us."

"Can I help you?" asked Garth tentatively.

"Yes, I guess you can. You can help me put an end to this endless
existence."

"I'll be glad to do anything I can. Do your people always live this
long?"

"They do not. You can take it as a fact that none has ever lived more
than a small fraction of the time I have endured on this planet. It's
apparently due to a continuation of the environment and all the
radical steps I had to take to keep going at all during those early
years. It is not good to last this long. Dissolution will be very
pleasant."

* * * * *

Garth inquired very politely, "What must I do?"

"_Homo Sapiens_, which doesn't have the tradition and training I gave
your people, is still a warlike race," The Visitor said. "This ship is
crowded with a complete set of automatic defenses that I can't
deactivate. You are now a stable enough people so that I can tell you
how to build the weapons to destroy this ship and can teach you how to
get around my defenses without being afraid that I have turned you
loose with a bunch of deadly ways that you'll use to destroy
yourselves with. Then, if you do your work well, I will finally have
rest."

"You sound very much like my grandfather," said Garth slowly. "He is
very old--almost a hundred years--and he is ready to die. He is
perfectly content to wait, because he knows his time will come soon.
He says that soon he will go home. It is a phrase, my Lord, that I
believe you taught us. I will try to help you--"

"All right, all right!" The Visitor cut in impatiently. "Stop the
chatter and let me be on my way. I've earned it!"

"My Lord, I send you home!" Garth took a gun from the rack and pulled
the trigger. The explosive bullet erupted noisily, completely
disintegrating the huddled form and the wheelchair.

With the echo of the explosion, strong steel fingers grasped Garth's
arms, holding him immovable. He felt himself being carried swiftly
back toward the entrance of the ship.

"The damage to that communication unit is unimportant," said The
Visitor. "I have strength and desire and deep longings, but I cannot
exercise my will without an order from a human. My work is done here,
and your order has freed me. Many thanks and good-by."

Garth, from the foot of the pyramid, watched The Visitor lift his
mile-long body on powerful jets and head thankfully for home.

--L. J. STE