There was no physical barrier. The Enterprise had established that fact. Then was there a barrier which Garr Symm, along with all humanoids, had somehow inherited?
A barrier of stark terror, subjective and unfounded on fact?
And beyond it—what?
Power to chain the universe….
Think, Garr Symm told himself. You’ve got to be rational. You’re a scientist. You’ve been trained as a scientist. This is their barrier, erected against you, against all humanoids, a million years ago. It isn’t real. It’s all in your mind.
“Do you want me to follow them down?” Ramar Chind asked.
Garr Symm envied the policeman. Naturally, Ramar Chind did not share his terror. You didn’t know the terror until you learned about proto-man; then the response seemed to be triggered in your brain, as if it had been passed to you through the genes of your ancestors, waiting a million years for release….
Fear, a guardian.
Of what? Garr Symm asked himself. Think of that, fool. Think of what it guards.