With no physical body, there could be no accumulation of waste products in the bloodstream, no muscle fatigue, no drowsiness, no hunger, no thirst. To be a Klaatu was — in theory — to experience every moment in a state of blissful awareness. Nevertheless, as the millennia passed, many of the Klaatu became inexplicably listless and torpid. Attempts by the Cluster to reenergize these “tired” Klaatu were not entirely successful. Those afflicted showed no desire to reignite their vitality. Efforts to engage them were greeted with apathy and the Klaatu version of sighs. Some feared that the tired would slowly fade until their consciousnesses dissipated completely. A few Klaatu theorized that such dissipation would lead to another form of transcendence, but none of them was willing to put it to the test. The artist and disko designer Iyl Rayn, who had never questioned her own vitality, one day discovered within herself the weariness of a traveler who has reached the midway point of an arduous journey, the purpose of which has been long forgotten.
