Shar Bytu chuckled, "No, I do not have the gift of prophecy, nor am I repeating history. Except by analogy. For as Nature has treated us of a hundred and sixteen suns, so Nature will treat man. Nature and evolution are inexorable, being linked with time. And so she will produce the perfect man--the man absolutely adapted to his own environment. "We of Neeoorna did this to you, by certain--ah--methods. We operated on you by means known to our scientists for ages. When we have an atavar in our clinics, we open his mind fully to enable him to throw off all connection with past ages. So it was with you. It was not difficult. "As a result, you are a man immune to harm. You have absolute control over your body, over inanimate objects that exist about you. Once you are aware of what danger threatens, you may avert it by so arranging the electronic groupings within your body either to merge and blend with the danger, or harden into a shield of antidote or corrective. "Of course, as your brain evolved, it needed the body to feed it, to give it energy. Thus the body became an essential part of it. But the body changed, too, the body will respond to any environment, as a necessary corollary of the brain. "In short, you are the ultimate evolution. It became the perfect tool of the mind. It did _anything_ the mind ordered it to. So of the third planet of the Sun Duryu. Or Sol." * * * * * Jonathan drew a deep breath. He knew with deepest conviction that he had heard truth, bizarre as it was. He was not a man any more. He knew that, within himself. He was as far beyond man, or would be now, with study, as men were above the Neanderthals. He was ultimate man. Man in his final stage. Man multiplied by all the powers that be. Man to the _n_th degree. Man n_th_! "Now that I'm here, I've failed you," he grunted hoarsely. "Not yet. Oh, no. Many of us have failed. They are no longer--here. We still hope that you may, out of your experiences on Earth, construct us an edifice upon which our scientists may find some clue, some hint. All we ask is some idea as to what it is we face. Just a thought. One tiny clue. "But now you must see how we fight ourselves." A gigantic, bulbous being, a fishbelly-white due to the heavy cloud formation that sheathed its native planet five light years from Neeoorna, rose to his feet. He turned his many-faceted eyes to the rostrum. "Shar Bytu," he intoned sonorously, "I ask the right of test for us of the planet Moratoyo. We would seek to cast a shower of atoms at the flames. We have made recent improvements over our former weapon--" Shar Bytu nodded, and his clawed hand brought an ebony mallet upon the rosewood pulpit where he stood. "So granted. Session adjourned. The guests of Neeoorna will meet at the proving grounds."