- [regaining conciousness, Vila sees several Avons kneeling over him]
- Vila Restal: I'm in Hell, and it's full of Avons.
- Groff: There is a member of your crew we cannot find. Orac. Where is he?
- The Caliph: [to Tarrant] The neuronic whip is on an automatic setting. It has only to sense one lie and it will boil your brains in your skull. Where is Orac?
- Del Tarrant: If he's not on the ship, I don't know where he is.
- The Caliph: How tall is he?
- [Tarrant gestures]
- The Caliph: A dwarf?
- Del Tarrant: We never think of him as one.
- The Caliph: What is the color of his hair?
- Del Tarrant: He hasn't got any. A bald dwarf shouldn't be too hard to find.
- Del Tarrant: [holding a pencil] Graphite writing stick? I've never seen these things outside museums.
- Del Tarrant: [holding up a finger] Groff, what's that?
- Groff: A finger?
- Del Tarrant: A finger. And as you can see, it is better designed for pressing buttons than holding writing implements. So why can't we use computers?
- Groff: The Lord Thaarn will not permit their development on Krandor. He will allow no superior intellects to his.
- Del Tarrant: Why not?
- Groff: I don't know. It is better not to ask such questions!
- Kerr Avon: Perhaps he had an unfortunate experience with a computer.
- Del Tarrant: Haven't we all?
- Del Tarrant: And what do you suggest we do?
- Kerr Avon: Examine the outside.
- Del Tarrant: If you want to teleport into oblivion, you just go right ahead.
- Kerr Avon: The outer teleport transducers were damaged when the force wall collapsed. Someone is going to have go out through the inspection hatch in a spacesuit and replace them.
- Vila Restal: The time we've been in space without a refit that - that hatch will be space-welded shut. Anyway, who would risk it?
- Kerr Avon: Someone who has a talent for opening locked doors.
- Del Tarrant: And has demonstrated a grasp of the problems involved.
- Vila Restal: [pauses in realization] Oh no. Not me. Not a space suit. Well, it wasn't my idea! One of you can go outside! I never did trust those things. Nothing, absolutely nothing in the whole galaxy can or will persuade me to wear one. Not a chance.
- Vila Restal: [crossfade to Vila standing dejectedly in a spacesuit] I'm now in the inspection compartment.
- [Vila is trying to open a jammed airlock hatch in a spacesuit]
- Vila Restal: I am now trying to open the hatch.
- Del Tarrant: [on communicator] Use you delicate skillful touch.
- [Vila kicks the hatch open]
- Vila Restal: I used my delicate skillful boot.
- Vila Restal: Tell us about the Thaarn, Cally.
- Cally: It's the oldest story in the Book of Auron.
- Vila Restal: Well, let's hear it. I like a good story, meself.
- Cally: The story goes back to the mists of time, to the Dawn of the Gods. There were seven gods who discovered the planet Auron, and on it left the first man and woman. A million years went by. The gods returned. They were no older even though a million years had past.
- Kerr Avon: Not impossible, if they had a spaceship capable of traveling at near the speed of light.
- Cally: I did say it was just a legend. The gods returned and were pleased with what they saw, and they bestowed on the people of Auron great gifts: new types of crops, which ended hunger, constant peace ...
- Del Tarrant: And telepathy?
- Cally: - and telepathy was promised. But one of the gods was very jealous. He didn't believe that the people of Auron deserved all this. He was frightened they would one day become so powerful they would challenge the supremacy of the gods themselves. And in his rage, he killed another god. The five remaining gods were so angry, they built a chariot for him and sent him beyond the threshold of space and time. The mad god swore a terrible vengeance. He said that he would return again. He said that he alone would discover the eternal secrets and become the one great master of the universe.
- Vila Restal: [playing a board game with other crew members] Well, that's not fair. I'm twenty thousand credits down!
- Cally: Come on, Vila; pay up.
- Vila Restal: Why don't I ever win?
- Kerr Avon: Being a born loser may have something to do with it.
- Kerr Avon: An unlikely possibility is that we have fallen through the black hole into the so-called negative universe of anti-matter, where time and energy no longer exist.
- Vila Restal: That sounds like a way of saying we're nowhere.