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Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 7
Supporting Procurement with SAP
Chapter Objectives/Study Questions
Q1. What are the fundamentals of a Procurement process?
Q2. How did the Procurement process at CBI work before SAP?
Q3. What were the problems with the Procurement process before SAP?
Q4. How does CBI implement SAP?
Q5. How does the Procurement process work at CBI after SAP?
Q6. How can SAP improve supply chain processes at CBI?
Q7. How does the use of SAP change CBI?
Q8. What new IS will affect the Procurement process in 2024?

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List of Key Terms
• 3D printing – also known as additive manufacturing, objects are manufactured
through the deposition of successive layers of material.
• Augmented reality – computer data or graphics overlaid onto the physical
environment.
• Bottleneck – event that occurs when a limited resource greatly reduces the output of
an integrated series of activities or processes.
• Bullwhip effect – occurs when companies order more supplies than are needed due to
a sudden change in demand.
• Buy-in – selling a product or system for less than its true price.
• Finished goods inventory – completed products awaiting delivery to customers.
• Internal control – control that systematically limits the actions and behaviors of
employees, processes, and systems within the organization to safeguard assets and to
achieve objectives.
• Invoice – an itemized bill sent by the supplier.
• Lead time – the time required for a supplier to deliver an order.
• Procurement – the process of obtaining goods and services such as raw materials,
machine spare parts, and cafeteria series. It is an operational process executed
hundreds or thousands of times a day in a large organization. The three main
procurement activities are Order, Receive, and Pay.
• Purchase order – a written document requesting delivery of a specified quantity of
product or service in return for payment.
• Purchase requisition (PR) – an internal company document that issues a request for
a purchase.
• Radio-frequency identification (RFID) – chips that broadcast data to receivers to
display and record data that can be used to identify and track items in the supply
chain.
• Raw materials inventory – stores components like bicycle tires and other goods
procured from suppliers.
• Returns Management process – manages returns of a business’ faulty products.
• Roll up – the accounting process to compile and summarize the accounting
transactions into balance sheets and income statements.
• Supplier evaluation process – process to determine the criteria for supplier selection
that adds or removes suppliers from the list of approved suppliers.
• Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) process – process that automates,
simplifies, and accelerates a variety of supply chain processes. It helps companies
reduce procurement costs, build collaborative supplier relationships, better manage
supplier options, and improve time to market.
• Supply chain management (SCM) – the design, planning, execution, and integration
of all supply chain processes. It uses a collection of tools, techniques, and
management activities to help businesses develop integrated supply chains that
support organizational strategy.
• Three-way match – the data on the invoice must match the purchase order and the
goods receipt.

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MIS InClass 7
1. Describe the order pattern from the customers to the retailer every week.
The order pattern from the customers to the retailer was random from week to week.
One week demand would be six bikes, and 12 the next. The following week demand
would be for only two bikes. Sometimes the demand would trend upward, steadily
increasing over a period of weeks. At other times, demand would slowly fall over a
period of time.
2. Why did the ordering pattern between the suppliers in the supply chain evolve
the way it did?
Initially, the ordering pattern between the stations was very erratic. A bullwhip effect
was created. As the game moved forward, product was able to work its way through
the supply chain, so orders were able to be met. This created a pattern of over-
ordering, which led to generally excessive inventory. As the randomness of the orders
was realized, the orders through the supply chain moved up and down as well.
3. What are the objectives and measures for each team’s procurement process?
The objectives for each station are to have less inventory and less backorders. To
measure this, stations use the total cost. The total cost is 0.5 (inventory) +1
(backorders).
4. Where is the IS? What would more data allow? What data are most needed?
There is not an IS present in the game. More data would allow materials planning
within the supply chain. Customer demand is most needed. It takes a long time to get
the customer data through the different stations. If the factory had a more direct view
of customer demand, the backorder and inventory problems would not be as
exaggerated downstream.
5. If you spent money on an IS, would it improve an activity, data flow, control,
automation, or procedure?
It would improve the linkage between the retailer and each of the stations in the
supply chain. Without an IS, each station can only know what the demand is one
station away, and there is an inherent lag. This lag can be reduced when every station
understands what the customer demand actually is.

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6. Create a BPMN diagram of your team’s weekly procurement process.
Procurement Process for Wholesaler
Purchasing Manager Warehouse Manager Fulfillment Manager
Phase
Receive Incoming
Orders and Advance
the order delay
Fill the Order
Place Order
Receive Inventory
and advance the
shipping delay
Record Back Log
Start
Enough
inventory to
fulfill
Yes
No
Check Inventory
Inventory
Update Inventory
Enough
Inventory
No
End
Yes
Update Inventory

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Using Your Knowledge
7-1. Two supply chain processes introduced in this chapter are Returns
Management and Supplier Evaluation.
a. Create a BPMN diagram of each of these processes.
Returns Managment
Retailer Factory Supplier
Phase
Start
End
Product Received by
Retailer
Product Returned to
Factory
Correct Supplier
Charged for Defect
Replacement
Product issued to
Customer
Product Received by
Factory
Product Examined
for Defect
Supplier Charged

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Supplier Evaluation
Approved Supplier List
Purchasing Manager
Phase
Approved
Supplier DB
Start
End
Suppliers are
nominated
Information
Gathered
Supplier
Approved
Update List
Yes
b. Specify efficiency and effectiveness objectives for each process and identify
measures appropriate for CBI.
Potential efficiency objective examples for:
Returns Management: Fewer product returns.
Supplier Evaluation: Time to approve suppliers.

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Potential effectiveness objective examples for:
Returns Management: Quality Controls.
Supplier Evaluation: Sufficient number of approved suppliers.
Potential efficiency measures for:
Returns Management: Percentage of quality control tests passed and inspecting
parts prior to assembly.
Supplier Evaluation: Inventory turnover.
Potential effectiveness measures for:
Returns Management: Decrease in Product Returns account.
Supplier Evaluation: Decrease in the number of suppliers removed from the list
of approved suppliers.
c. What new information system technologies could be used by CBI to
improve these processes, as specified by your measures in part b? Can AR,
RFID, or 3D printing be used to improve these processes?
Yes, RFID could be used to track batches of parts that fail a quality control
inspection, allowing CBI to find the parts before they are used to assemble other
products. Augmented Reality could be used when inspecting a returned product.
The parts in the product could be linked directly to the supplier, allowing CBI to
quickly charge the supplier for the defect to reduce its own Returns allowance
and increase its accounts receivable.
7-2. Which of the four nonroutine cognitive skills identified in Chapter 1 (i.e.,
abstract reasoning, systems thinking, collaboration, and experimentation) did
you use to answer the previous question?
Based on the example answer for question 1, the nonroutine cognitive skill of
systems thinking was used to determine what available technologies could be used
by CBI to help improve its processes and how the technologies could be leveraged
to help each other. Abstract reasoning was also utilized to determine in which step
of the process the technology could be used.
7-3. Which of the four skills in Exercise 7-2 would be most important for Wally’s
replacement?
Wally’s replacement will need to possess systems thinking in order to connect all of
the inputs and outputs produced by CBI into one big system. The three remaining
non-routine skills will also be important for Wally’s replacement. Technology
moves quickly and to remain an effective manager, Wally’s replacement will need
to move quickly as well. Over the course of ten or twenty years, the processes will
also change, creating more opportunities for CBI to improve and become an even
better business.

