Zor Ala shook his head slowly, a strange smile on his lips. "But this
is far from being 2062, my friend," he said softly. "As closely as we
have been able to reckon it, we are now living in what you would call
the Carboniferous Period, probably in the latter part."
He waited a moment for his words to take effect, then continued: "And
that would place our present era--" He nodded at Doctor Gerard. "Yes,
my friend, I see that you understand we are now, amazingly enough,
living in a time which preceded our births by approximately two hundred
million years!"
Doctor Gerard turned to face his companions. "Yes," he said slowly. "I
had guessed at something like this. The color and brilliance of the
sun, the type of grasses, and the size and shape of the flora visible
over the stockade. Yes, I'd thought of this possibility, but couldn't
bring myself to really believe it!"
"But our captors," interjected Randall. "What are they? How did they
trap us? And what do they intend to do with us?"
"They're just what they appear to be," said Zor Ala solemnly. He looked
at Randall, and his fine eyes were bleak. "They are a species of insect
which has apparently progressed both in size and in intellect far
beyond any other life form of this period. And unlike the insects of my
time, and undoubtedly of yours, these things act through intelligent
reasoning rather than through a set pattern of instincts."
"But," interrupted Doctor Gerard, "according to the theory of most
Entomologists of my time, it would be impossible for an insect to
attain the size of these creatures! Their bodily structure is wrong.
They couldn't support their own weight. And if they could, their
inefficient breathing tubes and trachea couldn't furnish their bodies
with sufficient oxygen, nor remove the waste products!"
Zor Ala smiled tolerantly. "The proof of possibility is their
existence," he said. "Your contemporaries' theory is obviously
incorrect.
"How can one deny the possibility of huge insects without knowing the
strength of materials in their supporting structure? Do the gigantic
Sequoias in North America collapse because of their almost four hundred
foot height, as a Balsa undoubtedly would if it attained the same size?
"Is it philosophically logical that, because insects of your day
possessed an exoskeleton incapable of supporting larger creatures, that
these creatures must also possess those exact characteristics? Such
an argument is absurd. Evolution fits the strength of the supporting
structure to the weight it must support. And naturally the means for
oxygenation and elimination are likewise accommodated."
Doctor Gerard was still unconvinced, but Randall got in the next word.
"How many more of you are there?" he asked. "Have you any more
companions from your own Age?"
Zor Ala shook his head. "No more from my own time, but there are more
than a hundred humans from other ages," he said. "Come, they are
anxious to meet the new arrivals."
He led them to a large structure which bulked in a central position,
surrounded by the smaller buildings.
An oddly-assorted but unquestionably colorful group of humans greeted
their entrance in a dozen different tongues. They gathered around the
new arrivals with a hundred excited queries.
"A minute, my friends," Zor Ala cautioned in his queer, blurred
English. "These people are come from the year 2062. They were captured
during a passage through the ancient Earth-Tube by the Kralons' Time
Net, just as you were dragged from your own various Ages for the
Kralons' selfish plans."
In the bewildering hours that followed, the Vator companions learned
the answers to some of their enigmatic experiences. But they learned
also of strange and horrible things which even the more advanced of the
queer colony did not understand.