Richard Stockham

“ Earth rocked and heaved, like an animal in convulsions. Volcanos exploded, shot out their flaming, poisonous refuse. Oceans were monsters writhing and rolling in their troughs, reaching onto the land, as though to pull it beneath them. And the land itself split wide and snapped shut great, yawning jaws. There was a wild rushing about among all the people, a madness, as though frantic motion would save them. They looked up off the convulsed earth with panic stricken eyes, their voices raised in agony.
Thorus' voice sounded, "The time for the death of the Authority has come. ”

“ The soft voice of the commander flowed into his mind like a voice from outer space:
"You will tell us your method of going into the macrocosm. The equations, the type ship, its propellent, where the ship is hidden."
Thorus felt enveloped in a void.
The voice of the commander droned on. "All we need is a clue. We'll work out the rest."
Life and feeling and thought were surging back into Thorus now. Strength filled his muscles again. Sight came into his eyes. Again he sat straight and stiff on the chair. ”

“ Now I demand you give up this insane idea of going into the atoms. You've got to come with me."
"I've told you I can't escape with you out into the macrocosm. It's not my way!"
"The word 'escape' doesn't apply," he snapped, "to what I'm doing. You're escaping. You'll creep into the microcosm and sit there like a seed that won't grow. You can't fight the Authority from the microcosm. That way is utter passivity and death. My way is fighting back. I'm going into hyper-space. My ship and I'll become so huge and powerful I'll throw suns around like snowballs. ”

“ In the macrocosm. Thorus destroying! Destroying! The next instant her inner sight swung back to where Thorus' ship, the shining metal ball, had leapt up off the mountain of earth; leapt, in the fraction of a second, through the blue earth covering into black, outer space. Her inner sight saw the metal ball inflating, a cosmic balloon, flashing like the sun, then seeming to fill the space between all the suns! ”

“ I'll find the secret of life in inner space and I'll return and release our people from the Authority. And you? You'll never really understand anything. You'll be a wild comet, yes, but I'll be a raindrop in a deep well, learning patience. I'll be a true healer. ”

“ We came back to our earth and now we must do what we have left undone."
There was much to be done.
Thorus looked around. He saw in the distance a crushed and smoking ruins. "I've destroyed the Authority, but I've destroyed too much. Now the people are in chaos."
Aria stood silently awhile, and then moved his arm. "But now you can help me to heal them. You've seen in the microcosm, as I have in the macrocosm that all life is one. Now we can show the people that outer and inner space are not separate. ”

“ But suddenly, he became aware of Aria's thought within him, crying out. "Destroyer! Murderer! In moments you've set humanity back a hundred thousand years. You're worse than the Authority. There'll never be any peace for you or for the earth or even the universe after what you've done. Other Authorities will come and you'll have to destroy them and others and others. Destruction for you forever, on and on, until you fill the universe with it...."
In his mind, Thorus saw her among the falling snowflakes and the drops of cool water and the green, growing atoms ”

“ Aria had half risen from the chair. As the eyes of the policeman turned on her, she sank back.
"How opportune," the policeman continued. "The eve of your departures." The smile set on his mouth. His gun snapped up on a line with Thorus' heart. "No sudden moves, or you'll be burnt to a cinder. But no. That's what you want—a quick death. So let me threaten you with merely burning your legs off." The blaster lowered. "It may interest you to know we have a recording of your whole conversation. But there's something else." ”

“ I've always been happy working with flowers and trees, the life of the meadow and valley, the rain and the new, small buds in springtime. We have always gone in opposite directions."
She paused and smiled a bit wistfully. ”