"Good!" Ardath said on the screen. "We timed it exactly right. In two minutes, watch the sky. If it lights up, we have succeeded."
With one accord, Court and Marion hurried to the railing. Even Scipio rifted his head to stare at the black sky.
Two minutes to wait. The incredible barrier of electrons, the curtain of atomic energy, was rushing around the Earth, spreading out from the points of origin in the twin Towers.
One minute dragged by. Then, without warning, the sky turned white. The dim stars vanished. A curtain of pallid white brilliance hung over the Earth, like a shining ivory bowl overturned upon the land.
A single heart-beat it remained, and then faded and was gone. But Court knew that the Earth Shield had been created. That barrier would forever safeguard mankind. "We've won!" His voice was hoarse with triumph. "Marion, we've saved humanity!"
There was something inexpressibly tender in the girl's eyes as she watched him. For now she knew that Stephen Court was a man whom she could love and cherish—not a cold, inhuman machine. In the hour of his triumph, he exulted not because he had solved a terrible problem with his keen brain. Court rejoiced because he had saved human beings from horror and death.
"Yes," Marion said softly. "We've won, Steve. Both of us have won what we wanted."
From the metallic sphere overhead, invisible energy flared out, challenging the stars as it poured its mighty power into the Earth Shield…
EPILOGUE
One year later, a little group stood on the Wisconsin hills, examining a huge golden space ship that loomed against the green slope and the summer sky. It had taken months to build a new vessel to Ardath's specifications. But at last the task had been finished, the equipment installed, and the provisions taken aboard. In every respect, the craft was a duplicate of the Kyrian original, save for a few new devices which Ardath and Court had perfected. Scipio, Li Yang and Ardath stood together at the open airlock, Marion and Court a few feet away. It was difficult to find words at this moment of sad farewell.
"I am sorry you will not go with us, both of you," Ardath said after a time. "Yet you may be right."
"You know how I feel about it," Court returned. "The Plague is destroyed. It will never come again, thanks to the Earth Shield. But new dangers may arise. These people among whom I was born are my people. I must be ready to serve and help them. I think that was the reason I was given a mind evolved beyond my time.
"I can help in so many ways, Ardath. There is so much I can do to improve this world of mine. Already, in one year, vast strides have been made. Atomic power has outlawed war. When I die, I want to die in a Utopia that I have helped to build."
Ardath nodded with understanding. "I came through time to find a super-mind whom I could abduct to start a new race. Well, I have found that super-mind—and you are wiser than I, Stephen Court. We are all part of some cosmic pattern, and this pattern works toward good and not evil. It builds and does not destroy. So I shall go on in my search for a race where I can find kinship and happiness. Perhaps, a thousand years from now, I shall stand beside your grave, Court."
"I, too," Scipio broke in. "Your world is a fine one, Court, and some of it I like. But I follow a dream. Mayhap I can carve out a kingdom in some distant future—" He did not finish, but his face was suddenly somber. "I cannot stay here," he said at last. "Jansaiya died here, and that would always be an aching pain in my heart."
"Nor will I remain," Li Yang murmured. "Perhaps it is merely curiosity that impels me to go on with Ardath. I do not know. But the unknown has a certain fascination, and I am anxious to know what will exist a million years from now. So farewell, and"—the tiny mouth twisted grotesquely—"and do not forget fat old Li Yang."
The gross figure turned hastily and disappeared into the ship.
Scipio bent and touched his lips to Marion's brow before he squeezed Court's hand in a mighty grip.
"The gods watch over you," he rumbled, and was gone inside.
Now Ardath's strange, alien eyes dwelt on the faces of Marion and Court.
"There is nothing I can say," he whispered. "Only, farewell."
Some indefinable bond of kinship between minds flashed for an instant as Court and Ardath gazed into each other's eyes. Then the Kyrian stepped back into the ship and the port swung shut.
The vessel lifted. It rose silently and dwindled against the blue, a bright golden ovoid that faded to a speck and was out of sight. It sped toward the orbit it would follow around the Earth, perhaps for thousands of years, until Ardath and Scipio and Li Yang awoke to follow their strange destiny.
Two figures stood close together on the slope. Marion and Court looked up until all trace of the golden ship was gone. There was only the blue sky then, and the green hills of 'Wisconsin.
Still silent, and with the man's arm holding the girls sum form close to him, they turned to retrace their steps to the highway where a car waited. There was nothing they could say, and no need for words had they found any…