"Because it is the final experiment. The last hope for your people, your system. We cannot help them beyond that. They must choose for themselves, as you did. We must go back to Earth, this time. And it is our task to give them the final treatment and test. The ultimate weapon. Gravity displacement. Once used, it is the end. Planets will be wrenched from the Sun, electrons from their parent nuclei within the very atoms. It is the same force. The choice is theirs--kill or cure. Sanity or destruction. You and I will stay, try to guide and help, advise, but not interfere. Like you, your people must have free choice. "We must stay with them, and share whatever happens. This is their shock treatment--and yours. We will share it together. But come, the Masters are waiting. I will take you to them." "Together!" said Newlin, awed. "You will stay with me and share my--our shock treatment!" "Together, always--now. It is a small price to pay, whatever happens," murmured Songeen. Her hand drew him close, and she led him outside the zone of crystalline murmurs. Darkness leaned closer, solid, tangible. Ahead, was a great and terrible light.