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7-4. The Procurement process in this chapter is an inbound logistics operational
process. Name two other operational processes at CBI. Describe two inbound
logistics managerial processes and two strategic processes.
Examples of two other operational processes are Accounts Payable and Conducting
Sales. Examples of inbound logistics managerial processes include materials
requirement planning and production assembly employee scheduling. Examples of
strategic processes include budget planning and determining future warehouse
space requirements.
7-5. If a warehouse worker opens a box and the contents are broken, those items
will be returned to the supplier. Add this activity to the BPMN diagram of the
Procurement process (Figure 7-14).
Updated BPMN for Figure 7-12
Purchasing Manager
Warehouse
Manager
SAP Application Accountant
Phase
Start
Update DB
Create Purchase
Requisition
Create Purchase
Order
Receive Goods
Receive Invoice
Yes
Consistent 3
Way Match
Pay Supplier
Yes
End
Retrieve Three-Way
Match Data
Update DB
SAP DB
No
Product in
Acceptable
Condition
Return Product to
Supplier
No
7-6. For the Procurement process after SAP implementation, what are the triggers
for each activity to start? For example, what action (trigger) initiates the
Create PO activity?
To start, the raw material inventory for a given product must drop below a
predetermined level. This will cause a purchase requisition to be created. Once a PR
is created, the purchasing manager must approve it in order to create a purchase
order. Once a PO is created and the materials are delivered, a goods receipt is

9 of 17
created. Once the goods are added to the inventory, the goods receipt creates an
entry in accounts payable. Once CBI receives the invoice for the PO, the receive
invoice process is triggered. This allows the Pay supplier activity to begin. Before
the post outgoing payment activity can be completed, the data from the PO, goods
receipt, and invoice must all be correct (the three-way match).
7-7. What kinds of errors can Wally, Maria, and Ann make that are not captured
by SAP? One example is that Wally might count 20 bottles and 30 cages but
mistakenly enter 20 cages and 30 bottles. Describe a particularly harmful
mistake that each can make and how the process could be changed to prevent
that error.
Wally could accidentally miss clicking OK for one of the products in the Goods
Receipt Screen. Maria could select the wrong supplier for a particular material. Ann
could select the wrong supplier to which to issue a payment. A particularly harmful
mistake that Wally could make is to forget to create a good receipt altogether. To
improve this process, augmented reality and RFID tags could be used to identify
materials that have been shipped by the supplier but have yet to be entered into
inventory at CBI. Maria could mistype a part number to be ordered. To prevent this,
a check could be run to confirm that the part number ordered is below the minimum
stock on hand. Ann could pay the wrong vendor. To prevent this, checks could be
used to ensure that the vendor being paid has an unpaid invoice with CBI and that
the amount of payment is less than or equal to the amount of the accounts payable
for that particular vendor.
7-8. How does a pizza shop’s Procurement process differ from CBI’s? What do you
believe is the corporate strategy of your favorite pizza franchise? What are the
objectives and measures of its Procurement process to support this strategy?
A pizza shop’s procurement process would need to be more efficient than CBI’s.
Pizza shops carry perishable items on their inventory, which means inventory must
be turned over quickly. Pizza shops also generally have narrow margins. This
means that there is not as much room to carry excess inventory like CBI might be
able to. Papa John’s, with over 3,500 locations, aims to provide better pizzas by
using better ingredients. This can be particularly difficult due to the need for fresh
vegetables. Because of this, the chain has local suppliers for each location. To
support the strategy, Papa John’s should have relatively small amounts of raw
materials on hand to make sure that the ingredients are fresh. This can be measured
by the inventory turnover for each ingredient. Another measure is the response time
by suppliers to provide the fresh ingredients. This can be measured by the order
fulfillment time.
7-9. 3D printing has many benefits for businesses. Suggest three products that CBI
might print instead of procure with traditional means and three that your
university might print.
Suggested answers for CBI:
• Any plastic parts for its bicycles, ranging from wheel reflector shells to handle-
bar plugs and from tire filler caps to water bottles and helmet shells.

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• Promotional materials such as key chains, custom signage for store display, etc.
• With the right technology and printer cartridges, metal parts may be part of the
process in the future. There are currently experiments with titanium printing that
would allow the printing of high-end gears, derailleurs, etc.
Suggested answers for a university:
• Athletic equipment (think football, hockey, etc.).
• Keys, most universities spend significant funds on key manufacture and control.
• Soft and hard goods with the university seal/logo for sale in the bookstore and at
events.
Students will certainly have a plethora of suggestions.
Which procurement objectives does 3D printing support?
Procurement is primarily associated with inbound logistics. It is the process by
which goods are ordered, received, stored, disseminated within the organization,
and paid for. 3D printing affects ordering (to some extent), receipt, storage, and
dissemination (depending upon where printing occurs relative to the ultimate user’s
location).
7-10. Augmented reality will help employees find items in a warehouse, but this IS
may also support many other processes. Name two and describe how AR will
improve them. Use Google Glass as one example of using AR, and use another
example of AR for your other process.
AR could assist with navigation though a large facility to locate an individual or
functional location. AR could also be used to help a person during a presentation by
presenting context sensitive information viewable only by the presenter regardless
of the presenter’s proximity to a computer (think Google Glass). In a more
traditional sense, AR could present 3D images of complex designs to assist in
product repair, virtual design interaction, etc. If AR is tied to GPS, which is
certainly a reality, your smartphone can present an AR view of your current
location to give you information about your surroundings, or possibly suggest
possibilities for a sales call close to you, for example.

11 of 17
Collaboration Exercise 7
1. Figure 7-8 lists problems with the Procurement process at CBI. Which of these
would apply to the university? Which would not? What are some procurement
problems that might be unique to an athletics department?
In the Accounting role, three-way match discrepancies and the lack of real time
accounting data would apply at university. Purchasing agents could be spread across
many departments and colleges. Internal controls could also be weak in the
Purchasing role. The problems with finished goods inventory and raw materials
inventory would not apply to the university. The athletics department, on the other
hand, may face issues with procurement due to the need for a very specialized piece
of athletic equipment that is only offered by a limited number of suppliers. An
athletics department might also face issues with increased procurement costs because
of low order volumes. It might be difficult to obtain economies of scale when there
are only 25 hockey players who need hockey skates ordered for the season.
2. Figure 7-12 lists objectives and measures that the managers at CBI determined
for the Procurement process. What objectives and measures would you suggest
for the university? What objectives and measures would you expect the athletics
director to suggest (do not use the objectives and measures from Chapter 6)?
For the university, an objective should be to reduce inventory. Another objective
could be to reduce costs. Measures for these objectives would be decreasing
inventory costs from 25% of sales to 15% and to reduce product costs by 5%. The
athletics department should use objectives like reduce cost and increase the volume of
cross-selling. Measures could include reducing product costs by 10% and increasing
cross-selling revenues by 25%.
3. Figure 7-28 lists the impacts of SAP on an organization. Which of these impacts
would affect the athletics department?
Of the four items listed, new skills needed and process focus would affect the
athletics department. The department will need to train employees to be proficient
with the supply chain management system, and to utilize employees’ abstract
reasoning and analytical skills. The athletics department will also need to focus on
processes. The inputs and outputs into the system will provide more data for the
department’s customers and suppliers.
4. Chapter 1 explained four nonroutine cognitive skills: abstract reasoning, systems
thinking, collaboration, and experimentation. Explain how implementing the
new Procurement process at CBI will require each of these skills from the
members of the SAP implementation team.
Abstract reasoning is needed to create and manipulate the models for CBI’s
processes. Ultimately, the process used by the employees and the process that the
SAP software is designed to aid must be the same. It may require the human
processes and computer processes to be tweaked in order to work together. Systems
thinking will be needed in order to fully realize the benefits provided by SAP. The
ERP system creates many inputs and outputs which can be used by the company to

12 of 17
increase the efficiency of it processes and to increase its operating margins. It is up to
the employees to realize how the data can be used. Collaboration is essential for a
successful implementation. Employees from different areas of the company will need
to work together toward a common goal for the investment in the system to be
worthwhile. Experimentation is needed to pursue potential solutions to problems in
the processes and to foster learning opportunities. Not every experiment will be
successful; the opportunity comes in learning something from a failed experiment
other than the knowledge that what was tried did not work.

