it seemed.)

Kranath could imagine how he'd have reacted to a simple invitation:
"Hello, I'm Godhome. I'd like you to visit me." He smiled, and
thought he felt answering amusement from the computer. No, Godhome had
known exactly what it was doing.

He could feel no more lingering resentment about his capture. He was
here to learn, then to make a decision, and the psionic computer was to
serve him. As the table vanished and his chair became a recliner, he
found himself looking forward to it. He might, he hoped, even find out
what a psionic computer was. The miracles he was experiencing made it
clear that it was something only the gods could build . . . or create.

"Quite true." That Godhome had followed his thoughts didn't surprise
Kranath; like miracles, such things were to be expected of the gods and
their servant. "Although," Godhome went on, "they did not think of
themselves as gods, any more than you think of yourself as one." It
paused briefly. "Put yourself in the place of one of your remote
ancestors some millennia ago.

"A large metal bird lands in front of you, and someone climbs out of
it. This being speaks into a small box that answers him, can kill at a
great distance with a loud noise and a flash of light, can ease pain
with a touch. How would you, in those times, have thought of him?"

Kranath thought briefly. Metal planes and hand-held radios were still
to come, but the analogy was clear. "You are saying the gods are to us
as we are to our ancestors."

"Yes. You see the difference perhaps ten thousand years has had on
what your race can do; now try to imagine the difference had you had a
thousand times as long to develop."

Kranath did try, struggling to grasp the immensity of ten million years
of progress. He failed.

"Don't let it concern you," Godhome said. "I wanted you to understand
the basic concept, which you do: those who went before were much
further advanced than you are, much more powerful, but not
supernatural. And they foresaw how your race would develop. They have
helped it in the past, and knew you would need help again--but they
could not stop their own development, which was moving them to a plane
I am not equipped to understand.

"In their place they left me, to watch over the welfare of the Traiti
race, and one of the critical times they foresaw has arrived.
Intervention has become necessary, and since I am limited in what I can
do alone, I must seek help."