"What happened to your companions?" he asked. "You ran into trouble?" Malherne laughed rather embarrassedly. "I don't know about the others," he said. "But I stupidly picked a fight with a whole army of Kralons, and ended up back here, right where I started." The stocky physicist grimaced. "Well, I'm afraid your companions will have to look out for themselves," he said. "You certainly can't help them by doing something noble and frantic." "That's what I've told him," said Zor Ala, "and I think he is reluctantly in agreement." Then he continued, "Malherne is an engineer, Gordo, and I thought perhaps it might be wise to acquaint him with the rudiments of your theory on Time Flux, and to give him an idea of what we have in mind." Lanson nodded, shuffling the heap of crude parchmentlike sheets in front of him into a stack on the edge of the desk. He motioned toward one of the rough benches. Zor Ala and Malherne seated themselves, then waited for Lanson to speak. "As an introduction," the psysicist began, "are you familiar with the theory of Teleology?" "Only that it has something to do with the future affecting the past," said Malherne. "That is a broad statement of its general implication," Lanson agreed. "And this predicament in which we find ourselves makes it necessary for us to attempt a use of ramifications of that theory. Put it this way," he continued. "If you were positive through an esoteric source of knowledge that a certain event definitely was to happen in the future, would it not affect your reactions to existing environment? Would it not influence your actions in working toward a goal? Would it not thus aid in the fulfillment of that occurrence?" "You mean that the knowledge would give me courage and confidence to accomplish what I knew would eventually come to pass?" asked Malherne. "That is one way of putting it," said Lanson. "But it can be stated a trifle more scientifically. Let us say rather that the Teleomagnetic effect of such an occurrence induces a tendency in the past to evolve toward such an event." "I think I have it so far," said Malherne, "but it's getting shaky!" Lanson laughed. "I'll admit it's a little like the perplexity of the 'Flatlander,'" he said, "who was trying to find a way out of a circle which had been drawn around him. He proceeded to investigate his barrier through every dimensional direction known to Flatlanders, which of course were limited to two. He utilized movement through both of those as he followed around the interior of his barrier to the point where he had started. "Being a very observant and discerning Flatlander, he finally realized he was getting exactly nowhere in his two-dimensional attempts to escape a three-dimensional barrier." Lanson paused, grinned.