Eons ago, the art of artificially reconstructing new bodies into which the organ could be placed, a process constituting literal resurrection, had been lost, but the Dragbora lived in hope of recovering the forgotten knowledge. This was their explanation of the preservation of the _seaa-abasa_, each family possessing the vast collection of its ancestral organs back to the time of the expulsion from their parent world. What basis in fact there was to this theory, the scientists did not know. Apparently, such resurrection had never been accomplished, yet with each death, the _seaa-abasa_ was religiously removed and preserved. * * * * * Underwood felt like some ancient gladiator training for an arena battle, but never had any gladiator fought for such a prize. No one knew better than he that at the moment he faced Demarzule and challenged the Sirenian, he might face equal and perhaps superior powers of destruction, for Demarzule was old in experience. There was a defense against it, and to this Underwood turned his attention, for it was difficult in function. The _dor-abasa_ had the power to absorb and store the destructive energies. Underwood discovered it almost by accident when Mason's technicians set up equipment for duplicating the destructive force as nearly as possible. It was weak and wholly ineffective, but it acted upon the _dor-abasa_, and the organ absorbed it involuntarily. He was absolutely confident that they had succeeded in finding the great weapon for which they had come. The ancient Dragboran-Sirenian culture had obviously possessed the force shell as a protection. Toshmere's words made that plain, but they had misunderstood the implications when he had said, "They have found a way through the barrier. Our men are falling one by one." * * * * * Trained in physical ways of thinking, they had overlooked any such possibility as the superior powers of the Dragboran _abasa_. There was one other thing that worried Underwood, however, and that was the possibility of producing the effects of the _abasic_ weapon by electronic means. Though the scientists were failing almost completely in their attempts to do that, he wondered if perhaps the Terrestrians under Demarzule might not succeed. In the scientists' favor, however, was the fact that though he possessed a vast reservoir of scientific knowledge, Demarzule was still only the dictator, the politician. He was no scientist. On the third day following the operation, Underwood was able to be up about the ship for a few moments, though by means of the _abasic_ senses he had been actively supervising the work in the laboratory during the entire time.