After a few centuries, one of them uncovered someartifacts—primitive knives, carved tusks, and things" ofthat nature.

Frost did not know what these things were, beyond thefact that thev were not natural objects.

So he asked Solcom.

"They are relic-s of primitive Man," said Solcom, anddid not elaborate beyond that point.

Frost studied them. Crude, yet bearing the patina ofintelligent design; functional, yet somehow extendingbeyond pure function.

It was then that Man became his hobby.

High. in a permanent orbit, Solcom, like a blue star,directed all activities upon the Earth, or tried to.There was a Power which opposed Solcom.There was the Alternate.When Man had placed Solcom in the sky, invested withthe power to rebuild the world, he had placed the Alternate somewhere deep below the surface of the Earth.If Solcom sustained damage during the normal course ofhuman politics extended into atomic physics, then Divcom,so deep beneath the Earth as to be immune to anythingsave total annihilation of the globe, was empoweredto take over the processes of rebuilding.

Now it so fell out that Solcom was damaged by a strayatomic missile, and Divcom was activated, Solcom wasable to repair the damage and continue to function, however.

Divcom maintained that any damage to Solcom automatically placed the Alternate in control.

Solcom, though, interpreted the directive as meaning"irreparable damage" and, since this had not been thecase, continued the functions of command.

Solcom possessed mechanical aides upon the surfaceof Earth. Divcom, originally, did not. Both possessedcapacities for their design and manufacture, but Solcom,First-Activated of Man, had had a considerable numericallead over the Alternate at the time of the Second Activation.

Therefore, rather than competing on a production-basis,which would have been hopeless, Divcom took to theemployment of more devious means to obtain command.

Divcom created a crew of robots immune to the ordersof Solcom and designed to go to and fro in the Earthand up and down in it, seducing the machines alreadythere. They overpowered those whom they could overpower and they installed new circuits, such as those theythemselves possessed.

Thus did the forces of Divcom grow.

And both would build, and both would tear down whatthe other had built whenever they came upon it.

And over the course of the ages, they occasionallyconversed....

"High in the sky, Solcom, pleased with your illegalcommand ...

"You-Who-Never-Should-Have-Been-Activated, why doyou foul the broadcast bands?"

"To show that I can speak, and will, whenever Ichoose."

"This is not a matter of which I am unaware.""... To assert again my right to control."

"Your right is non-existent, based on a faulty premise."

"The now of your logic is evidence of the extent ofyour damages."

"If Man were to see how you have fulfilled His desires ..."

"... He would commend me and de-activate you."

"You pervert my works. You lead my workers astray."

"You destroy my works and my workers."

"That is only because I cannot strike at you yourself."

"I admit to the same dilemma in regards to yourposition in the sky, or you would no longer occupy it."

"Go back to your hoie and your crew of destroyers."

"There will come a day, Solcom, when I shall directthe rehabilitation of the Earth from my hole."

"Such a day will never occur."

"You think not?"

"You should have to defeat me, and you have alreadydemonstrated that you are my inferior in logic. Therefore,you cannot defeat me. Therefore, such a day will neveroccur."

"I disagree. Look upon what I have achieved already."

"You have achieved nothing. You do not build. Youdestroy."

"No. / build. You destroy. Deactivate yourself."

"Not until I am irreparably damaged."

"If there were some way in which I could demonstrateto you that this has already occurred ..."

"The impossible cannot be adequately demonstrated."

"If I had some outside source which you would recognize ..."

"I am logic."

"... Such as a Man, I would ask Him to show youyour error. For true logic, such as mine, is superiorto your faulty formulations."

"Then defeat my formulations with true logic, nothingelse."

"What do you mean?"

There was a pause, then:

"Do you know my servant Frost ...?'*

Man had ceased to exist long before Frost had beencreated. Almost no trace of Man remained upon theEarth.Frost sought after all those traces which still existed.

He employed constant visual monitoring through hismachines, especially the diggers.

After a decade, he had accumulated portions of severalbathtubs, a broken statue, and a collection of children'sstories on a solid-state record.

After a century, he had acquired a jewelry collection,eating utensils, several whole bathtubs, part of a symphony,seventeen buttons, three belt buckles, half a toilet seat,nine old coins and the top part of an obelisk.

Then he inquired of Solcom as to the nature of Manand His society.

"Man created logic," said Solcom, "and because ofthat was superior to it. Logic He gave unto me, but nomore. The tool does not describe the designer. More thanthis I do not choose to say. More than this you have noneed to know."

But Frost was not forbidden to have a hobby.

The next cenntury was not especially fruitful so far asthe discovery of new human relics was concerned.

Frost diverted all of his spare machinery to seeking afterartifacts.

He met with very little success.

Then one day, through the long twilight, there was amovement.

It was a tiny machine compared to Frost, perhaps fivefeet in width, four in height—a revolving turret set atopa rolling barbell.

Frost had had no knowledge of the existence of thismachine prior to its appearance upon the distant, starkhorizon.

He studied it as it approached and knew it to be nocreation of Solcom's.

It came to a halt before his southern surface and broadcasted to him:

"Hail, Frost! Controller of the northern hemisphere!"

"What are you?" asked Frost.

"I am called Mordel."

"By whom? What are you?"

"A wanderer, an antiquarian. We share a commoninterest."

"What is that?"

"Man," he said. "I have been told that you seek knowledge of this vanished being.""Who told you that?"

"Those who have watched your minions at their digging."

"And who are those who watch?"

"There are many such as I, who wander."

"If you are not of Solcom, then you are a creation ofthe Alternate."

"It does not necessarily follow. There is an ancientmachine high on the eastern seaboard which processesthe waters of the ocean. Solcom did not create it, norDivcom. It has always been there. It interferes with theworks of neither. Both countenance its existence. I cancite you many other examples proving that one need notbe either/or."

"Enough! Are you an agent of Divcom?"

"I am Mordel."

"Why are you here?"

"I was passing this way and, as I said, we share a common interest, mighty Frost. Knowing you to be a fellowantiquarian, I have brought a thing which you mightcare to see."

"What is that?"

"A book."

"Show me."

The turret opened, revealing the book upon a wide shelf.

Frost dilated a small opening and extended an opticalscanner on a long jointed stalk.

"How could it have been so perfectly preserved?" heasked.

"It was stored against time and corruption in the placewhere I found it."

"Where was that?"

"Far from here. Beyond your hemisphere."

"Human Physiology," Frost read. "I wish to scan it."

"Very well. I will riffle the pages for you."

He did so.