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"You are still testing me. You mistrust me. The surface of the planet is of no interest to us. This is home. And yet," the feminine voice seemed almost wistful, "there must be a certain thrill in traveling from world to world. We are well aware that there are many planets in space and many suns. To think that creatures like yourself are inheriting all that. It is all so interesting that I am thankful again and again that we sensed you making your clumsy way down toward us in time to make an opening for you."
"What!" David could not help but shout, although he knew that the sound waves his vocal cords created went unheeded and that only the thoughts of his mind were sensed. "You made that opening?"
"Not I alone.____________________ helped. That is why we were given the chance to investigate you."
"But how did you do it?"
"Why, by willing it."
"I don't understand."
"But it is simple. Can you not see it in my mind? But I forget. You are a creature. You see, when we retired to the caverns we were forced to destroy many thousands of cubic miles of matter to make space for ourselves under the surface. There was nowhere to store the matter as such, so we converted it to energy and____________________ ____________________."
"No, no, I don't follow you."
"You don't understand? In that case, all I can say Is that the energy was stored in such a way that it could be tapped by an effort of the mind."
"But if all the matter that was once in these vast caverns were converted into energy____________________ "
"There would be a great deal. Certainly. We have lived on that energy for half a million revolutions, and it is calculated that we have enough for twenty million more revolutions. Even before we left the surface we had studied the relation of mind and matter and since we have come to the caverns we have perfected the science to such a degree that we have abandoned matter entirely as far as our personal use is concerned. We are creatures of pure mind and energy, who never die and are no longer born. I am here with you, but since you ca
"But surely people such as yourselves can make themselves heir to all the universe."
"You fear that we shall contest the universe with poor material creatures such as yourself? That we shall fight for a place among the stars? That is silly.
All the universe is here with us. We are sufficient to ourselves."
David was silent. Then slowly he put his hands to Ms head as he had the sensation of fine, very fine tendrils gently touching his mind. It was the first time the feeling had come, and he shrank from its intimacy.
She said, "My apologies again. But you are such an interesting creature. Your mind tells me that your fellow creatures are in great danger and you suspect that we might be the cause. I assure you, creature, it is not so."
She said it simply. David had no course but to be-Eeve.
He said, "Your companion said my tissue chemistry was entirely different from that of any life on Mars. May I ask how?"
"It is composed of a nitrogenous material."
"Protein," explained David.
"I do not understand that word."
"What are your tissues composed of?"
"Of____________________. It is entirely different.
There is practically no nitrogen in it."
"You could offer me no food, then?"
"I am afraid not.____________________ says any organic matter of our planet would be quickly poisonous to you. We could manufacture simple compounds of your life type that you might feed on, but the complex nitrogenous material that forms the bulk of your tissue is quite beyond us without much study. Are you hungry, creature?" There was no mistaking the sympathy and concern in her thoughts. (David persisted in thinking of it as a voice.)
He said, "For the moment I have still my own food."
The feminine voice said, "It seems unpleasant for me to think of you simply as a creature. What is your name?" Then, as though she feared she might not be understood, "How do your fellow creatures identify you?"
"I am called David Starr."
"I do not understand that except that there seems a reference to the suns of the universe. Do they call you that because you are a traveler through space?"
"No. Many of my people travel through space. 'Starr' has no particular meaning at present. It is simply a sound to identify me, as your names are simply sounds. At least they make no picture; I ca
"What a pity. You should have a name which would indicate your travels through space; the way in which you range from one end of the universe to the other. If I were a creature such as yourself, it seems to me that it would be fitting I should be called 'Space Ranger.'"
And so it was that from the lips of a living creature he did not see and could never see in its true form David Starr heard, for the first time, the name by which, eventually, all the Galaxy would know him.
11. The Storm
A deeper, slower voice now took form in David's mind. It said gravely, "I greet you, creature. It is a good name____________________ has just given you."
The feminine voice said, "I make way for you
By the loss of a faint touch upon Ms mind David became unmistakably aware that the owner of the feminine voice was no longer in mental contact. He turned warily, laboring once more under the illusion that there was direction to these voices and finding his untried mind still attempting to interpret in the old inadequate ways something with which it had never before come in contact. The voice came from no direction, of course. It was within his mind.
The creature of the deep voice gauged the difficulty. It said, "You are disturbed by the failure of your sense equipment to detect me and I do not wish you to be disturbed. I could adopt the outward physical appearance of a creature such as yourself but that would be a poor and undignified imposture. Will this suffice?"
David Starr watched the glimmer appear in the air before him. It was a soft streak of blue-green light about seven feet high and a foot wide.
He said calmly, "That is quite sufficient."
The deep voice said, "Good! And now let me explain who I am. I am the Administrator of____________________ ____________________. The report of the capture of a live specimen of the new surface life came to me as a matter of course. I will examine your mind."
The office of the new being had been a jumble of sound, and nothing more, to David, but he had caught the unmistakable sense of dignity and responsibility that accompanied it. Nevertheless he said firmly, "I would much prefer that you remained outside my mind."
"Your modesty," said the deep voice, "is quite understandable and praiseworthy. I should explain that my inspection would be confined most carefully to the outer fringes only. I would avoid very scrupulously any intrusion on your i
David tensed his muscles uselessly. For long minutes there was nothing. Even the illusive feathery touch upon his mind, that had been present when the owner of the feminine voice had probed it, was absent from this new and more experienced inspection. And yet David was aware, without knowing how he could possibly be aware, of the compartments of his mind being delicately opened, then closed, without pain or disturbance.
The deep voice said, "I thank you. You will be released very shortly and returned to the surface."
David said defiantly, "What have you found in my mind?"
"Enough to pity your fellows. We of the I