"You didn't even know." Kerk's lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimace of disgust. "You didn't even know his name--yet he died that you might continue your miserable existence." Kerk spat, as if the words gave a vile flavor to his speech, and stamped towards the exit lock. Almost as an afterthought he turned back to Jason. "You'll stay here in the sealed buildings until the ship returns in two weeks. Then you will leave this planet and never come back. If you do, I'll kill you instantly. With pleasure." He started through the lock. "Wait," Jason shouted. "You can't decide like that. You haven't even seen the evidence I've uncovered. Ask Meta--" The lock thumped shut and Kerk was gone. * * * * * The whole thing was just too stupid. Anger began to replace the futile despair of a moment before. He was being treated like an irresponsible child, the importance of his discovery of the log completely ignored. Jason turned and saw for the first time that Brucco was standing there. "Did you hear that?" Jason asked him. "Yes. And I quite agree. You can consider yourself lucky." "Lucky!" Jason was the angry one now. "Lucky to be treated like a moronic child, with contempt for everything I do--" "I said lucky," Brucco snapped. "Welf was Kerk's only surviving son. Kerk had high hopes for him, was training him to take his place eventually." He turned to leave but Jason called after him. "Wait. I'm sorry about Welf. I can't be any sorrier knowing that he was Kerk's son. But at least it explains why Kerk is so quick to throw me out--as well as the evidence I have uncovered. The log of the ship--" "I know, I've seen it," Brucco said. "Meta brought it in. Very interesting historical document." "That's all you can see it as--an historical document? The significance of the planetary change escapes you?" "It doesn't escape me," Brucco answered briefly, "but I cannot see that it has any relevancy today. The past is unchangeable and we must fight in the present. That is enough to occupy all our energies." Jason felt too exhausted to argue the point any more. He ran into the same stone wall with all the Pyrrans. Theirs was a logic of the moment. The past and the future unchangeable, unknowable--and uninteresting. "How is the perimeter battle going?" he asked, wanting to change the subject. "Finished. Or in the last stages at least," Brucco was almost enthusiastic as he showed Jason some stereos of the attackers. He did not notice Jason's repressed shudder. "This was one of the most serious breakthroughs in years, but we caught it in time. I hate to think what would have happened if they hadn't been detected for a few weeks more." "What are those things?" Jason asked. "Giant snakes of some kind?"