We are prepared, therefore, to find that in time also the confines of the universe lie beyond the reach of mortal ken.—GEOLOGIST SIR CHARLES LYELLnineteenth century C.E.Kara felt leaden, scarcely alive at all. Since the Battle of Earth, as the conflict in Earth’s Solar System was now officially called, had been won, she’d spent much of her time in the virtual world called Nirvana, visiting with Ran.Somehow, she’d never expected that Ran, with his eagerness, his exuberance, his irrepressible self-confidence, would be the sort to succumb to Remote Death Transference Syndrome. Her, maybe, yes. She’d found she was terrified of the idea of being torn from her body, like Dev Cameron had been, and reduced to a pale twilight existence, neither wholly dead nor completely alive. Kara shared the ancient soldier’s superstition that what you dreaded might happen would, in a universe that at times seemed infinitely perverse.So her, yes. But not Ran.…Best to concentrate on the here and now, try to blot out what had happened, or what might have been.…Repercussions of the battle were still echoing throughout the Shichiju, and raising again in the Confederation the ominous specter of war with the Imperium.
