Part 2

"Hurry, Sandra!" Karns urged. "Save your breath. It wasn't the extract I gave him, but the antidote!"

A huge tentacle raised above the fleeing pair. Sandra closed her eyes. She couldn't escape this blow.

The tentacle did not fall. Instead it snapped back to Limio's body, landing with the crack of a whip.

Suddenly Limio seemed to writhe in pain. Sparks flew from the rocks. The planet shook as if it was in the throes of dissolution. Searchlights from Adstrom's craft flickered down into the valley to reveal a billowing ocean of flesh struggling with itself, fighting itself.

At the top of the cliff Karns and Sandra paused for breath.

"His mind was in unity, now it is in discord," he said. "His evolution was different from ours. He grew as one individual, while life on our planet resolved itself into countless individuals. The antidote served to separate the individuals of his being for the first time in history. Every nerve cell in his body now has individuality. Limio is a billion intellects instead of one."

"In other words, he is crazy!"

"Only in the sense that he is one creature. If we look at him as the whole creation of a world--many creatures--he is not so crazy. He is simply conservative. He is bound to progress and that progress is going to be the kind that lasts, because it was won in a struggle."

"What on earth is progress?" Sandra asked. "It looks to me, if that is progress, that it's a rather crazy thing--"

"Progress is simply the settlement of a lot of arguments. Every time we settle one argument we find another and progress goes on. At home, progress was blocked by the extract, which made all minds in unison, blocked all argument, ended criminality, made the whole race one individual. The antidote which I gave myself preserved progress by allowing one individual, at least, a different viewpoint. I proved my individuality by getting thrown in jail. You fell in love and became an individualist by warning me of a plot to kill me. Progress continued when your father chased me into The Black Hole--"

"Hello! Hello out there! Are you all right?" Adstrom's voice boomed from the locks of his space ship.

"Perfectly!" Karns replied.

"Ah! A moment ago I wanted to kill you! Now, strangely enough, I feel very grateful toward you for--er--saving Sandra. You will be pardoned of all your crimes."

"He didn't kidnap me, Father," Sandra explained as they entered the ship.

"He has done plenty to the earth! He connected his laboratory with a food factory so that the antidote he made has been spread all over the world in food! He's destroyed the unity of the world! He ought to go to jail, but the jailer's resigned because he had too much to do."

"Marmaduke has brought progress back to the world, Father!"

"Progress! Bah! He's turned the world into a turmoil! The whole population is fighting. The planet's in an uproar. I'll abdicate rather than rule the mess. Let Marmaduke try to straighten it out!"

"Sir," Marmaduke said, "it's every man for himself. You've better qualifications for the office and I can swing some votes your way. You couldn't swing a barn door mine."

The damaged ship had been repaired. They soared earthward. Limio, too busy with his own problems, made no move to stop them. In fact, he might be disturbed enough now to enter into commercial agreement with other planets--parts of his brain trading with other creatures at the expense of other parts. Progress, human style, had come to Chaos.