"And being composed as we are composed would be gone in less than a fraction of a second, in that heat." The Discoverer whispered, "Is that knowledge any help to you, Thor Masterson?" "I don't know. The idea in the back of my head, that hammered away at me ever since I met Aava--I almost have it. It is there, if I can find a way to--" _Loneliness!_ Hanging in this space, hundreds of millions of years from his body, Thor Masterson was alone. "Discoverer! Where are you? Speak to me!" There was empty silence. Thor wondered. He was not afraid, for fright is a bodily thing, where the heart pumps faster and the skin grows white while the blood is sucked into the belly. This feeling was different. He knew he was alone, that something had happened to the Discoverer. He called and received no answer. Can I return? Thor asked himself. Can my mind span the countless eons between my body and my brain? He had learned all he could, out here in the beginnings of things. It was time to go back, now. He took thought, calmly and dispassionately. There was no panic in him. He was a child with a new toy, turning it and examining it, feeling it bend to pressure, putting it to mouth to know its taste. Slowly he forced his brain into patterns, forming it with mental energy, twisting it into different shape. Thor had to go forward in Time, swiftly. He must learn what had happened to the Discoverer, quest after Aava. He thought, and in thinking, found a new delight. How long he hung there in the black voids, he never knew. But up from darkness came a white ball of flame that was Aava's planet, with its sun and attendant moons. They circled in darkness, weird and eerie in their iridescent brilliance. I have succeeded, he reflected. That is the planet, bubbling with molten rock. Inside that sphere, Aava is fashioning a garment for himself, moulding it from crystal quartz. Somewhere on the other side of the universe, the sun that held him spewed him out, with the nucleus for his planet and its moons. I am speeding into the future. Again and again Aava's planet and its sun and moons returned, to flee across the gulfs of space. Ten times they came and went; the last time, Thor knew he would have to wait no longer. He dropped toward the planet as it circled its sun. He swept through heaviside and stratosphere. He plummeted into fluffy cloudbanks. Beneath him he could see red grasslands and bare rock. Across one rock was slumped the massive form of the Discoverer. To one side of the Discoverer lay the body of Thor Masterson. The brain that was part of that body entered it. There was coldness and a sense of numbness. He could not move a muscle. Thor sent relays of orders along his nerves into every part of his body. A muscle twitched. He opened his eyes. It took time, returning from such a journey; but at last Thor could move his arms. He rubbed his chest and loins, massaged his legs. Weakly, he stood up. "Discoverer!"