Nightmare journey

killing the entire human organism. This occurred seventy-five thousand years ago. In the time since, mankind and all his mutated selves struggled for survival against staggering odds, often nearly lost, somehow went on and grew, lost ground, gained ground, and obtained the present Medieval level.”
    Jask shook his head. “There are a great many gaps in your story.”
    “Such as?”
    “How do you explain the fortresses where the Pure enclaves live? Were they not Lady Nature's gifts to the survivors of Her war with the Ruiner, Her offering of a last chance for mankind to remain pure and gain Her grace again?”
    “They were nothing of the sort,” Tedesco said. “They were simply the last refuge of mankind when the final war had devastated the Earth. They were originally built to house high government officials who remained safe while most of the populace was ashed and plagued with diseases.”
    “What of these jeweled formations?” Jask inquired.
    “What of them?”
    The Pure stood and stretched the knotted muscles in his legs, rubbed at his sore buttocks with both hands. “Can you deny, in good conscience, that they are monuments to the Ruiner and that they were established by the first men who openly worshiped a false god?”
    “I can deny it two ways,” Tedesco said. “First, by logic. Does it seem reasonable to you that any group of men would have spent the time necessary to handcraft a sea of jewels as an offering to their god? The task would have taken centuries.”
    “It is not completely beyond the bounds of reason,” Jask insisted.
    “That is neither here nor there,” Tedesco said. “I know the real truth behind the jewel sea.'' Fumbling with the concepts as if they were heavy stones, he tried to explain to Jask the nature of biological warfare and the purpose of the bacteria jewels.
    When he had finished, Jask shook his head doubtfully, though his response was not nearly so violent as it would have been only a day or two earlier. Jask supposed he had become corrupt without ever taking notice. Tedesco, on the other hand, supposed he was gaining a bit of insight, at last. Jask said, “Even if what you've told me is true-a possibility I reject, you understand-what good will this new theology do us?”
    “It is not just another theology,” Tedesco said patiently. “It is the truth; it is history.”
    “Still, we are without succor, without friends, without any place we can be safe and call home. One interpretation of events seems little more valuable than the other.” He sat down again, too weary to stand any longer, despite the nagging stiffness in his haunches. “So where do we go from here?”
    “To find the Black Presence,” Tedesco said. He spoke as casually as he had during dinner, as if the proposal was not in the least bit mad. But it was, of course: mad, insane, maniacal.
    “Chasing a fairy tale?” Jask asked, disgusted.
    The bruin, however, remained calm and sure of himself. “It is no fairy tale. When mankind withdrew from interstellar space and fell back on his own world, the telepathic aliens he had encountered dispatched a creature to keep watch over us and to monitor our evolution. When we begin to show signs of acquiring psionic abilities- especially telepathy-this creature is to contact its own kind and lead us into full association with other advanced races. Mankind will then be ready for the stars. In fact, you and I, with our telepathic talents, are evidence that the time has come for mankind to grow up.”
    “But we are no longer men,” Jask said. “We're tainted.” He spoke with great sadness, aware that he had at last come to accept his inferior status.
    The bruin's patience evaporated in a flame of anger. He scowled, twisting his lips back from sharp teeth. “Perhaps you are no longer a man,” he said. “I would say you never were one. But I've always been a man, am a man, and will face this challenge as a man should.''
    After that neither of them spoke for a long while. They watched the bright walls shimmering around them, absorbed the silence of the vault and became, themselves, fragments of quietude. Jask waited for an apology to balance what he considered an outrageous fit of pique on the other's part. Tedesco waited, too, but not for an apology. He waited for some sign that Jask was finally prepared to face the reality of their situation with more than unrelieved pessimism. In the end it was Jask who proved the weaker and who spoke first.
    “You said the Black Presence was placed here to wait