brains following the rapid interplay of strategy, Prim's was the quickest to seize advantage. The mighty ranks of Yinnisfar had placed too much reliance on their trellis device; they were temporarily numbed to find survivors on their side of it. Owlenj shook them out of their numbness.

Sunbursts of superfuses cascaded among them, leap-ing and feeding from ship to ship, corruscating with cosmic energy, while the attackers plunged through their devasted ranks and were away. The Yinnisfar vessels were also in rapid movement. In no time they had dis-persed, safe from the fusion centre where twenty score of their sister ships perished.

"We're through!" you said. "On to Yinnisfar itself. It will ransom our safety!"

The enemy fleet was not so easily outdistanced, how-ever. Several units were already overtaking them at staggering velocity. Among them was the thirty-mile-long craft they had sighted some days ago.

"And there are three more like it!" Welded yelled from his position at the ports. "Look! How can anything travel that fast?"

Prim wrenched the Flagship into a spin south. They altered course just in time the overtakers launched a black ma.s.s like smoke directly ahead of their old posi-tion; the smoke was molecularized ceetee, capable of riddling the Flagship like moth in carpet, leaving it mere gravel over the s.p.a.ceways. In this manoeuvre, sight of the four giant vessels was lost. Then they spun into sight again, and with mind-wrenching turns formed the four points of an enormous square ahead of the Flagship.

"No human could stand G's like that. They are robot-controlled," you said, gripped by the fascination of battle.

"And they put out the trellis screen!" Prim said. It was a flash of inspiration, shortly to be proved correct.

He turned and barked orders at Bombardment Bay, telling them to hit the giants at any cost. By now, Flag-ship was on its own, the rest of its company disintegrated or scattered far away.

The four giants were in position. Again the h.e.l.lish blue pattern scissored across Flagship's course. Prim had no time to swerve away-they racketed towards the dazzling pattern. At the last second, someone in Bombardment fired a superfuser dead ahead.

Superfuser and trellis met.

The two insensate energies clawed each other like beasts of prey. Instead of spreading its usual type of explosion, the fusion climbed the writhing squares of trellis, gobbling as it climbed. At the centre, it left a widening circle of nothingness, through which Flagship shot unharmed. It climbed to the trellis corners, barbed fire devouring fire. It reached the four giant vessels.

Just for a moment they remained intact, each radiat-ing a three dimensional rainbow which flickered magically up and down the spectrum and was visible hundreds of light-years away. Then that blinding beauty fused, the four rainbow orbs merged and became anti-light. They sucked, guttered and went out-and where they had been a great gap in the nothingness of the universe appeared and spread. The ineluctable fabric of s.p.a.ce itself was being devoured.

Several Yinnisfar ships were engulfed in this cata-clysm. Flagship was spared no time to rejoice. The moment of its greatest triumph was also the moment of its destruction. A translucent globe from an enemy destroyer caught its dorsal vane.

Like an octopus hauling itself aboard a rowing boat, the globe spread out tentacles of light and engulfed Flag-ship.

Prim swore furiously.

"Nothing responds any more," he said, dropping his hands to his side.

It was doubtful if anyone heard him. A continuous sizzle filled their ears while their body electricity jumped in protest at what was taking place. The scene was rendered in unforgettable hues of orange and black, as the light penetrated everything. Faces, clothes, floor, instruments, all were ravaged.

Then it was over, that moment of near madness. They were, left in darkness, only pale starlight touching their pale faces. Prim staggered for the controls. He swept his hand wildly over banks of instruments. All were dead.

"We're finished!" he announced. "Not a whisper of life anywhere. Even the air purifier is finished.'

He sank down, covering his face with his hands. For a while n.o.body spoke; all were emotionally drained by the apocalyptic rigours of battle, the sag of defeat.

"They must be chivalrous on Yinnisfar," you said at length. "They will have some sort of code of battle.

They will come and take us from here. We shall be honour-ably treated."

Welded said harshly from a corner, "You still find room for c.o.c.kiness! We ought to kill you now."

"Let's get him," One-Eye said, but made no move. They were all just lumps against the wall of starlight, lumps which spoke without relevance.

"I only feel relaxed," you said. "The battle is over. We have lost honourably. Look at your captain here, half-dead with fatigue. He fought well, resourcefully. No blame lies with him that we lost the gamble.

Now he can sit back without remorse-and we can do the same- knowing the future is not in our hands. For sure they will be here to collect us at any moment, and give us an honourable trial on Yinnisfar." The others made you no answer.