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different content

tongue inside his mouth. It came home to him suddenly, with the
force of a powerfully swung sledge, that he was trapped irrevocably.
The outlaws who fought Aava needed the gatestone to get to their
settlements. He had the gatestone, but Aava was alive and awake,
inside it. Whenever and wherever he used it, Aava would know. The
settlements would no longer be secret. If he used the gatestone to
transport the outlaws home, he would be leading an army to slay
them!
Thor growled in his throat.
Aava laughed softly. He urged, "Turn the gatestone. Let me show
you the wonders I could give a man like you, were he to be my
friend. I want a friend, a strong friend. I do not trust my androids
overly. They are only pseudo-life. Besides, there are too few of them
to build an empire with. Lack of materials to make them has
hampered me.
"Will you be my friend, Thor?"
Thor blinked. The insidiously sweet voice was working its will on
him. He found himself thinking about those wonders and those
marvels. Why not? What allegiance did he owe Gordon and the rest?
Karola now, that was different. And Slag.
"You may have your woman, if you want her after I show you—my
brand of woman!"
"It is a trick!" Thor rasped.
"What trick? What harm can I do you inside this jewel?"
That was true enough. If worst came to worst, he could always stuff
the ruby into his pocket and get away. Aava couldn't see where he
was going inside a dark pocket. He could see only when he was out
in the open, such as he would be when Thor used the ruby as a
gatestone.
"Use it, man."

Thor bent and held out his hand toward the red gem. It winked and
flirted with him with its gorgeous purple hues. It was no longer cold
with the iciness that stung. It was warm, with the heat of a human
body. His fingers closed on it. The ruby throbbed softly, like a living
heart.
"Now—turn me!"
Gone was the ship with its flapping sail and ancient planking. Gone
was the sea of grass and the broken rocks. Thor almost dropped the
ruby, staring.
A fey city stood not one hundred feet from him, set on the hard
sands. It glowed with the creamy luminescence of alabaster where
sunshafts struck its white walls and domes and needled spires.
Crimson bands, interlaced with black, formed patterns of eerie
loveliness against the whiteness. Inside its walls a chorus of sweet
voices chanted with ensorcelled harmony.
The red doors in the wall swung open.
Chariots drawn by great black stallions raced toward him. Standing
behind the hooped fronts were women of exquisite loveliness, their
hair streaming behind them, whips held in red-nailed hands. They
sang as they came, a song of sounds that stirred the senses.
"This is yours, Thor. All yours."
"It is unreal. It is too lovely to be real."
"It is real."
The lead chariot slithered on the sands, powdering Thor's ankles
with grit. The black stallions reared, their hooves slashing at air.
The girl in the chariot caught Thor's eyes with hers, and laughed.
She tossed the reins aside and stepped from the tailboard. Her red

hair hung to her waist in back, and was powdered with silver dust.
She held out white hands to Thor.
Thor reached out and grasped her hands. They felt real. And looking
into her brown eyes, seeing all the beauty of her in gauze skirt and
white linen cloak worked with a border of red and black interlacing,
he almost felt his doubts vanish.
His fingers rubbed at her hand, twisting the flesh. That was real
flesh. The girl seemed to catch his thought, for she came nearer and
pressed herself to him.
"Kiss me, and know," she breathed.
Her mouth was warm and clinging. After a while she drew away and
laughed, "Well?"
"You're real."
Aava whispered, "All yours, Thor. Go with her. Let her show you the
city that is yours, that belongs to the friend of Aava."
He thought of Karola waiting with Slag and Peter Gordon. He felt the
warm hand of the red-haired girl tug him. Her red mouth blew him a
kiss. Her voice murmured cloyingly, "Come, Thor. Come to your city,
and your throne." Karola seemed far away, forgotten.
Behind the black stallions, the chariot swept on toward the city. It
rode smoothly, easily over the sun-baked sands. The red walls came
nearer, nearer. Now he was under them, and inside the city.
Balconies on either side of the broad avenue were hung with
banners and rich draperies. Men and women in red and yellow and
purple garments laughed and tossed flowers at him, on the backs of
the horses, into the street before him.
"Thor! Lord Thor!" they cried with delight in their voices, and awe
and worship in their eyes.
The girl leaned into the hook of his arm. She said, "This is your city,
Lord Thor. These are your people."

He looked into her brown eyes.
"And you?"
She put her mouth to his and left it there while the chariot
thundered over roses and carnations and the pavement of the
streets. Later she whispered, "Stalyl is yours, too." And Thor rode
with chin held high, and pride in the set of his shoulders.
Before great doors of carved quartz the chariots came to a stop.
Stalyl walked with Thor between the doors, her hip brushing his, her
fingers wrapped around his fingers.
Alabaster pillars rose from an alabaster floor toward a red alabaster
ceiling. Sunlight poured molten pools on the floor through tall
windows. At the far end of the massive hall, on an oval dais of
iridescent opal, stood a gigantic jewel, carved in the semblance of a
throne.
"Lord Thor—your throne," said Stalyl softly.
He went and sat on the cold edge of the massy carnelian, fingering
scarlet arms. In front of him, Stalyl clapped her hands, and young
girls garbed in trousers of striped satin led giant men by chains
around their necks. The men bore caskets in their hands.
Girls and men knelt before the throne. The caskets were placed in
an arc before Thor.
Stalyl went to the first casket, threw back the cover.
Thor choked. It was filled to the brim with diamonds, diamonds that
shimmered and glittered in the sunlight. Stepping down, he reached
out a hand and dipped it into the jewels. He bore a handful, staring
at them. Cut and polished with expert care, the diamonds were
white fire against his palm.
Aava spoke, casting a thought at him from the depths of his pocket,
"You like what I have prepared for my friend, Lord Thor?"
Thor drew out the ruby and held it free in his palm, staring from
ruby to diamonds. "This is my price, eh, Aava? I sell my friends for

these jewels?"
The purple hues of the ruby grew cloudy, as though with hurt. "Who
spoke of selling your friends? I ask no traitor to come to me. I want
the friendship of a true man."
Stalyl moved closer, touching his arm. Her red hair was a flaming
halo around the white, red-lipped face. Her brown eyes burned at
him. She was a living witch's spell of beauty and desire. Her
nearness made Thor tremble.
He opened one hand, and diamonds tinkled on the mosaic floor. He
reached out for the girl, seeing her lips beckon.
The ruby flared warmer, hot with pride. It dragged Thor back to
reality, drumming alarms into his core. Danger, danger! With a
wrench he tore his gaze from Stalyl; looked at the ruby, saw the
green fire beating up with delight.
Thor tottered.
He knew, now. Somehow, in some strange manner—
Aava had triumphed!
III
The rotting sail flapped and bellied over his head. He stood again on
the longboat deck. Out there, all around him, was the red grassland.
Gone was the city of alabaster and the red witch, Stalyl. A myth. An
hallucination. A mirage of temptation.
In their place—
Androids!
Thor drew his lips back from his teeth and flung the ruby from him.
But, as it twisted in air, Aava cried, "A trick, Thor. But just a trick to
test you. Pay no heed to the androids. They are here to lead us back

to the city of the Urn. I tell you—" Thor caught his war-axe where it
rested against the helm. He shook it at the ruby.
"You foul liar!" he rasped. "You hypnotized me. You showed me
things that existed only in your mind. All right, I'll play your little
game. But I'll show you things, too. And the things I show you will
be real. Real, like death, Aava!
"You don't know what death is, do you? But you'll learn. I'll find a
way. I'll pay you back—"
A lance sang in the air as it slid over his head. The androids were
closer, hemming him in. They began to clamber up the sides of the
ship.
Aava said swiftly, "You can make the dream come true, Thor! With
you to help, I shall build a city of alabaster, make it lovely as the one
I showed you.
"And Stalyl! We will create her, you and I. We will make her as lovely
as the Stalyl I showed you. Far lovelier than any woman—"
"You lack materials! Otherwise you would have made more androids
to fight the outlaws!"
An android hurdled the rail. Thor stepped forward, swung his axe.
The keen edge bit through hair and skull.
Thor grunted, "This is the opening move, Aava. I'll find a gambit to
beat you. I'll checkmate you yet."
The axe bit and dug at climbing androids, toppling them. Thor aimed
always at the heads, for that was swift annihilation. Android after
android dropped under the slashing impact of the double-edged
Viking weapon. Thor used it with a full swing, letting the weight of
his body add the impetus, learning that the perfect balance of the
axe was manageable with a twist of the wrist. His hand on the ivory
haft changed course and the edge drove home; it swerved, and the
axe dipped under a sword to cut upwards through a jaw.

