That you can now be called adult does not mean you have achieved your full power, only that you are able to acquire other and larger powers. - E.E. "Doc" Smith

The Arisian compressed upon the Eighth's brain a searing force which sent shrieking waves of pain throughout all nearby space.

there is only one power which is at one and the same time illimitable and yet finite; insatiable yet satisfying; one which, while eternal, yet invariably returns to its possessor the true satisfaction of real accomplishment in exact ratio to the effort expended upon it. That power is the power of the mind.

Why axes? Why not Lewistons, or rifles, or pistols? Because the space armor of that day could withstand almost indefinitely the output of two or three hand-held projectors; because the resistance of its defensive fields varied directly as the cube of the velocity of any material projectile encountering them. Thus, and strangely enough, the advance of science had forced the re-adoption of that long-extinct weapon.