Jonathan put an arm around her naked shoulders and hugged her against his chest. "Buck up," he grated. "We aren't licked yet. Why, hell! We haven't started to fight, yet!" He saw Morka Kar sneering at him from two stadium seats away, his thin mouth curling in fanatical contempt. He felt the hate beat redly from the man's eyes. Jonathan bared his teeth in answer to that fierce, unspoken taunt. He said, loud enough for the Zarathzan to hear, "One of us will find a way. We're bound to. There's a key to that riddle. There has to be. The universe can't end--not like this--" "Perhaps," said Morka Kar loudly, "the Earthling might amuse the shadows by--tumbling?" Jonathan didn't know until later that Adatha Za put out a hand to restrain him. He was away like a sprinter, and his big left fist was lifting, swiftly. His fist hit Morka Kar, a little to one side of his jaw. It snapped the Zarathzan's head around and backwards, and lifted him off his feet, and dropped him three seats below. * * * * * Morka Kar lay there outstretched, unmoving. Jonathan grinned hugely and rubbed his knuckles. It began to penetrate after a while that the others were staring at him in complete horror. Adatha Za gasped and sobbed, then came and stood silently beside him, her soft hand reaching for his fist. She held her dark head high, and her eyes glared defiance. "A beast--" "--useless to expect help from things still ruled by emotion--" "--a mistake. Shar Bytu should not--" He heard the murmurs and the whispers, but Adatha Za was speaking, saying, "Morka Kar insulted him before the assembly was called. He is not like us, this Earthling. He fights when he is attacked!" Shar Bytu waddled forward, his reptilian face grave. He blinked a little curious, at Jonathan. "We cannot have disturbances among ourselves," he said. "We need scientific and philosophic calm to meet the shadow menace." "It wasn't what he said," Jonathan said softly. "It was the way he said it. He was asking for it." "Asking for what?" puzzled Shar Bytu, looking about. The reptile, moving his ponderous head in looking for what Morka Kar had asked, struck Jonathan as unconsciously funny. He grinned, and was buoyed up. He said, "I'm sorry. I don't want to break up any gathering like this. Apparently my action strikes you as something primitive. I don't look at it that way at all. I didn't ask to be brought here, or to be given the powers to make the trip. Now that I'm here, however, I'll do everything I can to help. Naturally. But no Zarathzan's going to walk all over me whenever he feels like it." A snarl answered him. Morka Kar was climbing unsteadily to his feet, aided by two Goqualian metallic robotmen. "Shar Bytu," fumed the Zarathzan, shaking off the hands that held him. "It has been long since a being of my standing indulged in personal combat, but I wish to meet this Earthling. Just the two of us. Face to face, mind to mind, in mental monomachy!"