"I must go. It would be dangerous for us both if I am trapped here when the veil closes. Just remember the billions of your men and the constant attempt to penetrate the mind of any one of them. Even this was sheer chance and it is failing—"
The sentience withdrew after a warning cry from the one on the outside. The silken screen closed, joined, and flowed to the floor without scar.
Barden was once more alone, protected, isolated.
Three weeks. It took Barden three long weeks. He awoke after the initial contact with the alien, and following the alien's advice, considered the matter coolly. It might be true and it might be a dream, but the fitfulness of his nature was gone. Barden then turned over and entered the sleep of the just for nine hours. After this awakening, he contemplated the dream and found it true.
Amazement at the accomplished fact was high, but the flood of knowledge occupied Barden's attention. Things kept coming up out of the dark in his mind that made little sense; other things were clear and sharp and Barden wondered whether these had ever been tried on Terra. They seemed so logical. Then as the days passed, these disconnected facts began to match together. The matrix of knowledge became less broken as the days went by, and—
At the end of three weeks, the sentience was proven correct. Thomas Barden knew, and he knew that he knew the last detail of a new science.
His only problem was getting this science into operation before the alien world could come—
He was all alone in this. No one on earth would believe his wild tale. They'd lay it to a nightmare and offer him medical advice. If he persisted, Thomas Barden would be writing his equations on the walls of a padded cell with a blunt crayon when the alien horde came.
And to walk into the Solar Space Laboratory and tell them he had a means of interstellar travel, complete with facts and figures would get him the same reception as the Brothers Wright, Fulton, and a horde of others. He would be politely shown the door and asked to go away and not bother them with wildness.