"And being composed as we are composed would be gone in less than a fraction of a second, in that heat."
The Discoverer whispered, "Is that knowledge any help to you, Thor Masterson?"
"I don't know. The idea in the back of my head, that hammered away at me ever since I met Aava—I almost have it. It is there, if I can find a way to—"
Loneliness!
Hanging in this space, hundreds of millions of years from his body, Thor Masterson was alone.
"Discoverer! Where are you? Speak to me!"
There was empty silence.
Thor wondered. He was not afraid, for fright is a bodily thing, where the heart pumps faster and the skin grows white while the blood is sucked into the belly. This feeling was different.
He knew he was alone, that something had happened to the Discoverer. He called and received no answer.
Can I return? Thor asked himself. Can my mind span the countless eons between my body and my brain? He had learned all he could, out here in the beginnings of things. It was time to go back, now.