“I’ve just realized. It’s not exactly the same, but the thing I saw shooting up above your world, Karellen, was very much like this. Was that part of the Overmind? I suppose you hid the truth from me so that I would have no preconceived ideas — so that I’d be an unbiased observer. I wish I knew what your cameras were showing you now, to compare it with what my mind imagines I’m seeing!
“Is this how it talks to you, Karellen, in colours and shapes like these? I’ve remembered the control screens on your ship and the patterns that went across them, speaking to you in some visual language which your eyes could read.
“Now it looks exactly like the curtains of the aurora, dancing and flickering across the stars. Why, that’s what it really is, I’m sure — a great auroral storm. The whole landscape is lit up — it’s brighter than day — reds and golds and greens are chasing each other across the sky — oh, it’s beyond words, it doesn’t seem fair that I’m the only one to see it — I never thought such colours—
“The storm’s dying down, but the great misty network is still there. I think that aurora was only a by-product of whatever energies are being released up there on the frontier of space.
“Just a minute: I’ve noticed something else. My weight’s decreasing. What does that mean? I’ve dropped a pencil — it’s falling slowly. Something’s happened to gravity — there’s a great wind coming up — I can see the trees tossing their branches down there in the valley.
“Of course — the atmosphere’s escaping. Sticks and stones are rising into the sky, almost as if the Earth itself is trying to follow them out into space. There’s a great cloud of dust, whipped up by the gale. It’s becoming hard to see. perhaps It will clear in a moment.
“Yes — that’s better. Everything movable has been stripped away — the dust clouds have vanished. I wonder how long this building will stand? And it’s getting hard to breathe — I must try and talk more slowly.
“I can see clearly again. That great burning column is still there, but it’s constricting, narrowing — it looks like the funnel of a tornado, about to retract into the clouds. And — oh, this is hard to describe, but just then I felt a great wave of emotion sweep over me. It wasn’t joy or sorrow; it was a sense of fulfillment, achievement. Did I imagine it? Or did it come from outside? I don’t know.
“And now — this can’t be all imagination — the world feels empty. Utterly empty. It’s like listening to a radio set that’s suddenly gone dead. And the sky is clear again — the misty web has gone. What world will it go to next, Karellen? And will you be there to serve it still?
“Strange: everything around me is unaltered. I don’t know why, but somehow I’d thought that—” Jan stopped. For a moment he struggled for words, then closed his eyes in an effort to regain control. There was no room for fear or panic now: he had a duty to perform — a duty to Man, and a duty to Karellen. Slowly at first, like a man awaking from a dream, he began to speak.