“It doesn’t escape me,” Brucco answered briefly. “But I cannot see that it has any relevancy today. The past is unchangeable and we must fight in the present. That is enough to occupy all our energies.”

The pressure of futility built up inside Jason, fighting for a way to burst free. Wherever he turned, there was only indifference.

“You’re an intelligent man, Brucco-yet you can see no further than the tip of your own nose. I suppose it is inevitable. You and the rest of the Pyrrans are supermen by Earth standards. Tough, ruthless, unbeatable, fast on the draw. Drop you anywhere and you land on your feet. You would make perfect Texas Rangers, Canadian Mounties, Venus Swamp Patrolmen-any of the mythical frontier fighters of the past. And I think that’s where you really belong. In the past. On Pyrrus, mankind has been pushed to the limit of adaptability in muscle and reflex. And it’s a dead end. Brain was the thing that dragged mankind out of the caves and started him on his way to the stars. When we start thinking with our muscles again we are on our way right back to those caves.

Isn’t that what you Pyrrans are? A bunch of cavemen hitting animals on the head with stone axes. Do you ever stop to think why you are here? What you are doing? Where you are going?”

Jason had to stop; he was exhausted and gasping for breath. Brucco rubbed his chin in thought. “Caves?” he asked. “Of course we don’t live in caves or use stone clubs. I don’t understand your point at all.”

It was impossible to be angry, or even exasperated. Jason started to answer, then laughed instead. A very humorless laugh. He was too tired to argue anymore. He kept running into this same stone wall with all the Pyrrans. Theirs was a logic of the moment.

The past and future unchangeable, unknowable-and uninteresting. “How is the perimeter battle going?” he asked finally, wanting to change the subject.

“Finished. Or in the last stages at least.” Brucco was enthusiastic as he showed Jason stereos of the attackers. He did not notice Jason’s repressed shudder.

“This was the most serious breakthrough in years, but we caught it in time. I hate to think what would have happened if they hadn’t been detected for a few weeks more.”

“What are those things?” Jason asked. “Giant snakes of some kind?”