At the shock of the sudden ending of his terrific battle--the instantaneous transition from supreme to zero effort--Kit fainted in his control chair. He lay slumped, inert, in a stupor which changed gradually into a deep and natural sleep. And as the sleeping man in his inertialess speedster traversed space at full touring blast, that peculiar sphere of force still enveloped and still protected him. Kit finally began to come to. His first foggy thought was that he was hungry--then, wide awake and remembering, he grabbed his levers. "Rest quietly and eat your fill," a grave resonant pseudovoice assured him. "Everything is exactly as it should be." "Hi, Ment ... well, well, if it isn't my old chum Eukonidor! Hi, young fellow! What's the good word? And what's the big idea of letting--or making--me sleep for a week when there's work to do?" "Your part of the work, at least for the immediate present, is done; and, let me say, very well done." "Thanks ... but--" Kit broke off, flushing darkly. "Do not reproach yourself, nor us. Consider, please, and recite, the manufacture of a fine tool of ultimate quality." "The correct alloy. Hot working--perhaps cold, too. Forging--heating--quenching--drawing--" "Enough. Think you that the steel, if sentient, would enjoy those treatments? While you did not enjoy them, you are able to appreciate their necessity. You are now a finished tool, forged and tempered." "Oh, you may have something there, at that. But as to ultimate quality, don't make me laugh." There was no nuance of merriment in Kit's thought. "You can't square that with cowardice." "Nor is there need. The term ultimate was used advisedly, and still stands. It does not mean or imply, however, a state of perfection, since that condition is unattainable. I am not advising you to try to forget; nor am I attempting to force forgetfulness upon you, since your mind cannot now be coerced by any force presently existing. Be assured that nothing that occurred should irk you; for the simple truth is, that although stressed as no other mind has ever before been stressed, you did not yield. Instead, you secured and retained information which we of Arisia have never been able to obtain; information which will in fact be the means of preserving your Civilization." "I can't believe ... that is, it doesn't seem--" Kit, knowing that he was thinking muddily and foolishly, paused and pulled himself together. Overwhelming, almost paralyzing as that information was, it must be true. It _was_ true! "Yes, it is the truth. While we of Arisia have at various times made ambiguous statements, to lead certain Lensmen and others to arrive at erroneous conclusions, you know that we do not lie." "Yes, I know that." Kit plumbed the Arisian's mind. "It sort of knocks me out of my orbit--that's an awfully big bite to swallow at one gulp, you know."