same machine which had gleaned
everything from her mind far more accurately than a battery of tests,
a refinement of the electro-encephalogram, was now played in reverse,
giving back to Sophia everything it had taken plus electrospool after
electrospool of science, mathematics, logic, economics, history
(Marxian, these last two), languages (including English), semantics
and certain specialized knowledge she would need later on the
Stalintrek.

Still sleeping, Sophia was bathed in a warm whirlpool of soothing
liquid; rubbed, massaged, her muscle-toning begun while she rested and
regained her strength. Three hours later, objective time, she awoke
with a headache and with more thoughts spinning around madly inside
her brain than she ever knew existed. Gingerly, she tried standing
again, lifting herself nude and dripping wet from a tub of steaming
amber stuff. She stood, stretched, permitted her fright to vanish with
a quick wave of vertigo which engulfed her. She had been fed
intravenously, but a tremendous hunger possessed her. Before eating,
however, she was to find herself in a gymnasium, the air close and
stifling. She was massaged again, told to do certain exercises which
seemed simple but which she found extremely difficult, forced to run
until she thought she would collapse, with her legs, dragging like
lead.

She understood, now. Somehow she knew she was on Jupiter, the fifth
and largest planet, where the force of gravity is so much greater than
on Earth that it is an effort even to walk. She also knew that her
metabolic rate had been accelerated beyond all comprehension and that
in a comparatively short time--objective time--she would have thrice
her original strength. All this she knew without knowing how she knew,
and that was the most staggering fact of all. She did what her curt
instructors bid, then dragged her aching muscles and her headache into
a dining room where tired, forlorn-looking men sat around eating.
Well, the food at least was good. Sophia attacked it ravenously.

* * * * *

It did not take Temple long to realize that the creature running
downhill at him, leaving a crushed and broken wake in the purple and
green grass, was not human. At first Temple toyed with the idea of a
man on horseback, for the creature ran on four limbs and had two left
over as arms. Temple gaped.

The whole thing was one piece!

Centaur?

Hardly. Too small, for one thing. No bigger