It wasn’t till they were entering the atmosphere that the Criten remembered the broken engomater control. “Oh no!”
“What?” Kat said, and then realized with horror they had no control for the engomater. “We’ll be toasted in the atmosphere.”
But they weren’t. Somehow the retro-emissions control mechanism that would automatically punish with correlative death anybody contributing to environmental pollution didn’t kick in. They entered the atmosphere with normal heat shields, left a trail of plumes and disturbances, and reached their destination without further complication.
As they stepped out of the ship, the sage greeted them: “Chow!”
“Chow?”
“Chow is what we say here,” he replied out of great serenity.
“Well . . . hi!” Kat said.
“And your trip?” the sage asked enigmatically.
“Eh?” the Criten said.
“I think he means, How was it,” Lewis supplied.
They all looked at the sage and he beamed out of an even greater serenity, so they all said it had been fine.
“Any problems?” the sage asked, grinning.
“N—” Kat began, and then got thoughtful. “Yeah, actually. With the engomater.”
“Ah?” the sage managed, through his face was still split by the grin and his eyes were all squinted. He looked grotesque.
“Yeah,” the Criten said. “I broke the control for the Engomater, but it didn’t destroy us.”
“How peculiar,” the sage said, relaxing the grin and returning to some of the serenity, and an irritating, knowing tone of voice.
“Is it?” Kat asked.
“Isn’t it?”
“Of course, but what have you got to do with it, you cod?”
“I did it,” the sage said, returning to the grin. “I know how to control it . . . after . . . the being born out of the womb of language.”
“Oh!” replied all three.
“There is something else I must do,” the sage said, taking a silver machete out of a sheath that hung from his waist. “I must cleave in sunder that which has been joined.” And he aimed a blow at the Criten.
But C.S. Lewis interposed himself and received the blow, and was riven. Kat and the Criten looked in horror, and the sage watched in horror as his magical machete evaporated, its task forever accomplished.
“That fool!” he shouted, free of all serenity. “That thing cost me a great ordeal!”
Unknowing 