7.

The air on Flagship bridge was growing foul when the emissaries of Yinnisfar arrived as you had predicted. They cut their way rapidly through the hull, rounded up every dazed man aboard and transferred them to their own ship. Full speed was then made towards Yinnisfar. Flagship was left to its own ruined devices.

You had been given a separate room with Prim, One Eye and Welded. The two latter had been quite drained of all life by the magnitude of recent events. They sat together now like a pair of dummies, not speaking. Prim was in better shape, but reaction had now hit him, and he lay shaking on a couch. So you alone stood by the port and took in the spectacle as Yinnisfar approached.

The planet which for so long had played such a prominent role in the galaxy was a curious spectacle at this late date in its history. About its equator circled two splendid rings, one beyond the other. Of these rings, one was natural and consisted of the debris of Luna, dis-integrated when an antique craft embedded in Iri had suddenly exploded. The other ring was nothing more nor less than a sc.r.a.pyard.

Breaking up of s.p.a.ce ships on the ground had been forbidden ages ago on Yinnisfar, where piles of rusting metal were considered unsightly; instead, every fragment of sc.r.a.p was thrown into the orbit of the ring. Over a vast period of time, this ring had grown until it was fifty miles deep and several hun-dred wide. Far from being ugly, it was a thing of beauty, one of the seventeen wonders of the galaxy. Though composed entirely of objects which ranged from old motors to spoons, from iron lungs to shreds of unidentifi-able metal, it gleamed like an array of countless jewels, every Inch of metal polished eternally by the ceaseless wash of meteoric dust.

When the ship in which you were held landed on the day side of the planet, this ring was still faintly visible, straining like an arch right round heaven.

This was Yinnisfar of tears and pleasure, stuffed with forgotten memory and protracted time.

After some delay, you and the others were dis-embarked, transferred to a small surface ship and taken to the Court of the Highest Suzerain in the City of Nunon. The Flagship crew was spirited off in one direc-tion and the troops in suspended animation in another, while you and the other three were ushered into a room little bigger than a cubicle. Here again was more delay. Food was brought, but you alone had inclination enough to eat it, supplementing it with your own supplies which you carried on your person.

Various dignitaries visited you, most of them depart-ing gloomily without speaking. Through a narrow window you looked out on to a courtyard. Groups of men and women stood about aimlessly, and no face was without its stamp of worry. Counsellors walked as if climbing a dark stair. It became clear some grave crisis pended; its threat hung almost tangibly over the whole court.

Finally and unexpectedly, an order reached your guards. With a flurry of excitement you and the three with you were brought into a marble hall of audience and so into the personal presence of the Highest, Suzerain Inherit of Yinnisfar and the Region of Yinnisfar.

He was a pale man, dressed austerely in dark satins. He reclined on a couch. His features were insipid, yet his eyes spoke of intelligence and his voice was firm. Though his general pose suggested lethargy, his head was carried with an alertness that did not escape your attention.

He looked you over in leisurely fashion, weighing each of your group in turn, and finally addressed you as the obvious leader. He spoke without preamble.

"You barbarians, by the wicked folly of your actions, have wrought havoc in the natural order of things; your cupidity is creating the most terrible repercussions."

You bowed and said with irony, "We regret it if we disturbed the great empire of Yinnisfar."

"Pah! I do not refer to the empire." He waved his hand as if the empire were a mere bauble, beneath his interest. "I referred to the cosmos itself, by whose grace we all exist. The forces of nature have become unknit."

You looked at him interrogatively, saying nothing.

"I will explain the fate which now threatens us," the Highest said, "in the hope you may comprehend at least something of it. I would like you to die knowing a little of what you have done. Now. This galaxy of ours is old beyond your imagining; philosophers, theologians and scientists combine to tell us that its duration, vast but not infinite, is nearing an end. I presume even you of the outer rim know that much?"

"The rumour circulated," you murmured.

"I am pleased to hear that some wisdom penetrates to your benighted darkness. We have been given reason to suppose, in these last few hours, that the galaxy-like an old curtain crumbling under its own weight-may now be dissolving; that this, in fact, is the end of all things, of past and future, and of all men."

He paused in vain to watch for any shadows of alarm to cross your face, then continued composedly, ignoring the frightened responses of your fellow captives.

