--<i>Do we have choice. Did I have choice. For there was the band of decision. Oh, the years have passed, and there is no answer. Space-time began--where?--how? Result without cause! I have searched--searched downward into minuscule universes--striving to find that which came into being without a first motion. I have trapped matter's smallest part, stripped space of all influences around it. And having trapped it, could not observe it! For observation is influence.</i> --<i>In that vacuous cage, did that particle move in paths of its own choosing? If it did--without cause</i>-- --<i>But no. The universe decays, and draws life into decadence with it. There is no hope....</i> <tb> There was Darkness. And Sun Destroyer. And Vanguard. And the millions, the tens of millions of years that passed. With drudging energy, Oldster heaved his vast body into a ragged motion that took him for the last time across the flowing rivers of the sky, into the first deeps of the black gulf Darkness crossed. There, beyond sight of the universe, he drew his visions in about him. He would sleep now. He would decay down to that moment when the centripetal urge for life would grow too feeble. The last hounds of his defense would wander off. For now he could not be disturbed. "Awake, Oldster." The serene, yet lordly voice echoed through and through that immeasurably deep cavern of thoughtlessness where Oldster resided. "Awake, and awake to the high moment of your long life." Awareness came to Oldster, awareness strong and lashing. His vast body heaved and writhed as he beheld the icy horror of his return to life. For from outside this packet of cancelling forces that was himself had come a voice. "No!" The word shouted within him: yet he knew its violence had reached him who had so cruelly shattered his dream of night. "No! Whoever you are, whatever, leave me! Ah, you have made me live again--as Sun Destroyer--and Vanguard--" "And it is of Vanguard we would speak." The thought vibrated in serene, lordly compassion against his thought swirls. "Now, you who were known as Devil Star, look upon us!" Wave upon wave of horror engulfed him as that command drove in. He would not! The rebel thought endured only long enough to be swept away by the shattering failures of his life. He was not master. Not to fight, not to reach--ah, there would have lain happiness! Thinly at first his visions moved from him--then in thick beams that would bring full revelation of his tormentor. And as he saw, he lay silent in emptiness, quiet in his congealed wonder. For here was splendor, these rank upon endless rank of beings, hanging in somber immovableness against that lightless sky. And here also was destiny. Their formless thoughts flowed around him, without discord, with peace. "Golden lights," he whispered. How long? <i>How long!</i> And from that concourse of golden-lighted energy creatures came answer--from one or all, he would never know.