He spoke no more to Aava, though he felt the blazing green gaze
fastened on him where he held the Viking deck. He used his wits for
fighting.
After a while Thor dropped the tip of the axe to the deck and
grinned at Aava, "You didn't send enough androids. Take a look!"
He held the ruby at arm's length above his head. The deck and sides
of the ship were littered with sprawled bodies, with broken springs
and gears spilling from crushed and severed heads.
Aava sighed, "It is hard, using androids. They are good servants, but
they lack one thing. They lack initiative. They can't think."
Thor brought the ruby down, grinning mirthlessly into its depths.
"How long have you lived, Aava?"
"I am immortal. I always was."
"You will die, some day. I will kill you, myself."
"Nothing can kill me, Thor."
"I will."
"Nothing can kill—"
Aava checked. Thor felt the cunning of the green fire, beating up
through the crystal layers of the jewel. He whispered, "Nothing can
kill—what? What are you, Aava? What is your secret?"
"You will never learn."
Thor shrugged and knelt. With his fingers he pried up a rotting
board. There was a beam-joint beneath it. Thor placed the ruby in
the crotch of the joint and stared down at the jewel, knowing the
wild rage of Aava.
"I must leave you here—in darkness, Aava. I can't take you with me.
If I did, you would see all I am going to do to whip you. You
understand that?"
"Thor, be my friend!"

He shook his head, "I cannot. I do not trust you, Aava."
"The androids were not to fight you—"
"Yet they did."
Thor checked, peered closer. The purple hue of the ruby was fading.
The gem was tenantless. Aava was gone.
Thor stood up and kicked the plank into place. He filled his lungs
with crisp air. He knew what he must do. He had to learn all he
could about Aava. If Gordon and the others could not help him—
There was always the Discoverer!
Thor dropped over the longboat side and went striding off into the
grasslands.
It was night when he found the campfire, Karola came running,
hearing his shout, her yellow hair streaming behind her. Thor caught
her, held her close. He thought of Stalyl, and there was remorse and
tenderness in his kiss.
She felt his mood. Head tilted, she looked at him and whispered,
"What is it? Where did you get that axe? And your eyes—there is a
little sorrow in them. Why, Thor?"
"I will tell you, darling. But I must tell the others, too. I want
Gordon's advice."
Gordon wrung his hand and then held out some cooked meat on the
point of a sword. Thor was famished. He sat with legs crossed
before him and ate and ate. Karola sat close to him, watching him
with her large violet eyes. Once in a while she touched the great
war-axe, running the pink tips of her fingers along the fresh
scratches on the steel.
Thor dug his greasy fingers into the sand, powdering them; then he
rubbed them dry.

"I talked to Aava," he said slowly. "He came into the gatestone that I
carried. He tempted me. I—almost yielded."
The others stared at him. Thor fastened his eyes on the heart of the
fire, where the twigs and dried grasses glowed bright red. It was
easier, looking there, to tell his tale, than to look into the eyes of his
friends.
He concluded, "I do not have the gatestone now. I left it there, in
the ship. Otherwise, we would have Aava with us, with every move
we make. And Aava is what we are fighting. The odds are bad
enough, without taking your enemy into your confidence."
Thor raised his eyes. He looked at Karola. He said, "I am sorry. Say
that it's all right."
To his surprise, she laughed. Her violet eyes poked fun at him. She
whispered, "No woman can compete with a dream. Stalyl was only
that. At the same time, a dream cannot compete with a living
woman. I am a living woman." She leaned over and kissed him
gently, then sat back.
Peter Gordon said slowly, "What can we do now? It's a rotten
situation. The others expect us. If we can't find a way to return
them to the settlement—" He broke off, shaking his head.
Thor slid his hand up and down the stained ivory haft of the axe. He
said, "The androids came into this dimension with the use of a
gatestone. If we could find it, we could use that one. All the robots
were killed, but I saw no gatestone."
"Perhaps the Black Priest used one to transmit them into this world.
Then there wouldn't be any gatestone at all," said Gordon.
Thor opened his eyes, and blinked. He got to his feet, lifting his axe.
"There's a chance. Aava will send someone to get the gatestone I

hid in the ship. Then, if he should return to the gatestone—or we
can get us one from an android—there might be a chance."
Peter Gordon drew his bow toward him and strung it. "Let's go," he
said gruffly.
They went in the dark of the night, when the moons were below the
horizon. Thor led, trotting swiftly with the long Indian stride an old
Cherokee had taught him. Karola and Slag ran side by side. Peter
Gordon, bow in hand and fingers touching the string of it, loped far
behind, eyes continually moving.
Hour after hour they ran. Over rolling grassland, with only an
occasional clump of rock formation to break the barren monotony of
the dark landscape, they went at a deceptive pace.
Thor almost went by the ship. It was easy to lose trail here, where
no trees ever grew. But the moons were sweeping up, and in their
light a shield-boss winked to the left. It was enough. Thor swung
about and when he grew nearer, he could discern the high rock and
the curved hull of the longboat looming black against the sky.
He went up the rudder, without waiting for the others.
A sword flashed.
Thor went back on his heels, his shoulders hitting empty air. The axe
in his right hand came up, almost of its own volition. Steel met steel,
and sparks flared.
Malgrim loomed burly and huge, his beard bristling. The Black Priest
chuckled, "What Aava did not do, I will do!" As he spoke, he was
bringing his blade around in a mighty, whistling swing.
Thor was rammed against the low shield-wall that dug into the backs
of his knees. There was no room to move, no space for footwork.
Malgrim's flat blade caught him alongside the head. Thor went over
the low shield-wall into roaring blackness.
How long he lay there, helpless, he did not know. But it was the
scream tearing from Karola's throat that brought him staggering up

against the musty old hull.
There was no time to find the rudder. He seized a trailing, rotted line
he had not seen before and swarmed up it onto the deck.
Malgrim had Karola, afar off on the prow. She must have been the
next one to reach the boat, had leaped lithely aboard—and now the
Black Priest had her. His blade was high and starting to descend.
Thor groaned. No time! Karola screamed and clutched at Malgrim's
gatestone, chained around his neck. Malgrim, sword still poised
aloft, roared and beat at her tiny hand.
Then Thor saw the axe. With a sob he snatched it up. Once before,
he had thrown a weapon at that monster. Now he hefted lovingly a
thing so like the double-bitted axe of the North woods.
Remembering, he swung the axe full circle—and threw.
Once again, the sword steadied for its downward slash. And then the
axe thudded home in the base of Malgrim's skull—the spike between
its blades biting deep. There was the sharp tiing of breaking metal. A
stricken look burst in the Black Priest's eyeballs as he lurched and
staggered. He fell forward, left hand reaching for the gatestone that
hung on his chest.
He was blurring even as Thor reached him.
Thor thrust his hand into the coldness and the utter darkness and
caught the ruby. He wrenched. There was a queer sliding motion of
the Priest's body, and the ruby came free. But the Black Priest was
gone.
Karola swayed against Thor. They stood tightly together for a
moment.
"Jolly nice going," said a voice.

Peter Gordon swung a leg over the shield-wall and came toward him.
"We watched from the grass. You can play that axe like a Norse
raider. Got his gatestone, eh?"
Thor handed it to him. "This means we split up. You go your way, to
the settlements. I go a different route."
"Man, you don't know the way!"
"I'll find it."
Thor went and lifted a rotted plank. The red gatestone still lay in the
crotch of the beams, winking at him. He took and put it in his
pocket. "Now, if Aava hunts us, one of us will still get through the
barriers."
Thor put an arm around Karola's waist and held her against him. He
said, "This is a Viking longboat. It is from a past day in the history of
my planet."
Peter Gordon murmured, "What queer things this space of Aava has
snatched from the universe. I wouldn't be surprised to learn, when
all our chips are in, that a great many disappearances on Earth are
due to this place.
"Remember the Cyclops that went off the face of the ocean in 1920?
And do you recall the Copenhagen? And, back in 1755, a quay with
a lot of people on it just puffed out of existence, disappearing all at
once, in Lisbon, Portugal. There have been other disappearances
from the Earth. None perhaps as sensational as those I mentioned.
"There's something wrong with this world we're in. It doesn't hew to
a lot of natural laws we know."
Thor said, "There are no trees. Just rock and sand."
"Mean anything to you?"
"I'm not sure. There's something tugging and pulling in my mind,
but it hasn't caught hold yet. And the weapons we use. Bows and
swords and axes. There isn't a modern weapon in the lot."

