"Eiler Guelf," she added, "decided to come through that barrier. It was his own choice."
Rik felt like sitting down. He felt confused. Why should the woman alter the truth? "Why—what do you want of men like my father? Of Earthmen?"
She rose to her feet deliberately. The white robe, gossamer despite its tremendous width and length, fell from her shoulders. As the mass of sheen dropped to the floor the woman let her hair down, a golden, shimmering screen about her white body. And as Rik Guelf watched, a great trembling seized him and he sank weakly to the floor....
A dream is without substance, incoherent in pattern. Rik Guelf knew this was no dream, but he felt as helpless now as he would have been in a dream as there came to him a vision....
A great city, stretching to infinity, grew from the space behind the woman. There were towers of many hues, all connected by runways. There were peaks in the distance, and on either side of a vast plain. He saw a stretch of green water. And above it the sky was also green.
From a copper disk above the city came light. It was a mammoth sun but without the hot intensity of Rik's home sun. This was the home of the Titans....
There were ships on the water, air vehicles, land machines, people in loose, thin clothing. There was verdure, trees, flowers in gardens surrounding the entire city....
And the woman was talking to him, through the vision. It was her home, this city. It had the same name as her ship—Avol. And Avol was the center of Titan culture, with schools, technical institutes, great temples of learning....
And no military organization of any kind.
There was no war here for struggle between the life forms was not necessary. Only from the archives did they know of war.