"Afraid? That is an emotional word but I suppose in a parallel way I am." Ortine paused, added, "Your species is aggressive too. As I have already told you, we are very similar." "Why not simply cut and run and then come back in force and destroy us?" countered Justin. "Time is much less simple than you people seem to think," said Ortine. "The few months it would require us to organize such an expedition in my universe would be the equivalent of several centuries in this one. And by that time, if you have not destroyed yourselves, you may know as much as we." "So you plan to destroy us," said Justin. Ortine replied, "You should know better than that, Justin. Why should I trouble to bring all of you here, why should I have spent the time and labor I have on this experiment--when I could blast your planet out of hand?" Justin studied him for a moment, then said, "I can think of a pair of possible reasons, Ortine. One--your extra-space weapons might not be effective in this universe. Two--from some of the things you have dropped about polymorphous conception and birth, you may not be able to dis-ally yourself from humanity so easily." Ortine studied Justin in turn, then said, "You're wrong about my weapons--they have long since been adjusted to operate in your space. But I _am_ saddled with you--_all_ of you. I am like a man with a diseased appendix--save that in this instance my appendix numbers three to four billion." "You mean you are actually part of us--and we of you?" asked Justin, appalled at the thought. "Unfortunately, yes--in what you would call a physiological sense but one which is painfully physical to me," Ortine replied. "Now consider my plight in terms of your own appendicitis. Such major disasters as battles and natural catastrophes are like recurring attacks. An atomic war might well rupture my very fabric. "Naturally deaths in smaller quantities or lesser disasters do not noticeably affect me--but the destruction for which your world may be heading is more than I can risk. Therefore I have had to take steps, first to obviate the possibility of atomic war, secondly to lower the population. These are the twin purposes toward which I have conducted my experiment. If I were to wipe out humanity, as I easily could, I should myself die." "I think I understand," Justin told him, frowning. "By removing human imagination--you call it madness--you plan not only to reduce human population to a nubbin but to rig things so that the remnants will eliminate themselves in a manner practically painless to yourself. Am I right?" Ortine hesitated, then said, "Consider again the man with appendicitis. If it bursts and he has no proper medical care he will die. But if it withers away, then he is free of the diseased organ." "And for that purpose you expect me to go through with your assignment?" asked Justin. "_You're_ the one who's mad!"