circled minds.
Gradually, he began to hear.
He heard imperfectly with his limited human brain, and he was glad instinctively that this was so. He could not have supported the full blaze of that consciousness. Even the echo of it stunned him.
Stunned him with joy.
The joy of being alive, of being sentient and aware, of being young, thrusting, vibrant, strong. The joy of being.
There was no evil in that joy, no cruelty in the strength that pulsed and grew, sucking life from the cradling universe as simply and naturally as a blade of grass sucks nourishment from the soil. Energy was its food and it ate and was not conscious of life destroyed. That conception was impossible to it. In its view nothing could be destroyed, only changed from one form to another. It saw all of creation as one vast source of fuel for its eternal fires, and that creation now included all of time as well as space. The tremendous force gathering at the heart of the thing had begun to twist the fabric of the continuum itself, deforming it so fantastically that the Sol of two hundred thousand years ago was as accessible as the drowned sun of Ceidri.
It was very young. It was without sin. Its mental potential spanned parsecs. Already it had intimations of its own greatness. It would think, and grow, while the myriad wheeling galaxies swarmed like bees in the sheer beauty of their being, and in due course it would create. God knew what it would create, but all its impulses shone and were pure.
It was innocent. And it was a killer.
Yet Stark yearned to be a part of that divine strength and joyousness. He desired to be lost forever within it, relieved of self and all the petty agonies that went with human living. He felt that he had almost achieved this goal when the contract was broken and he found himself still kneeling with the Ceidrins round him and a soft rain falling. The rain had wet his cheeks, and he was desolate.
Shorr Kan spoke to him, and he answered.
'It is alive. A new species. And it means the end of ours, if we don't kill it. If it can be killed.'
He stood up, and he saw their faces staring at him, the King of Aldeshar and his scientists and his experts in war and weaponry, doubtful and afraid. Afraid to believe, afraid not to believe.
And Stark added, 'If it should be killed.'
The voices began then, clamoring all at once, until they were silenced by a new sound.
Down across the dragon sky, the ships of the Star Kings came to land.
Shorr Kan said, 'We'll wait for them here.' He looked at Stark. 'While your mind was straining at its tether to be gone, I had a report from my ship. The power cells are being drained. Only an infinitesimal loss so far, but definite. I wonder what my brother kings will make of it all.'
His brother kings were jubilant. They had left their heavy cruisers standing off Ceidri, an overwhelming force against Shorr Kan 's scout. They were delighted to have caught their fox so easily.
'If you have a weapon, you can't use it against us now without using it against yourself,' Flane Fell told him. He had laid aside his silks and jewels, and his golden crown. Like the others, he was dressed for war.
'If I had a weapon,' said Shorr Kan tranquilly, 'that thought would have occurred to me. I imagine you're having the planet searched for hidden installations, possible control centers, and the like?'
'We are.'
'And do you still suppose that any human agency could possibly create or control the force that lies out there?'
'All the evidence will be fairly evaluated, Shorr Kan. '
'That gives me great comfort. In the meantime, have your technicians monitor the power cells of your ships with great care. Have them monitor mine as well. And don't be too long about your decision.'
'Why?' demanded Flane Fell.
Shorr Kan beckoned to Stark. 'Tell them.'
Stark told them.
The Kings of the Marches , the human kings, looked at the Ceidrins and Flane Fell said, 'What are these that we should believe them? Little lost brute-things on a lost planet. And as for this so-called ambassador . . .'
He did not finish. One of the non-human kings had stepped forward to confront him. This fellow's dawn- ancestor had bequeathed to him a splendid rangy build, a proud head with an aristocratic snout and only a suggestion of fangs, and a suit of fine white fur banded handsomely with gray. His smile was fearsome.
'As a brute-thing myself,' he said, 'I speak for my fellow kings of the minority, and I say that the hairless son of an ape is no less a brute-thing than we, and no more competent to judge truthfulness in any form. We ourselves will speak with the Ceidrins.'
They went to do so. Shorr Kan smiled. 'The King of Tranett has already given me allies. I'm grateful.'
Stark had gone apart. He looked at the sky and remembered.
The morning came dark with drifting rain. When the clouds broke it seemed to Stark that the shrouded sun was dimmer than he remembered, but that of course was imagination. The four non-human kings rejoined the group. Their faces were solemn, and the chief of the Ceidrins was with them.
'The man Stark spoke truly,' said the gray-barred king. 'The thing has already begun to draw the life from this sun. The Ceidrins know they're doomed, and so shall we be in our turn if this thing is not destroyed.'
Reports came in from the ships, those that had landed and those still free in space awaiting orders. All had unexplained losses of energy from the power cells.
'Well, brother kings,' said Shorr Kan , 'what is your decision?'
The four non-humans ranged themselves with the King of Aldeshar. 'Our fleets are at your disposal, and the best of our scientific minds.' The gray-barred king looked at Flane Fell with blazing golden eyes. 'Leave your little spites behind, apeling, or all our kind, all things that breathe and move, are foredone.'
Shorr Kan said, 'You can always kill me later on, if we live.'
Flane Fell made an angry gesture. 'Very well. Let all our efforts be combined, to the end that this thing shall die.'
'Let all our efforts be combined . . .'
Messages were flashed to the scientific centers of the far-flung star-worlds. Messages all asking the same question.
How can this thing be killed, before it kills us?
The ships had left Ceidri and returned to the hither side of the nebula, where they hung like a shoal of fingerlings against the Veil, catching palely the light of distant suns. They waited for answers. Answers began to come.
'Energy!' said Shorr Kan , and cursed. 'The thing is energy. It devours energy. It lives on suns. How can it be destroyed with energy?'
Narin Har, chief of the joint scientific missions now aboard Flane Fell's flagship, that being the largest and possessed of the most sophisticated communications center, answered Shorr Kan.
'We have results from the three great computers at Vega, Rigel, and Fomalhaut. They all agree that we must use energy against energy, in the form of our most potent missiles.'
Shorr Kan said, 'Anti-matter?'
'Yes.'
'But won't that simply feed its strength?'
'They're working on the equations now. But judging from the relatively slow rate at which it is presently absorbing energy from the stars it has attacked, we ought to be able to introduce the violent energy of anti-matter missiles into it in such quantities that it will be unable to assimilate rapidly enough. The result is expected to be total annihilation.'
'How many missiles?'
'That is the information we're waiting for now.'
It came.
Narin Har read the figures to the Kings of the Marches , assembled in the flagship. These figures meant little to Stark, who was present, but he could see by the faces of the kings that the impact of them was staggering.
'We must ask for every ship available from every ruler in the galaxy,' said Shorr Kan. 'Every available anti-