"The dissolution was begun by your foolishness. Peace has reigned in the Region for more generations than you have hairs on your head. But when we learned your fleet was coming with obviously hostile intent, we were obliged to refurbish the fearful weapons of our fore-fathers. From every civilized planet, the ancient ships and engines of attack-unused since the breakdowns of the Self-Perpetuating War-were resurrected. Systems of production, schemes of battle, organizations of fight-ing men-all had to be resurrected from the dead past. It required haste such as we have never known, and regimentation such as we detest. Our every sinew was strained, as a man may twist a muscle striking at a mosquito. Even if no greater peril beset us, that mighty effort to rearm has struck a heavy blow at our stability- it may indeed even cause the entire economic structure of the empire to crash."

"That's worth a cheer anyway," One-Eye said, with an attempt at courage.

The Highest regarded him superciliously for a long moment, before continuing his discourse without com-ment.

"We found, in our hurried search for weapons to use against you, one which had been invented eons ago and never used. It was considered devastatingly dangerous, since it harnessed the electrogravition forces of the complex of s.p.a.ce itself. Four gigantic machines called turbulators activated this force; they were the four ships you destroyed."

"We saw one of them on the margins of the Region days ago," Prim said. He had been following the Highest with excitement, obviously enthralled by his description of a gigantic military organization grinding into action.

"The four turbulators had to be called from the distant quarters of the Region, where our ancestors had dis-carded them," the Highest agreed. "They were a.s.sembled together and stationed across the course of your fleet with the results that you saw. That trellis pattern is the basic pattern of all creation itself. By ill chance, you destroyed it, or rather caused it to begin consuming itself. Our scientists suggest that such is the antiquity of our galaxy, it no longer retains its old stability. Although the process is invisible, the disintegra-tion you began is still taking place-spreading rapidly, in fact, and nothing can check it."

Prim staggered back, almost as if he had been struck. He b.u.mped into Welded and One-Eye, and the three stood wordlessly together.

The Highest stared at you, expecting a reply. As if uncertain for the first time, you looked searchingly at One-Eye and the others; they stared blankly ahead, too absorbed with the prospect of catastrophe to notice you.

"Your scientists are to be congratulated," you said. "They are late with their discovery of instability, but at least they have found it out for themselves. It is a catas-trophe my friends here and I did not begin; it began long ago, and it was about that that I came to Yinnisfar to tell them-and you."

For the first time, the Highest showed emotion. He rose from the couch, clutching its head fiercely. "You impertinent barbarian dog, you came here to rape and loot and pillage. What do you know of these matters?"

"I came here to announce the end of things," you told him. "How I got here, whether as captive or victor, was no concern of mine, so long as the peoples of every world had been roused to know of my coming. That was why I staged the invasion; such a thing is easily done, provided you can read and provoke the few basic human pa.s.sions. If I had come here alone, who would have known it or cared?

As it is, the whole galaxy has its eyes open and focused here on Yinnisfar. They can die know-ing the truth."

"Indeed?" The Highest raised one scornful imperial eyebrow. "Before I have you taken out and disintegrated, fellow, perhaps you would care to tell me about this truth over which you have gone to such devious trouble?"

"By all means," you replied. "Possibly you would care for a practical demonstration first?"

But the Highest brushed the suggestion aside, snapping his fingers. "You are a braggart!" he said energetically. "You waste my time, and there is little enough of that left. Gentlemen of the guard, execute this fellow and have his body removed. The other three, by the look of them, will go quietly."

The guard advanced in a half-circle, eager at an unprecedented chance to try their art on living flesh.

"This is the sort of demonstration I had in mind," you said, turning to meet them.

Fourteen men comprised the guard. Their uniforms were brightly unmilitary, laced, epauletted and braided; but their long antique swords looked functional in every inch, and now these swords were bared and thrust towards you.

Without hesitation you advanced towards the nearest soldier who advanced towards you. He, with equal decision, threw himself at you, bringing down his sword with a heavy blow at your head. You flung up your arm and caught the blade full on it.

The sword rang and crumbled into bits, as if turned to dust. The swordsman fell back in alarm.

The other guards were on you, thrusting and slicing. Their swords crumpled and snapped against you-not a one but wrecked itself against your body. They flung themselves at you. You pushed with your hands and their bones snapped, their arms crumpled as uselessly as their swords had done. For you it must have seemed like a fight in a dream, where every adversary is a thing of paper. Their cries were like the tearing of thin tissue.

When it was borne into them that you had-how would they think of it?-a secret power, they fell back gasping and groaning. You saw then that from a balcony that had appeared in the blank wall above you the snout of a wicked-looking machine was trained on you.

