Senar, the second city, came out of the haze abruptly. High in the sky the immense disc of Jupiter cast a reddish light over the metropolis. As before, all roads leading across the flat converged on a single runway, leading to the main gate.
I entered, and it seemed time had turned backward, erasing the intervening hours. For Senar was the same as Profaldo. The same roaring drink shops and crowd-choked gambling casinos. The same twisting despondent streets sunk in filth and mockery of the law.
Again I came to the building marked POWER DIVISION. In the Commissioner's office, however, I was due for a surprise. A girl turned to me inquiringly.
She was tall, svelte and dark-haired, with agate eyes that bored me through and through. "Well?" she said.
The same story, the same explanation. I proffered my papers, waited a diplomatic length of time, then stated that I wished to purchase some power.
To my astonishment, however, she took the offer matter-of-factly.
"I know," she said. "You are Tepondicon."
"I'm what?"
She smiled. "At least you are the mortal counterpart of that legendary figure. According to the Ganymedian legends, a great disaster was to come upon our seven cities and would not be removed until a brave warrior entered each of the cities and fought it alone. The legends call that warrior Tepondicon."