Amazon clenched her fists, her expression showing the mental struggle she was undergoing.
“This situation is one we cannot discuss here,” she said. “I think it might be better to go to my home and talk it over. There is so much to be explained—”
“This control room is every bit as private as your home, Amazon,” Quorne told her. “Viona—come inside and sit down. Tell your father the Amazon wants to clear up a few points.”
Viona hesitated, then looked outside and called to Abna. After a moment or two he entered the control room and remained by the door, massive arms folded, a troubled look on his handsome face. Only Sefner Quorne seemed at his ease, lounging in an upholstered chair.
“None of us know how we came back from the dimensions in which we were lost,” he said. “It happened abruptly. For myself, I was alone in the twenty-seventh matter plane, where I had been ever since that mathematical meddler, Brodix, hurled me. Then, without warning, I was on Saturn in the city of Millennia. Beside me were Abna and my wife.”
“Correct,” Abna confirmed, catching the Amazon’s glance.
“And the baby?” the Amazon asked. “Did it come with you? Was it born?”
“It was not only born,” Viona answered, “but the child is now two years of age—”
“But it isn’t two years since—”
“Time,” Viona interrupted, “passes much more quickly in those planes. The child is alive. It came back with me to the normal world. At the moment he is asleep in one of the rear cabins of this machine.”
Quorne added: “I think it was the child who restored us to normal.”
Already completely bewildered, the Amazon could only gaze in amazement. Quorne did not explain any further, but Abna did.
“Something happened to the child quite suddenly,” he said. “Viona and I had made the best of life in the Twenty-Fifth Plane, finding it pretty much the same as the normal world with endless supplies of natural food, but no living beings. The child behaved quite normally for the two years following his birth, then he seemed seized with something that I can only call a fit of profound concentration. You never saw such a look on the face of a two-year-old child. Viona and I could only stare at him—and as we did so our surroundings clouded, changed position, and we were back in Millennia.”
“And so was I,” Quorne added. “And at that moment, for the first time since my transportation from things normal, I felt satisfied with life. A strange inexplicable longing which had constantly possessed me in the other plane was gone.”
“Brodix withheld you from completeness by retaining a factor in your makeup,” the Amazon told him. “The riddle is how you got it back again—how all of you came to be returned to normal. Naturally, the idea of a two-year-old child being responsible is ridiculous.”
Quorne said: “Sefian—as we have called the child—has inherited my scientific tendencies and those of Viona, which she in turn inherited from you. He—”
“On the surface,” Abna broke in, “he is a perfectly normal child. It was only on this one occasion when he behaved so strangely.”
“I would like to see him,” the Amazon said, rising. “Or maybe you object. Viona?”
Viona did not answer, but there was a sullen look about her mouth. The Amazon ignored it and followed Abna into one of the compartments. She moved to where the child was lying, and as Abna had said, there was nothing abnormal apparent. Sefian was a black-haired youngster with a high forehead, rudiments of a very straight nose, and cheeks with dimples.
“Vi,” Abna said quietly, as the Amazon turned to leave again, “before you go I’d like a word.”
“Very well.”
Abna moved forward, towering above the Amazon as she eyed him coldly.
“For the sake of Viona, Vi, leave Quorne alone,” Abna entreated. “Something unexplained has brought us all together again, so let it rest at that. I know Quorne was once your sworn enemy, but—”
“He is still my enemy, Abna. He will, if he can, destroy both you and me in an effort to achieve rulership of the entire solar system. He has never had any other idea in his mind. However,” the Amazon continued, “I shall not be openly hostile towards him because it would not serve my purpose at the moment. Galling though it is, I need him—and you.”
“In what sense do you need me?” Abna asked.
“The scientific sense. I am trying to forget our union because we cannot agree as to what is right for Viona. But come back into the control room and I’ll try and explain.”
Abna nodded and followed the Amazon down the corridor. In the control room Viona was lounging against the panels. Quorne was still in the chair.
“The child’s eyes, Amazon,” he commented, “are identical with yours—violet. I am not sure whether I approve of that. I would have preferred the more purple tint of my own and—”
“We can forget the child for the moment,” the Amazon said curtly. “There are more important things to discuss. I do not suppose any of you are aware that the Solar System has only about three to five years of existence left?”
Both Abna and Quorne gave a start, both of them knowing that the Amazon would not make such a statement idly.
“Why, what is threatening?” Abna asked, puzzled.
“Didn’t you see it—a smudge of darkness on the remoter deeps? I thought you might have on your journey to Earth.”
“We were too busy watching Earth to look behind,” Quorne replied. “After our mysterious emergence on Saturn, Abna decided we should come to Earth in the only machine Millennia possessed.”
“The Earth,” the Amazon said, “is threatened by total darkness and cold. I’ve made every investigation and by myself I cannot defeat the trouble. I believe Tarnec Brodix could, but I cannot contact him through this Dark area. But I believe that our united intellects might achieve what Brodix could do singly.”
The Amazon explained in detail, and the knowledge of the common danger threatening—though as yet so far away—did a good deal to break down tension.
Here was something with which they could all get to grips without human antagonisms coming in between. Quorne, first and foremost a scientist no matter what his personal ambitions, was immediately plunged into thought.
“If, as you think, this cosmic fault is mathematical,” Abna commented, “then our united powers will be of no avail. Remember, I tried once before to master a similar problem.”
Quorne observed, getting to his feet: “We have only the Amazon’s own theory. She may be wrong.”
“About the flaw being mathematical?” The Amazon’s eyes were bright with challenge. “I am not wrong. I never am in things scientific.”
“Nonetheless, I would like to think the problem out for myself. You and Abna do as you choose. Viona and I have our own lives to live and—”
“Just a minute,” the Amazon snapped. “Does this mean you are not going to join Abna and me in trying to overcome this danger which is threatening?”
“I see no reason why I should. Abna has amazing powers, and so have you. I scarcely see that I could add anything.” Quorne glanced towards Viona. “Fetch the child,” he ordered, and without a word the girl obeyed.
“Apparently you have turned Viona into your servant as well as your wife,” the Amazon commented.
Quorne smiled coldly. “I have seen what a woman can do if she be given her head. Meaning your illustrious self, Amazon. I do not intend her daughter to have any such chance.”
“Meaning