onderful spring. The trip was over, but what a haggard few
had beached the boats at the vast edge of space!

The few surviving Brons were happy now. Those who had been Grim Hagen's
slaves out of their loyalty to Maya were offered anything that they wished.
However, it turned out that most of them wanted little except peace and
rest.

The families of Brons that survived were now building their houses above
ground--although the Lorens had generously offered them quarters below the
city. The Brons wanted no more of caves or tunnels. They preferred to live
up there on this world's surface and take their chances with frost and
flood.

Opal had been beautiful and wonderful. It had been like living eastward in
Eden, but Eden's gardens were no more. And perhaps it would be better to
face the elements and meet them head-on instead of seeking shelter. For
time and chance were working everywhere--even in Eden--and as Gunnar had
always said, a fighting heart could carry a man to the last.

* * * * *

The days and the nights were longer than on earth. The work was long and
hard. But the world of the Lorens was being rebuilt. And at night, Odin
usually set an hour aside to work on his notes.

At times he talked with Wolden, although he could never be completely at
ease when talking to a light. Nor could he understand half the things that
Wolden told him. Wolden quoted formulas on time and space, mass and speed.
Odin guessed that the belt which he had once used so briefly embodied a
No-Time and No-Space factor. But this was beyond him.

As for Ato, he grew moodier every day. At last he came to see Maya and Odin
one evening. Sitting by the fire--for the nights there were chilly--he
talked to them of his decision.

"It was a great fight," he said. "And I will always remember it. If Nea had
lived, I might have felt differently. But Wolden and the others say that
they will not stay here much longer. I have decided to go with them. Theirs
is a sort of Nirvana, a timeless, dimensionless existence. Yesterday and
tomorrow, near and far, are one--"

Maya shivered. "It sounds like a frightening existence. I don't understand
it at all. It is as though they had become spirits without dying."

"Perhaps," said Ato thoughtfully, looking into the fire. "You may be
right. But they say it is wonderful to be freed from the shackles of
space and time. You remember the belt, Odin? Wolden has merely improved
upon i