his eyes. "What do you mean," I asked, "That I did not prevent it in any
of the other ages? How could I exist in any other age but this?"

"Then you do not understand?"

"Why else would I ask?" I faintly smiled.

"These are the Ice Ages, the end of an age of history. Every time that
the temporal continuum revolves around eternity, it has a new age, much
like the years of the earth as it revolves around the sun. When the
atomic anionizers went off, they did on a large scale what they were
designed to do on a small scale: reverse the poles through an extreme
electric charge, by injecting countless solitary electrons into the
atoms. But with so many of them exploded at once, they did this to the
earth itself, reversing its poles. It was a theory at your time that the
poles reversed about every 170,000 years, this is because that is how
long an age is.

"When the earth's poles were reversed, it brought all to desolation,
excepting you, for you were protected by the suit. But while this is the
ending of all life on earth, in a way it is also the beginning, for you
see, Jehu, you have just witnessed the Big Bang. In a few days, at the
longest, you will die yourself, for there is no food or water for you
here, but inside of your anti-electron suit, your remains will be
protected. Slowly the earth will regenerate, and when conditions
suitable for life have been once more returned, your suit will be blown
against a rock somewhere and broken open. From that little hole, the
atoms of life, your life, will escape into the atmosphere and grow and
evolve until they become like what things were before you were born.
Then the process will be repeated. You are not only the one who