"Who are you?" he thought, oddly awed by the personality he sensed behind that voice that was really two voices.
"There is little time." The--sound?--faded into a thin whisper, then grew stronger. "The cloak makes it hard for us to communicate with you. And now we can give you none of our power at all. It is a monstrous thing--a blasphemy such as only the Aesir would create. Half-alive--it makes an artificial synapse between the individual and outside mental contacts. We cannot help you--"
"We are the Protectors. Listen now, Stuart, for soon you must walk the Long Orbit with the others. We removed some of your memories, so the Aesir could not read your mind and have time to prepare themselves--we hoped we might destroy them this time. But--we have failed again. Now--we give you your memories back."
Like a slowly rising tide, Stuart's past began to return. He did not question how this was done; he was too busy lifting the veil that had darkened his mind since--since that night at the Singing Star in New Boston. A few drinks with the tired-eyed man, and then darkness--
But the curtain was lifting now. He remembered....
He remembered a tiny, underground room, with armed men--not many of them--staring at him. A voice that said, "You must either join us or die. We dare run no risks. For hundreds of years a tiny band of us has survived, only because the Aesir did not know we existed."
"Sworn to destroy the Aesir," the man told him, and an answering glow burned briefly in the eyes of the others.
"You have courage," the man said. "You'll need it. I know why you laugh. But we don't fight alone. Have you ever heard of the Protectors?"
"Few have. They aren't human, any more than the Aesir are. But they are not evil. They're humanity's champions. They have sworn to destroy the Aesir, as we have--and so we serve them."
"No man knows," the other said quietly. "Who--and where--they are is a secret they keep to themselves. But we hear their messages. And once in a lifetime, not oftener, they tell us where we may find some man they have winnowed the planets to discover. In our lifetime, Stuart, you are the man."
"To be a weapon for the Protectors--a champion for mankind. The Protectors are so far beyond humanity they cannot fight our battles in their own forms. They need a--a vessel into which they can pour their power. Or--call it a sword to wield against the Aesir. They have searched the worlds over for a long while now, and you--" The man hesitated, looking narrowly at Stuart. "You are the only vessel they found. You have a great destiny, Derek Stuart."