Gordon grimaced. "Aava and his androids get the loot of the worlds,
you know. They grab whatever drops on the planet. If he found
guns or worse, he might horde them somewhere. The androids do
not have the intelligence to use them. Besides, Aava doesn't trust his
androids."
"Yes. Well, we do all right with what we have. But that thought in
my mind—I want to follow it up. Karola!"
"Yes, Thor?"
Her violet eyes smiled into his. He kissed the tip of her nose. "You
go with Peter and Slag."
"Oh, no, darling. I don't want to leave you. I—"
Thor squeezed her hand. "This is serious business, sweet stuff. I
want to find the Discoverer. He has a method of transportation,
Peter, that's a dilly. He calls it astral projection."
Gordon looked interested, icy blue eyes lighting. "I've read up on
that, you know. It's some sort of yogi business. Certain Eastern
fakirs claim to be able to do it. You know, he sits down and pays his
brother a visit one hundred and some odd miles away. That sort of
stuff.
"I've often thought that mental telepathy was a form of fumbling
astral projection. The Duke University experiments proved amazingly
accurate. And then there were the Sherman and Wilkins tests."
"I remember those. They worked quite well. I see what you're
driving at. You think that the human mind is a sort of sending and
receiving set, that it can communicate—"
"Communicate at first, then travel. That would explain your
Discoverer."
"If he could teach me to travel that way," Thor mused, "we might
really get somewhere against Aava."
Suddenly he bent and kissed Karola, and pushed her toward Gordon.
"Take care of her, Peter. You too, Slag. I'll find you, somehow,

sometime soon."
He dropped over the side of the longboat and waved an arm at the
three black silhouettes that stared down at him. Then he turned
and, as nearly as he could judge, went loping across the grasses in
the direction in which he had last beheld the Discoverer.
Thor did not find the Discoverer for three days. And then it was the
Discoverer who found him.
He came out of sleep one morning, with the mists all around him
and the warm rock under him to stare at the great bulk of the
sprawling being that lay and watched him. Thor sat and rubbed his
eyes. He got to his feet.
"I have been hunting you, Thor Masterson. Astrally, that is. I found
you two days ago, but we were far apart."
"And I—I hunted you. I want to learn about Aava. I—"
"I can help you. Some time after you left me, I began experimenting
with my astral projection technique. I learned that, chronologically, I
was not hampered in the least by normal bonds. Back on my home
planet of Flormaseron, I was not hampered by the bonds of space,
but the barriers of Time limited me. I could not go far into the past,
nor far into the future. Here, I can do either."
"You can't call that witchcraft," Thor went on. "There is a science to
it, but we just don't know the rules of that science. Just as, back in
Roman days, atoms existed even if the Romans didn't know of
them."
"There are some laws," said the Discoverer. "You have the beginning
of them. You can launch your mind from your body and see what
occurs elsewhere. Come, Thor. Lie down. I want to show you what
happened here in the space of the green flame billions of years
ago."

"Will that help me to conquer Aava? I want to visit him now, to learn
what he does, what he plans—"
"I do not know whether it will help you conquer him, but it might
help you understand him. And understanding is usually a
prerequisite to any form of victory."
Thor lay back on the warm rock, moving his head slightly to find a
more comfortable pillow on the hollowed rock. His arms he dropped
to his sides, relaxing all through his big body. His chest rose and fell
more slowly. His legs flattened against the stone. He closed his eyes
and lay quiescent.
"Relax still more," whispered the Discoverer. "Sink deep, and deeper
still. You must sever all bonds with your flesh. Sink—"
He was going down and around into a bottomless vortex of
darkness. He fought to get down into the heart of that fancied
whirlpool, down where its own power could drag him free. He
fought, and struggled, fiercely.
He reached it. He hung in sunlighted air, looking at his prone body
near the slumped mass of the Discoverer.
"Good. You did that all yourself, I think now you may do that without
my help. But we waste time. Rise with me!"
An invisible tentacle touched him, flooded him with power. He rose
high into the cloudless blue skies of Aava's planet, soaring sunward.
Beneath him the red grasslands and grey rock spread out in vast
splendor.
Soon now he was high enough to see the great globe that was the
planet in all its entirety, slowly revolving. Out in space, in the vast
distances between the suns, he floated bodiless. The planet receded,
became a dot.
"Now we will go back, far in Time."
"How?"

"Think and will it. Your astral self, your ka or twin-soul, is a creature
of mind, not matter."
Thor thought, hanging there in black space. And, as he thought,
with each bit of energy he threw into his will and into his brain,
there was a change. The suns and the planets were moving. They
sped like balls batted across a net by hundreds of players. They slid
in ancient grooves, rotating and retreating, going back the paths of
their orbits. A ball of raging fire looped at them. Thor paused in
instinctive dismay; he sought to turn and flee, dreading the vast sun
coming at him.

He sought to turn and flee.
"Move not. It can not harm you."
He was in the midst of a roaring red inferno, feeling nothing of its
annihilating heat. An instant later it was gone, raging gustily down
the tracks of Time.
Thor stared. There were fewer stars now, only a couple of hundred
of parsecs away. This universe was retreating away from him.
"We must follow!"
"No need. They will return."
"But an expanding universe means that it will be retreating now,
going back to ultimate beginnings—"
"Our universe—the universe of Earth and Flormaseron—is an
expanding universe. But here, in Aava's worlds, there is no room for
expansion. This is a finite universe, gigantic, but rimmed with some
strange force that keeps it separate from our universe.
"Here the suns and planets rotate around each other, but at the
same time they revolve inside this space. They traverse this great
bubble thousands of times through the ages. Watch. You will see
them return."
Thor hung there, in utter blackness. And then, far and faint, in the
opposite direction from which the suns had gone, they came. At first
they were pinpoints, then dots. They came nearer, great fiery orbs.
"Two hundred million years have passed, Thor Masterson. Let us
drop down, toward the planet of Aava."
There was only one vast desert of sand facing them, as they
hovered above the surface of the slowly revolving planet. Dunes a
hundred miles high, whipped with savage and incessant winds. They
saw sandstorms that were titanic in their fury.

"Sand," thought Thor. "Mile after mile of silicon dioxide."
"Drop down. Go through the sand."
Grayish granules all around him, bringing the sensation of
suffocation until he grew used to it. The gray darkened and grew
black as pitch.
"Rock," whispered the Discoverer. "Be cautious, now."
They slid from the blackness into the green light. This was a cave,
seemingly endless. Embedded into walls and sides, glittering and
sparkling, were bits of onyx, carnelian, opal and amethyst. Thor
caught his breath at the iridescent wonder of the jewelled cavern.
"Far off, Thor, to the right. Look there."
Brilliant green fire, rising and falling. Alive, and waiting.
"Aava!"
"Careful. Think not so harshly. He will be aware of you. Come. It is
time to go."
They went back, high into space.
Once again the planets and the stars left them alone, and again they
came. But this time the planet Aava was molten, filled with shooting
flames, burning with white, silvery flames.
Thor and the Discoverer went down into the bowels of the planet,
seeking Aava. They found the green flame burning with brilliance in
a sea of molten rocks. It leaped and danced, and gathered bits of
matter around it, as though weaving a garment for itself.
"That is the oval in which we saw him encased," said Thor. "Pure
quartz. When hot, it goes cherry-red."
"This is four hundred million years ago. He is truly eternal."
There was amusement in the Discoverer's mind as he said, "We will
go back even further, back to the remotest beginnings. And even
then, Aava was."

