The garden was beginning to flicker. It became red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, invisible; then back again through the spectrum the other way—violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, invisible.
Back and forth, like a pendulum through the spectrum....
Oliver Brunei's head hurt unbearably, he could see the pain on the other faces, but he allowed only one thought to fill his being—Earth! The Spaceport! EARTH!
More and more, faster and faster, the garden flickered, and now it was the old common room again, and that was flickering.
Light was flickering, mind was flickering, time, too, seemed to flicker....
Only Earth! thought Brunei. Earth doesn't flicker, the Spaceport doesn't flicker.
Earth! EARTH!
Now all the flickerings, of color, time, mind and dimensions, were coalescing into one gigantic vortex, that was a thing neither of time, nor space, nor mind, but all three somehow fused into one....
They're screaming! Brunei thought. Listen to the horrible screams! Suddenly he noticed that he, too, was screaming.
The vortex was growing, swirling, undulating, and it, too, began to flicker....