Adda leaned forward in his sling. "City man, they don't even know we're here. Nothing you could do would even raise you to their attention."

Muub was shaking his head. "How can you respect such — such primal monsters? Explain that, Adda."

"The Xeelee have their own goals," said Adda. "Goals which we do not share, and cannot even comprehend..."

The Xeelee — moving behind mists of legend — were immense. They were to the Ur-humans as Ur-humans were to Human Beings, perhaps. They were like gods — and yet lower than gods.

Perhaps gods could have been tolerated, by the Ur-human soul. Not the Xeelee. The Xeelee had been rivals.

Hork twisted in his sling, angry and impatient. "So the Ur-humans, unable to endure the aloof grandeur of these Xeelee, challenged them..."

"Yes. There were great wars."

Billions had died. The destruction of the Xeelee had become a racial goal for the Ur-humans.

"...But not for everyone," Adda said. "As the venom of the assaults grew, so did Ur-human understanding of the Xeelee's great Projects. For instance the Ring was discovered..."

"The Ring?" Hork growled.

"Bolder's Ring," Adda said. "A huge construct which one day will form a gateway between universes..."

"What is this old fool babbling about, Physician? What are these universes of which he speaks? Are they in other parts of the Star?"

Muub spread his long, fine hands and smiled. "I'm as mystified as you are, sir. Perhaps the universes reside in other Stars. If such exist."

Adda grunted. "If I knew all the answers I'd have spent my life doing a lot more than carve spears and hunt pigs," he said sourly. "Look, Hork, I will tell you what I know; I'm telling you what my father told me. But if you ask stupid questions you are only going to get stupid answers."

"Get on with it," Muub murmured.

"Even if they could have been successful," Adda said, "wise Ur-men came to see that to destroy the Xeelee might be as unwise as for a child to destroy its father. The Xeelee are working on our behalf, waging immense, invisible battles in order to save us from unknown danger. We cannot understand their ways; we are as dust in the Air to them. But they are our best hope."

Hork glared at him, raking his fat fingers through his beard. "What evidence is there for any of this? It's all legend and hearsay..."

"That's true," Muub said, "but we couldn't expect any more from such a source, sir..."