Eight times the universe came to them and receded. At last they
stood in utter darkness, for a long time. There were no stars, no
suns. There was emptiness.
"We are in the very dawn of all things. We are so far back that there
is no Time, no Space. Only emptiness."
"If there is nothing, what are we here for?"
"Wait."
Faint rosy shafts of light streamed up from nothingness, incredible
distances away. The light bathed them, sent tingles of electrical
power throbbing through their beings. Although he was only brain,
Thor felt that force. It was something from beyond, godlike.
Where there had been emptiness, was now matter. Here and there
were stars.
"Is this creation?"
"Call it creation. Call it a life-force coming from somewhere that our
animal minds can never fathom. Say the force gathered the floating
electrons and bound them into balled suns. And in one of the suns,
we will find what we seek."
They hunted through the weird wonders of this weird universe. And
deep in the heart of a gigantic star that pulsed and threw its forces
hundreds of thousands of miles high, they saw it.
A green blob, restlessly burning, circling within itself, like a fluid
always in motion. Cradled and warmed by the heat of the star, given
not only existence, but life itself by the rosy shafts of light, was
Aava.
"Not eternal. But almost so."
"Master of this cancerous universe, this alien from known Time and
known Space. Remember, the only thing that penetrated the force-
shell around this space-cancer was the light, the rosy light."

"Aava is not absorbed by the sun."
"He is different."
"And being composed as we are composed would be gone in less
than a fraction of a second, in that heat."
The Discoverer whispered, "Is that knowledge any help to you, Thor
Masterson?"
"I don't know. The idea in the back of my head, that hammered
away at me ever since I met Aava—I almost have it. It is there, if I
can find a way to—"
Loneliness!
Hanging in this space, hundreds of millions of years from his body,
Thor Masterson was alone.
"Discoverer! Where are you? Speak to me!"
There was empty silence.
Thor wondered. He was not afraid, for fright is a bodily thing, where
the heart pumps faster and the skin grows white while the blood is
sucked into the belly. This feeling was different.
He knew he was alone, that something had happened to the
Discoverer. He called and received no answer.
Can I return? Thor asked himself. Can my mind span the countless
eons between my body and my brain? He had learned all he could,
out here in the beginnings of things. It was time to go back, now.
He took thought, calmly and dispassionately. There was no panic in
him. He was a child with a new toy, turning it and examining it,
feeling it bend to pressure, putting it to mouth to know its taste.
Slowly he forced his brain into patterns, forming it with mental
energy, twisting it into different shape.
Thor had to go forward in Time, swiftly. He must learn what had
happened to the Discoverer, quest after Aava. He thought, and in
thinking, found a new delight.

How long he hung there in the black voids, he never knew. But up
from darkness came a white ball of flame that was Aava's planet,
with its sun and attendant moons. They circled in darkness, weird
and eerie in their iridescent brilliance.
I have succeeded, he reflected. That is the planet, bubbling with
molten rock. Inside that sphere, Aava is fashioning a garment for
himself, moulding it from crystal quartz. Somewhere on the other
side of the universe, the sun that held him spewed him out, with the
nucleus for his planet and its moons. I am speeding into the future.
Again and again Aava's planet and its sun and moons returned, to
flee across the gulfs of space. Ten times they came and went; the
last time, Thor knew he would have to wait no longer.
He dropped toward the planet as it circled its sun. He swept through
heaviside and stratosphere. He plummeted into fluffy cloudbanks.
Beneath him he could see red grasslands and bare rock. Across one
rock was slumped the massive form of the Discoverer.
To one side of the Discoverer lay the body of Thor Masterson. The
brain that was part of that body entered it.
There was coldness and a sense of numbness. He could not move a
muscle.
Thor sent relays of orders along his nerves into every part of his
body. A muscle twitched. He opened his eyes.
It took time, returning from such a journey; but at last Thor could
move his arms. He rubbed his chest and loins, massaged his legs.
Weakly, he stood up.
"Discoverer!"
It was a cry of anguish. The blob of jellied flesh lay seared and
burned. Little blisters covered the massy body like globules of sweat.
Where the blisters were greatest, the outer mass of the body was
broken open into crevices, like the cracks in a human brain.

"Aava did this," whispered Thor. "They brought him in the urn, and
he killed the Discoverer. And he spared me. That was a blunder."
It occurred to him that he was granted life because Aava thought he
could use him. "He'll see. I'll show him what I can do."
Raging, he brought out the gatestone, staring at it. "You hear me,
Aava? I'll get you yet. I'll find a way to beat you. There must be a
way. There has to be a way!"
The ruby lay, warmly glowing. Aava was not inside its red crystalline
substance. Thor closed his fist on the ruby and shook it back and
forth. He culled oaths from lumber camp and battlefield. He swore
them all.
He spent himself, there on the red grasslands. Dry-eyed, but
grieving, he put out a hand and touched the blistered body. He
whispered a farewell under his breath and turned his head to the
north.
All night long Thor went at an easy lope across the plains. Just as
dawn came up with red lances of light across the horizon, he
stopped and turned the gatestone.
"If he wants me, he'll have to find me," he said. "I'll lead him a
chase that—"
The rest choked off in water. He was in blue depths, in cold clear
water that was so transparent he could see a shimmering forest of
crimson coral and white sands far below him. Thor swam upward,
aided by the natural buoyancy of his big body.
He treaded water a hundred yards from a shore where dead bodies
lay scattered like leaves after a windstorm. There two androids lay
broken in half; beyond them a fighter clad in reddish fur rotted. The
rising sun glinted on a shattered spear in the hands of a Zarathzan,
slid on to the blade of a sword buried in an android's skull.

He clambered, dripping, from the sea. Sorrowing, he walked among
the bodies, recognizing many beside whom he had fought in the
women's compound.
Something groaned, ahead of him. It was Morlon, hairy torso riddled
with arrows, his black fur dyed red. Thor knelt and lifted his head to
a knee.
"Aava came into the gatestone you gave Peter Gordon, Thor,"
muttered the dying man. "He saw where we went. We fled as swiftly
as we could with the women, but Aava's androids crossed the
Undying Sea in ships and caught us."
Thor's lips curled in anger. "Always Aava!"
"We fought a rear-guard fight, all the way. I fell here. I don't know
what happened to the others. They went on—"
The giant Morlon stiffened suddenly, muscles ridging over legs and
arms. His eyes rolled backwards.
Thor put him down on the sandy shore, gently.
He went on, along the path made clear by fallen bodies, by dropped
weapons. Here was havoc wrought on man and android by sharp
steel, by the honed edge of war-arrows and spears. Thor saw that
there lay more androids than men.
Toward evening he heard them. Hoarse war-cries throbbed in the air.
He crawled up over a lip of rock.
Before him lay the settlement, a low-walled city of kiosks and
towers, their dun clay surfaces ornamented with ochre and
vermilion. On its broad walls were archers and spearmen, patrolling
during a lull in the battle. The low tents of the androids penned in
the city, ringing it with pointed pennon-poles.

Thor gathered himself. He lifted his axe, swung it loosely to
accustom his hand and arm to its feel. There was no way leading
between those robot-tents, but Thor knew there was an invisible
path leading to the settlement walls, a road he had to cleave with
axe and feet.
He stood up, grim and gaunt against the bright sky.
Standing, he could see beyond the lip of rock, away to his right.
Androids were tied to chains there, pulling. They were dragging
great wagons filled with huge urns. Aava-in-the-urn! He was coming,
to blast the walls with his titanic power!
Thor stifled a sob of anger and leaped forward. He ran as runs the
deer, barely touching the passing ground with his feet, but flying
swiftly. His axe was steady in his hand.
This was his one chance, when they were bringing Aava to the city.
The androids would be occupied with their master. They would not
be prepared for anyone trying to get in the city.
If anyone noticed him, they paid him no heed. He was almost under
the walls when three androids sprang from the shelter of a tent to
meet him with naked swords.
Thor never stopped his rush. The axe lifted and swung, went back
and swung up again. One android remained standing, coming in
swiftly, throwing himself in a desperate lunge.
Thor sidestepped, pecked with the point of the axe right into the
middle of the forehead. There was a sharp scream, and then the
ponderous gates were opening before him. Thor dove through as
spears whistled over his head.
Yorg grinned, slapping Thor on naked shoulder. "We thought you
dead. Gordon and Kor Tan will be glad to see you."
"And Karola?"
Yorg laughed. "She pines, the yellow one. But come."

