"You mustn't interrupt me, either," said the old man irritably. "I mean what I say. I will tell you how you began and how you are related to me and many other trivial things like how you will leave here when you have decided to go." "We were on our way to Jupiter," said Myra, "when we got kidnaped. Steve was going to teach at college there." "It is a good thing to teach," the old man said. "Of course, you know very little, but it is admirable to teach those who know less. I have always been a teacher...." He trailed off into silence. "Just what do you mean by 'always,'" asked Steve, "as long as we're being rude to each other. Just how old are you?" "Who knows?" the old man answered slowly. "Hundreds of thousands of years." Myra gave a little yip. "Steve," she gasped. "His lips aren't moving!" The oldster took this with equanimity. "True," he said. "Because they aren't mine. At least not any more. You see, the real me is up here, in this vat. I'm just a brain. That thing you've been talking to is just a corpse. I hope you don't mind." Myra shuddered. "It's all right," the voice continued. "It's sanitary. They used the best embalming fluid." "How come you speak English?" asked Steve. "I don't," said the voice. "You might as well ask why people understand music written by people who speak different languages. I'm not speaking; I'm thinking out loud, if you will pardon the idiom. Music and thought are universal. "Now I will tell you a story. Many millions of years ago there was a great planet, the greatest in the universe. On it was bred a race of geniuses. Mentally, the planet was ideal; physically, it was less fortunate. Our sun was about to become a nova. As a result, the day came when our scientists were forced to warn their people that they would have to leave the planet before it was burned to a cinder. "There was one scientist who was more renowned than the others, and with good reason. It was he was had isolated the _gion_ beam, as it was called, which had the property of breaking down a substance to its component atoms and sending it wherever directed. "To make the story easier to tell, I will admit that I was that scientist, and that my name is Gion, which you may call me, if you can do so without interrupting me." He paused for a moment, as if marshalling his memories. "Our scientists searched the universe with their instruments, seeking another planet. Finally this one was located. But it was too distant to be reached within a life-span by means of the antiquated space ships we had then. Only one method was possible--the _gion_ beam. "Even this method was not completely satisfactory, because it would require terrific power to transport anything here and we hadn't fuel for more than one shipment. Therefore, it was necessary to make a careful selection of those who were to go and what they were to take with them.