Despite the awe-striking scene he had just witnessed, the Highest retained his self-control. Welded, One-Eye and Prim slunk behind the guard for protection.

"Before you are annihilated," the Highest said, glanc-ing pointedly up at the balcony, "tell me what form of trickery is this."

"Try out your next trick first," you suggested. To hasten matters, you stepped towards the Highest. You had taken perhaps two paces before the machine on the balcony burst into action. A fusillade of beta pellets screamed at you, only to fall uselessly to the ground at your feet.

At last the Highest was frightened. He scrambled over his couch and backed away, no longer the languid ruler.

"Who are you? Where do you come from?" he gasped.

"That is what I want to tell you," you said. "I see there is now some likelihood of your believing me.

What I have to say must go out to everyone of your people; when a great history ends, it ends most fittingly with everyone knowing why; a man who perishes without reason is a clown.

"I come from a new world outside this galaxy-new because there the process of creation still goes on.

New galaxies are forming there out of the fathomless night, rising out of the margins of nothing. My planet is new, and I am the first man born upon it; it is still nameless."

Welded said, "So all that rigmarole you told me back on Owlenj was true?"

"Certainly," you said. You did not bother to tell him how you had learnt to pilot the dead Shouter's ship.

You turned instead to Prim. "Do you recall a conversation we once had about evolution? You claimed that man was its ultimate product."

Prim nodded.

"Man is evolution's fittest fruit-in this galaxy," you told him. You looked at the Highest, at Welded, at One-Eye. You said without smiling, "You are evolution's highest flowering here. Think of the mult.i.tude of experi-ments nature undertook before evolving you. She started with amino acids, then the amoeba, a simple cell. . . . She was like a child at school then, but all this while she has been learning. I use a.n.a.logies without subscribing to the pathetic fallacy, understand. Many of her experiments- even late ones like the sentient vagabond cells-are failures; man, on the whole, is her best so far.

"In the new galaxy from which I come, she begins with man. I am the earliest, most primitive form of life in my galaxy-the new amoeba!"

You went on to tell them how even in you radical changes had been made, some of which they could have detected under medical examination; you were, in truth, a different species from them. Your waste system was fundamentally altered, eliminating the urinary tract and sweat glands. Your windpipe was double, so that intake and outlet of air were by different channels, the whole being better protected than man's by strong cartilage. Your digestive processes had been changed; leafy veget-ables, which consist mainly of cellulose, were no longer treated as roughage; instead, their cellulose was absorbed and hydrolyzed into necessary glucose. In this way, your species would never depend on the ma.s.s slaughter of herbivores (whose flesh yields glucose) in the pitiful way man had had to. Radical modifications had been intro-duced in the reproductive faculty; not only were the old characteristics, such as colour of hair, transferable from one generation to another: walking and language genes ensured that those simple human skills were also inherit-able. The psychological basis of your mind had also been improved, much of man's old random emotionalism being eliminated entirely; yet you had a range of altruism and ident.i.ty with things surpa.s.sing man's capabilities.

The Highest heard you out in silence and then said, in a tone not devoid of awe, "If you are the first of your -ah, species, how can you know so much about your-self?"

You smiled. It seemed a simple question.

"Because all our other improvements are merely in some way a modification of the pattern used in man's designing, but we have in addition one gift of which you never dreamed: we have awareness not only of our psychological actions-our thoughts, if you will-but of our physiological ones. We can see into our last blood cell. In other words, we have no unconscious processes, inaccessible to us. I can control the working of my every enzyme. I am integrated as you could never be; for instance, the diseases such as cancer which once scourged mankind can never touch us; we should recognize and check them at their inception. Nor do we seize up in a moment of crisis and get taken over by automatic reflexes; knowing ourselves, we are entirely our own masters. Though you have mastered your environment, you have never mastered yourselves."

8.

The Highest came down from his dais. He thrust his hands into his pockets and kicked moodily at the spent beta pellets on the ground.

"There was enough to worry about before you arrived," he said. For a moment his face looked childishly petulant. As if aware of your gaze fixed upon him, he turned, saying with a forced laugh, "To be quite honest, you give me an inferiority complex! Though I have lived five centuries, I am a child again. Why, you must feel a real superman in our poor Yinnisfar."

The derision in his tone p.r.i.c.ked you: there were enough points in common between you for that.

"If that is what it seems like to you, it feels entirely different to me," you flashed. "Didn't you understand what I told you? In my galaxy, I rank as the amoeba.