And on clammy, noisome Eddore, the Arisian attackers having been beaten off and normality restored, a meeting of the Highest Command was held. No two of those entities were alike in form; some were changing from one horrible shape into another; all were starkly, indescribably monstrous. All were concentrating upon the problem which had been so suddenly thrust upon them; each of them thought at and with each of the others. To do justice to the complexity or the cogency of that maze of intertwined thoughts is impossible; the best that can be done is to pick out a high point here and there.
"This explains the Star A Star whom the Ploorans and the Kalonians so fear."
"And the failure of our operator on Thrale, and its fall."
"Also our recent quite serious reverses."
"Those stupid—those utterly brainless underlings!"
"We should have been called in at the start!"
"Could you analyze, or even perceive, its pattern save in small part?"
"No."
"Nor could I—an astounding and highly revealing circumstance."