"What have you done?" it screamed telepathically at Savage, tremendous violence and menace carried in the words.

"From the looks of you and your screams of agony, I've done exactly what I intended to do," Savage replied calmly. "I've just won The War."

The cat seemed to compose itself and took in some deep breaths. As it did, Savage said to the two, in a lower tone, "You see, the Rhambdan Mind is still The Bromgrev, even if The Bromgrev's dead. All its memories, all its knowledge remain--but not its powers."

"But -- why . . . ?" the Rhambdan asked, almost pleading. "I offered the only solution to the salvation of this galaxy. The Hunter offered only the anarchy you've brought upon it, anyway."

"But it wasn't my idea of salvation," Savage told the creature. "You and Hunter were both so taken by the 'cosmic vision' that the people who were fighting and dying for you were merely so many expendable things, not people at all. Their goals were not your goals. What matter that a man gains the Earth, if he loses his own soul?"

"I can still kill you, you know," the cat snarled. "You are near Rhambda."

"Them. Not me," Savage reminded it. "And what good would that do you?

Revenge? You? Where are your high prmciples then? If you kill for revenge, you will understand what I have done and why -- for you will be on my level."

The Rhambdan stood a moment more; then its features softened, the fire in its eyes seemed to dull.

"You are right," the cat said finally. "Unity is the prime directive. And now you've won. Now what do you propose to do?"

"The Hunter--" Savage prodded, "did he die as well?"

A note of satisfaction was in the Rbambdan's reply. "I sensed the wrongness in the final moment, and reached out. I caught him."

"That's all I needed to know," Savage told it. "We are now in command. We -- those of us in this room. You know what will have to be done."

The Rhambdan nodded. "A conference, of course. And you?"

"If you can prepare the ship, we'll go back to Haven to coordinate our side."

"It will be done," the cat replied, and left.

Savage allowed it to leave, then made a whistling sound. "Wow," he said, sounding greatly relieved. "I'd hoped it would go that way, but wasn't sure."

After a pause, Koldon said, "But, if I understand things right, you've just killed both of the Kreb. There is no guardian!"

Savage nodded and smiled. "Your problem is that you're still seeing things the way they put them. Each represents himself as an agent of God and the other as the Devil. It wasn't true. They were only two Kreb, both devolved, twisted, and power-mad. The Hunter was certain death for us; The Bromgrev, a prolonged life under the worst kind of totalitarianism. Just look what it did to your world in the name of keeping things right and just, Gayal!"

"But -- but--" Koldon stammered, at a loss for words. "What happens now?"

"Well, The War's mucked things up so much that it's doubtful that they'll ever be put back right. But new nature takes its own course. The Next Race -- if there's to be one -- develops or doesn't develop, as the jungle dictates. Whoever survives wins the game."

"But there is still an empire -- Rhambda--" Gayal objected.

"Ours now," Savage told her. "Remember, the Mind is The Bromgrev -- the knowledge of those untold ages -- but the Mind hasn't the wisdom or power to use it. They are now withdrawing to Rhambda in an orderly fashion. The Rhambdan allies will make a quick peace with us or we'll take a combined Haven- Rhambdan force and wipe them out. We now own both sides. We must put things into a semblance of order and get things going again in the postwar period."

"But -- are we -- are you -- up to such a task?" Gayal asked, wonderingly.

Savage shrugged, and smiled a ghostly smile. "I would gladly return to Earth to die, to join my Jenny as I should." The smile seemed more and more forced, the voice somehow distant. "But I am condemned, you see, to live forever.

I haven't even the Krebs' way out, for there're none left to do the deed. My curse descends on all of you. The Hunter was right -- he said we were alike."

"Well," Koldon sighed, getting up from the table, "I was always pretty much of an atheist anyway. . ."