Along clay-brick streets they went, as Thor told of the urns they
were bringing from the shore. He scowled and shook his white-
furred head. "We cannot last when Aava sears holes in our walls.
The androids will come, and then the Outlaws will be no more."
"If we had some wood on this accursed planet," growled Thor, "I
might be able to rig a catapult."
He explained the function of the catapult to Yorg, who nodded, lips
tightly drawn. In his eyes was the flicker of a new hope. "It might
be. We gather what we can from the spacewrecks that the planet
gathers. Other things we steal. We have some wood stored. And
some cording. I will get to work at once."
Yorg led Thor to a great circular building with walls of glass, where
sunlight fused across a tile floor, making the room alive with light. A
girl with long yellow hair turned from a group at the end of the
chamber. She screamed her delight.
"Thor! Peter, Slag, it's Thor!"
Their delight chased the worry from their eyes and faces for a few
moments, as they shook his hand and pounded his shoulders. Peter
Gordon said, "Jolly good to have you back, old man. But I'm afraid
even having you here won't do any good. The androids have us
surrounded. You say they are bringing Aava in the urns. Looks as
though it's all over."
"Not yet," Thor growled, and told them of the Discoverer, and the
astral voyage they had made.
Gordon wrinkled furrowed brows. "Can't see what good knowing that
is, you know. It—"
"Think, man. I'm not too good at chemistry, but there are clues and
hints all over this planet. Most of it is sand, rolling mile after mile.
Even the red grasslands have sandy beds. And the rocks. There is
almost as much rock as sand. What do you and the robots build your
cities of? Clay! What jewels are embedded in the cave where Aava
dwells? Opal, onyx, carnelian, jasper!

"Aava lives in a circle of pure quartz. Look!"
Thor put his hand in his pocket, drew out tiny green flecks of crystal,
"I got this by scraping the urn where Aava appeared to his androids
in the temple. It's glass! Something in Aava's nature was hardened
by oxygen, and the sand in the substance of the urn turned into
glass!
"When the Discoverer took me out into space and back in Time,
when I saw the worlds of this space-realm created, one thing struck
me. I watched Aava and his planet evolve from an empty void, saw
the planet grow and take form.
"Gordon, I saw no fern forests, no great jungles of vegetation whose
rotting and sinking into peat bogs gave us coal. Coal is carbon. And
there were no petroleum wells, and petroleum is a compound of
hydrocarbons."
Gordon rubbed his chin, frowning. "It's all jolly interesting, old man."
Thor waved a hand. "Can't you see? It all argues just one thing. No
coal, no oil. No forms of carbon at all. Just quartz, sand, onyx,
jasper, clay, carnelian, opal, rock—all forms of silicon.
"Aava is silicate life, where we are carbon life!"
The Englishman whistled low.
Thor went on, "Silicon is almost as ingenious as carbon. Both have a
valence of six. Both unite with other substances to form various
compounds. But, just as life with carbon structure cannot stand its
own refuse—the carbon dioxide that we exhale when we breathe, so
life with a silicate base cannot stand its own refuse—silicon dioxide—
or sand!"
"Afraid I'm rather stupid, old man. Not following you very well."

"Human beings exhale carbon dioxide when they breathe, after
taking the oxygen into their lungs to help release their energy. But if
they breathed only that refuse, or carbon dioxide, they would soon
die. The same with a being formed of silicon, such as Aava is. He
forms sand—silicon dioxide—as his debris when he removes the
oxygen from the air that is necessary to his life. Suppose we fed only
sand to Aava?"
"You mean it would smother him?"
"You're thinking of human death. This is different. Why must all
death be a matter of limp, lifeless clay? Why couldn't silicon beings
die and become—"
"Of course. Sand and the heat generated by Aava's flame, plus the
high silicate content in the flame itself—glass!"
"And glass is a form of death."
Gordon stared at him with wide blue eyes. "Man, man. You've solved
it. But how can we get that sand onto Aava without getting killed
ourselves? Even supposing we can get out of this trap?"
"You'll have to create a diversion. An attack on the urns. At night. I'll
slip out and get to the Undying Sea. I'll swim underwater. I'll need a
length of clay pipe to breathe through. And before I go, I want to
make one more trip to the Mountains of Distortion. I remember
there was a lot of sand over the cave of Aava. I want to check that.
If true, one man might kill him. I'm going to try, anyhow."
Thor walked around the room, eyes gleaming brightly. He said,
"Peter, we have a world here that we can make our own. We're
locked inside a bubble of space, a cancerous growth that keeps this
universe and our old universe apart. We are free to make whatever
kind of place we want, in here. It's up to us to do it. We can't fail."
Outside the walls, they heard the deep-throated roar of the androids
as the urns rolled forward. Gordon said simply, "If you succeed, it
will have to be soon. Or there will be none left to profit by it!"

IV
Sunlight glinted on the flat surface of the Undying Sea. Near its
sandy shore, an almost naked man clambered wet and dripping from
its waters. In his right hand he carried a giant axe. In his left was a
length of clay tubing. He paused and tossed the tube into the water,
watched the ripples spread as it hit and sank.
Thor Masterson turned his face toward the black hulk of mountain
far to the west. Around his loins was wrapped a cloth fitted with
strips of toughened leather. Soft skin sandals protected his feet from
the bite and burn of hot sands and rocks.
He ran smoothly, easily as the American Indian, at a lope that
decimated distance. When sweat beaded his body, he found a pool
and lay in its cool waters until fit to go on. Hammering away at him
was the remembrance of the Outlaw settlement, of the androids
storming the walls, of the urns rolling forward and tilting. Once in a
while a stone from Yorg's crude catapults would overturn an urn, but
the hits would be scarce.
While the attack went on, he lay on a smooth table and
disassociated his astral self from his body. In spirit form he roamed
the planet, seeking Aava. Deep in the bowels of the black mountain
he had finally found him.
Thor dared not reveal his presence, or Aava would have lashed out
with that titanic power that was destructive even to his projected
self. Instead, he went down from the thin crust of rock over Aava,
sinking through the golden granules of what had once been a great
desert, to the fine crust of jewel-embedded rock that was the roof of
Aava's cave.
Between jewels, hovering in rock and sand, Thor had looked down
on the Green Flame.

Aava was verdant brilliance in the red quartz oval, his inner fires
moving fluidly, pulsing, beating. He seemed to slumber, thoughts far
away. Thor knew where his thoughts were: at the Outlaw
settlement.
Thor looked around him, studying the thin crust of rock, the jewels,
the over-hanging sands. Beneath the rock crust was a lip of stone
bridge, five feet down from the rock roof. Thor had grinned, and slid
back up through the sand and stone.
The rock cut into his feet as he climbed. Up sheer cliffsides, using
fingers to clutch at stone projections, digging holes with his toes
where no holds ought to be dug, hugging stone with his chest and
belly, he went. By inch and by foot he climbed.
Night came while he stood on a yard-wide natural path. Thor
grunted, eyeing it. Sleep was what he wanted, sleep was what his
tired muscles craved. But he went on.
Into the darkness, where a misstep would send him plummeting to
jagged rocks thousands of feet below, Thor crept. He crawled,
vertically.
Above him he could see green light, faint tendrils of it.
That was the crevice, the entrance to the Cave of Aava.
And at the Outlaw settlement, Peter Gordon whistled arrows at the
heads of the androids surging through the break in the walls that
had just been blasted by the urns. But arrows and spears could not
stay such as the androids. With sword and axe they hewed their
path above the bleeding, dying corpses of the outlaws.
Karola shuddered beside him, handing him arrows. "Will Thor find
Aava? Will he be in time to help us?"
"Jove, I hope so. But it looks bad, Karola. Very bad."

