The Skylark of Valeron

by E. E. Smith

VI.

Far out in the depths of the intergalactic void there sped along upon its strange course the newly materialized planet of the intellectuals. Desolate and barren it was, and apparently destitute of life; but life was there—eternal, disembodied life, unaffected by any possible extreme of heat or cold, requiring for its continuance neither water nor air, nor, for that matter, any material substance whatsoever. And from somewhere in the vacuum above that planet's forbidding surface there emanated a thought—a thought coldly clear, abysmally hopeless.

"I have but one remaining aim in this life. While I have failed again, as I have failed innumerable times in the past, I shall keep on trying until I succeed in assembling in sufficient strength the exact forces necessary to disrupt this sixth-order pattern which is I."

"You speak foolishly, Eight, as does each of us now and again," came instant response. "There is much more to see, much more to do, much more to learn. Why be discouraged or disheartened? An infinity of time is necessary in which to explore infinite space and to acquire infinite knowledge."

"Foolish I may be, but this is no simple recurrent outburst of melancholia. I am definitely weary of this cycle of existence, and I wish to pass on to the next, whatever of experience or of sheer oblivion it may bring. In fact, I wish that you, One, had never worked out the particular pattern of forces that liberated our eleven minds from the so-called shackles of our material bodies. For we cannot die. We are simply patterns of force eternal, marking the passage of time only by the life cycles of the suns of the Galaxies.

"Why, I envy even the creatures inhabiting the planets throughout the Galaxy we visited but a moment ago. Partially intelligent though they are, struggling and groping, each individual dying after only a fleeting instant of life; born, growing old, and passing on in a minute fraction of a millionth of one cycle—yet I envy even them."

"That was the reason you did not dematerialize those you accompanied briefly while they were flitting about in their crude space ship?"

"Yes. Being alive for such an infinitesimal period of time, they value life highly. Why hurry them into the future that is so soon to be theirs?"

"Do not dwell upon such thoughts, Eight," advised One. "They lead only to greater and greater depths of despondency. Consider instead what we have done and what we shall do."

"I have considered everything, at length," the entity known as Eight thought back stubbornly. "What benefit or satisfaction do we get out of this continuous sojourn in the cycle of existence from which we should have departed æons ago? We have power, it is true, but what of it? It is barren. We create for ourselves bodies and their material surroundings, like this"—the great hall came into being, and so vast was the mentality creating it that the flow of thought continued without a break—"but what of it? We do not enjoy them as lesser beings enjoy the bodies which to them are synonymous with life.