The Return of Sathanas | Page 8

same as our
own, and not by any means are we mentally slow.
To our way of thinking, these Aesir were little fellows. They were not
more than ten or twelve feet in height. The largest showed the graying
hair of age, the sign dreaded most of all plagues, in all space, caused
from over exposure to the poisonous emanations of a deadly Sun. In
space flight, sometimes it happens that some poorly plotted course
flashes a ship close into the terrible heat and deadly particles of the
field surrounding some dense sun. Also, sometimes, in the little time of
their passing such a sun at light speed, their hair grows white, and they
die in a few weeks. Such is impregnation by radio-active particles--sure
death. Old Sol, the Earth's sun, is not that bad, but it, too, is sure death.
A great pity arose in me that these fine men did not know what caused
their age, or how to avoid it if they did know. This pity of mine is one
reason some man will sometime find this record I leave, and know how
to shun the terrible plague of space, the deadly, dense particles from
heavy suns that get into the flesh and stay, burning away good life force
and leaving a shrivelled corpse.
Do you remember the lovely Arl? She is still Arl, but grown so big now
that the Mutan who loved her then would worship at her feet as once he

worshipped at Vanue's huge beauty... for that matter I still do anyway.
She is here beside me now, toying with the ancient stim rays; the stim
ray that is forbidden as its effects can be most evil if the metal is too far
gone in slow disintegrance. But Arl carries with her a meter of my
devising containing a dial which reveals the most minute flows of "de"
force dangerous to man.
She must know if this one is dangerous stim or not. It seems to be still
usable, for a vastly pleasurable viray is flowing over my form even now
from her hands, and her soft lips are multiplied a laughing million of
times all over me. I am forever startled by the endlessly varied stim
augments that Arl's infinite wit finds in any mech of the kind. I have
had a billion tiny Arls lift me in my sleep and carry me to Elysia, their
forms growing more and more about me, till all the world was soft,
gleaming, rosy Arl, the flowers her faces, the breeze from her lips, and
the stim rays looks from her eyes, loving me, while her hair became a
vast forest of titanic, curling beauty sheltering me in its scented shade.
There are no words or images to tell you what a girl of imagination can
do with stim augments of her thought. I still think of Arl as a girl, and
she looks like a girl, too, except her size is as great as my own, and that
is too much to think about. For soon we must leave our loved home on
Nor and move on to the heavier planets [*9] of the Elder cities, and that
is a hard time for adjustment, as it takes years to accustom oneself to
the great gravity.
# Footnotes #
^122:6 GAS IONS: While the driver flow is a kind of reverse gravity
formed by the disintegration of a certain metalloy, during the expansion
under the dis-current, much gas is formed exclusive of the integrative
snapback flow of exd which is the frictional flow forming the drive.
The dissociating sub-atoms of the driver plates pass through a gaseous
stage where they leave a trail that is detectable. This ionizing trail is an
unavoidable product of this form of drive.--Author.
^125:7 One of the most repeated legends of the Gods coming again to
Earth is the detail that their heavy feet sank ankle deep into solid

rock--a very interesting legend--heavy-planet races denoted.--Author.
^128:8 Note that this city of Asgard and this Gladsheim are not the city
or people mentioned in the story "Thought Records of Lemuria," but is
a city which takes its name from the site of one of the first cities built
by the Atlans. These Aesir are the latter gods who take many of their
names from the elder gods; cities are named in the same
manner.--Author.
^130:9 HEAVIER PLANETS: At a certain point in their development,
the Normen must leave home and go to the heavier planets for
development. They do not return from these heavy planets to the lighter
ones except as rulers or teachers. The princess Vanue and the other
very tall characters appearing in these stories have returned to the
children races as teachers, rulers, or judges. All the Elders are of