The girl grimaced, and closed white fingers on the hilt of a slim
dagger. "They'll never take me back. Never!"
"Got the bounder!... No, I know. Aava hopes to breed a race of living
beings with artificial insemination. But he needs women for that, and
so far we've kept him from them—"
Below the balcony where they stood, they saw Slag and Yorg lead a
charge with club and sword. The red dwarf howled his oaths as he
slammed and battered at android skulls. Yorg, grunting and panting,
used his blade like a scalpel.
"They're holding, Karola. The jolly blighters are driving them back."
"No, no. There—another blast by Aava-in-the-urn. Another group!"
The fresh androids drove into Slag and Yorg's flank, wedged in the
screaming fighters, threw them back on themselves. A hairy red arm
wielded a club like a blackjack. A white-furred arm cut and stabbed
with a sword. But the androids came forward. They rolled over the
outlaws.
Gordon said sadly, "We'd best fall back, Karola. We can't hold them
any longer."
Here in the cave opening, Thor stood up and moved his axe, testing
its heft. Green light danced and flared on the broad blades. Thor
grinned wolfishly, and went forward.
Stepping carefully, using the shadows of the stalagmites to hide his
giant frame, Thor went deeper into the cave, closer to the green
flame that flared in the bowels of the mountain. It was warm here,
for Aava was a thing of fire.
On the skin sandals that gave no sound, he stepped forward. He
walked in the myriad light that the flame plucked from the gems and
spread throughout his cave.

He could see the bridge of rock that lifted its stone arc high to the
towering, shadowy roof of the cave. Up there, in the black shadows,
he could stand on that bridge and be close to the roof—close
enough to swing an axe.
Thor sped silently across the empty space between tumbled rock
slabs. He leaped for the bridge and ran up its curving back.
Slag and Yorg bled from a score of wounds as they fought their fight
by the settlement gate with club and sword. Side by side, two
against an army, they dug bleeding feet into stone streets, and
fought like madmen.
They piled androids in front and to the sides. They made a funereal
mountain of wrecked, synthetic bodies.
Slag and Yorg would die here.
They knew it, yet they fought on. The others needed time to get to
the circular tower, to fight their last stand against Aava. So the club
and the sword stayed swinging, and the pile grew higher.
Now they could hear the trundling of the urn-wagons.
Yorg panted, "They come nearer, Slag."
"It will not be long. You are good fighter, Yorg."
The androids fell away. An urn was coming up. Behind it, androids
massed with spears and swords, ready to attack when these
madmen were wiped from their path.
Yorg rested on his blade and grinned at Slag. "Thor would attack
that urn and tip it. Then the androids would get the force of it. It
would kill a lot, facing that army."
Slag grunted and gripped his club.

The urn began to tilt toward the two bloody fighters. Yorg growled in
his throat, and the red dwarf and the white ape leaped forward.
They struck the urn with their feet, at its apex. The clay vase
shuddered and swung back. A green light reared up, blazing fury
and annihilation.
Slag and York fell forward, over the lip of the urn as it dropped
toward the androids.
A beam of green blight swept outward, over the massed androids.
As a breath blows out the candleflame, so the green fire blew away
the androids.
But Slag and York had fallen into that flame, unable to halt their
forward impetus. The green flame touched them first, and destroyed
them. They were dwarf and ape one moment, nothingness the next.
Watching from a slit in the tower wall, Karola rubbed tears from her
wet cheeks with the back of her hand.
Far beneath him, the floor of the cave was dark and broken. There
on the stone bridge, with the jewel-embossed roof so near, Thor was
in a different world.
He stood now on the tip of the bridge's arc. The thin crust of roof
was within reach of his axe. Thor looked down, full into the red
quartz oval where green Aava slumbered, moving and radiating
always.
"He's at the settlement. He's blasting away at something," Thor
whispered.
He swung the axe in circles. He stood on tiptoes and the muscles of
his naked back and thickly thewed arms bunched and bulged. With a
sob of fury, Thor drove his axe at the crust of roof.

Sparks glinted. A flake of quartz fell away, dropped to the floor
below and bounded. Echoes sprang up, dancing the length of the
cave.
Thor attacked the roof with insane fury.
Flakes and chips of roof showered below, all along the cave-floor.
Thor sobbed with the strain of his eerie battle. His lungs heaved. His
arm rose and fell, rose and fell. Sparks grew to myriad thousands as
the keen edge of the war-axe bit and dug in the stone.
Over the clatter and clang of steel and stone, rose an ominous
thunder. Aava was being awakened from his slumbers. The green of
the cave grew brighter, more freshly verdant. The red of the
carnelians became purple; the purple of the amethysts, black.
Thor slashed and cut unceasingly.
Like a volcano gathering itself to spew its lava, Aava rumbled. With
fire and with fury, he quested for the source of the falling rock.
A tongue of flame leaped up to stand for one long instant beside
Thor. He grimaced and drove his axe without stay. The keen biting
edges would not last long, now. They were almost done. A streak
down the flat side of one axe-blade told him it would give, soon.
And the roof showed no sign of cracking!
The men and women in the tower watched the circle of urns
gathering around them, tilting upwards. Hugging the walls and
shadows of the buildings, the androids watched.
Arrows thudded down onto the androids attending the urns. But
when two fell, four leaped from the darkness to take their places.
High in the tower, Peter Gordon fed his arrows to the attackers. The
string of his bow was warm. His fingers were blistered, raw with

continual friction. But his lips were tight, and his pale blue eyes were
icy.
Karola bit her full red lower lip, shaking her long yellow hair from her
eyes and wiping those same eyes surreptitiously with the palm when
they grew moist.
The urns were facing the tower at last. Gordon dropped his bow, put
out a hand, burying his fingers in the smooth flesh of Karola's nude
shoulder.
"All over, all over. Jolly good fight while it lasted."
"Thor, Thor," Karola whimpered.
In another instant, the urns would thunder out their destructive fury.
But the moment lingered into minutes, and still the urns were silent.
A wondering babble broke from the throats of the androids. Some of
them bent and stared within the urns, where tiny green flames
flickered. Those green flames should have annihilated the last of the
outlaw settlement. Yet they did not.
Karola looked at Peter Gordon.
"Do you think—Thor—?"
Aava knew he was on the rock bridge now. Thor knew that Aava
knew, and still he dug and battered his axe upward. He had a
depression sculpted from the roof. A few more blows and—
The axe dug in. Thor pulled it loose.
He heard Aava, then. A blast of titanic heat, of power unimaginable,
came roaring up at him.
Thor leaped outward, away from the bridge.
For a moment he hung a hundred feet above the jagged floor of the
cave. In that instant, Aava hurled himself upward, filling the cave

with radiance and intolerable heat.
Thor threw wide his arms, closed them on a stalactite dropping its
thin rock formation from the roof. His legs spraddled the drooping
stone, hugging it.
Aava raged, biting and burning at the stone bridge, seeking his
quarry. Sullenly, he dropped back within the quartz oval.
Thor almost missed the bridge, leaping back for it. His hands
scrabbled at the loose shale, sliding and slipping, before his fingers
tightened on a rough projection.
With insane might, he flung himself and his axe again at the
depression. Before Aava gathered himself once more, he had to do
it.
The axe dug in. When he pulled it loose, a few flecks of sand slid
with it. The thin grains showered downward, running in a steady
stream.
"Earthling, stop! The sand must not come down on me. Stop and—"
The voice of Aava rose to a shrill crescendo, battering at his ears.
But Thor worked on. His axe arm lifted. The crack widened. Tons of
sand hung above that thin roof, on delicate balances. By opening the
roof even so slightly as he had done, he was destroying that
balance. An incredible weight of sand was waiting, waiting—
Aava rose in all his might and splendour, to seal the crack.
And the sand fell.
Thor reeled back, battered by thundering deserts.
He hung on what was left of the rock bridge, staring. Upreared in
green iridescence, showered by falling tons of sand that formed a
tan curtain around him, Aava writhed. His great bulk was twisted
into strange convolutions, distorted grotesqueries of liquid
movement. A great spray of fire lapped out and upward to seal the
gap through which the sand streamed downward. It rose against the
falling tons, and was pressed back and down.

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