would end, and life would
continue.

"But slowly there crept into the struggle a new factor, a darkening
cloud, a change that came so gradually that only the records of
instruments, made during a period of thousands of years, could show it.
Our sun had changed from bright red to a deep, sullen crimson, and ever
less and less heat poured from it. It was waning!

"As the fires of life died down, the people of the three worlds joined
in a conflict with the common menace, death from the creeping cold of
space. There was no need for great haste; a sun dies slowly. Our
ancestors laid their plans and carried them out. The fifteen worlds were
encased in shells of crystal. Those that had no atmosphere were given
one. Mighty heating plants were built--furnaces that burned matter,
designed to warm a world! At last a state of stability had been reached,
for never could conditions change--it seemed. All external heat and
light came from far-off stars, the thousands of millions of suns that
would never fail.

"Under stress of the Great Change one scarcely noticed, yet almost
incredible, transformation had occurred. We had learned to live with
each other. We had learned to think, and enjoy thinking. As a species we
had passed from youth into maturity. Advancement did not stop; we went
on steadily toward the goal of all knowledge. At first there was an
underlying hope that we might some day, somehow, escape from these
darkened, artificial worlds of ours, but with the passing centuries this
grew very dim and at length was forgotten.

"Gradually as millennia passed, much ancient knowledge was also
forgotten. It was not needed. The world was unchanging, there was no
strife, and no need of strife. The fifteen worlds were warm, and
pleasant, and safe. Without fully realizing it, we had entered a period
of rest. And so the ages passed; and there were museums and libraries
and laboratories; and the machines of our ancestors did all necessary
work. So it was--until less than a generation ago. Our long lives were
pleasant, and death, when it came, was a sleep. And then--"

"And then," Taj Lamor interrupted, a sharp edge of impatience in his
tone, "some of us awakened from our stupor!"

The Elder sighed resignedly. "You cannot see--you cannot see. You would
start that struggle all over again!" His voice continued in what Taj
Lamor thought of as a senile drone, but the younger man paid scant
attention. His eyes and thoughts were centered