The reptile, moving his ponderous head in looking for what Morka Kar had asked, struck Jonathan as unconsciously funny. He grinned, and was buoyed up.
He said, "I'm sorry. I don't want to break up any gathering like this. Apparently my action strikes you as something primitive. I don't look at it that way at all. I didn't ask to be brought here, or to be given the powers to make the trip. Now that I'm here, however, I'll do everything I can to help. Naturally. But no Zarathzan's going to walk all over me whenever he feels like it."
A snarl answered him. Morka Kar was climbing unsteadily to his feet, aided by two Goqualian metallic robotmen.
"Shar Bytu," fumed the Zarathzan, shaking off the hands that held him. "It has been long since a being of my standing indulged in personal combat, but I wish to meet this Earthling. Just the two of us. Face to face, mind to mind, in mental monomachy!"
Adatha Za went white. Shar Bytu looked gravely unhappy.
Shar Bytu whispered, "I had hoped to learn something from the Earth man—"
Jonathan interrupted, "You're all conceding victory to Morka Kar. Maybe so, maybe not. That isn't just what I want to say, though. The main thing that occupies us is the problem of the flames, or shadows.
"Much as I hate to admit it, I'm afraid I'm not much help against them. You see, when you gave me the powers of ultimate evolution, my scientific and other knowledge didn't keep pace with them. There are thousands of Earth men who would have made better ambassadors than I. Apparently I was more psychic, perhaps more malleable in brain structure, than they. I don't presume to know the whys and wherefores of that. I'm here and I'm glad I'm here. If I can help, I will.
"But—much as I hate to admit it, I'm out of my depth. Those shadows, or whatever it is out there in space, is beyond me. So if you lose me—which I hope you don't—you aren't losing too much."
Jonathan took a deep breath; went on, "A poet on Earth once said something about not loving a woman loved he not honor more. Well, I love the universe, but I'm not hiding behind any danger to it when a man wants to fight me for a woman I—love."