The Collection Read Free Page B

with his ears. It came from
nowhere or everywhere.
    ‘Through spaces and
dimensions wandering,’ rang the words
in his mind, ‘and in this space and this time, I find two peoples about to
exterminate one and so weaken the other that it would retrogress and never
fulfil its destiny, but decay and return to mindless dust whence it came. And I
say this must not happen.’
    ‘Who ... what are you?’ Carson didn’t say it aloud, but the
question formed itself in his brain.
    ‘You would not understand
completely. I am — ‘There was a pause as though the voice sought — in Carson’s brain — for a word
that wasn’t there, a word he didn’t know. ‘I
am the end of evolution of a race so old the time cannot be expressed in words
that have meaning to your mind. A race fused into a single entity, eternal.
    ‘An entity such as your
primitive race might become’ — again the groping for a word — ‘time from now. So might the race you call, in your
mind, the Outsiders. So I intervene in the battle to come, the battle between
fleets so evenly matched that destruction of both races will result. One must
survive. One must progress and evolve.’
    ‘One?’ thought Carson. ‘Mine or—
    ‘It is in my power to stop
the war, to send the Outsiders back to their galaxy. But they would return, or
your race would sooner or later follow them there. Only by remaining in this
space and time to intervene constantly could I prevent them from destroying one
another, and I cannot remain.
    ‘So I shall intervene now.
I shall destroy one fleet completely without loss to the other. One
civilization shall thus survive.’
    Nightmare. This had to be nightmare, Carson thought. But he
knew it wasn’t.
    It was too mad, too impossible, to be anything but real.
    He didn’t dare ask the question — which? But
his thoughts asked it for him.
    ‘The stronger shall
survive, ’ said the voice. ‘That I
cannot — and would not —change. I
merely intervene to make it a complete victory, not’ — groping again
— ‘not Pyrrhic victory to a broken race.
    ‘From the outskirts of the
not-yet battle I plucked two individuals, you and an Outsider. I see from your
mind that, in your early history of nationalisms, battles between champions to
decide issues between races were not unknown.
    ‘You and your opponent are
here pitted against one another, naked and unarmed, under conditions equally
unfamiliar to you both, equally unpleasant to you both. There is no time limit,
for here there is no time. The survivor is the champion of his race. That race
survives.’
    ‘But —‘ Carson’s protest was too inarticulate for
expression, but the voice answered it.
    ‘It is fair. The conditions
are such that the accident of physical strength will not completely decide the
issue. There is a barrier. You will understand. Brain-power and courage will be
more important than strength. Most especially courage, which is the will to
survive.’
    ‘But while this goes on, the fleets will—’
    ‘No, you are in another
space, another time. For as long as you are here, time stands still in the
universe you know. I see you wonder whether this place is real. It is, and it
is not. As I — to your limited
understanding — am and am not real. My existence is mental and not
physical. You saw me as a planet; it could have been as a dust-mote or a sun.
    ‘But to you this place is
now real. What you suffer here will be real. And if you die here, your death
will be real. If you die, your failure will be the end of your race. That is
enough for you to know.’
    And then the voice was gone.
     
     
    ***
     
    Again he was alone, but not alone. For as Carson looked up,
he saw that the red thing, the sphere of horror that he now knew was the
Outsider, was rolling towards him.
    Rolling.
    It seemed to have no legs or arms that he could see, no
features. It rolled across the sand with the fluid quickness of a drop of
mercury. And before it, in some manner he could not