"Since when has this turned into a rescue mission?" asked Mahnmut. The Earth was a big, bright, blue sphere now, growing by the minute. The e-and p-rings were beautiful.

"Since we saw the photos showing human beings being slaughtered," said Orphu and Mahnmut recognized the near-subsonic tones in his friend's voice. Those rumbles meant either that Orphu was very amused or very, very serious-and Mahnmut knew that he wasn't amused at the moment.

"I thought the idea was to save our Five Moons, the Belt, and the solar system from total quantum collapse," said Mahnmut.

Orphu growled low tones. "We'll do that tomorrow. Today we have a chance to help people down there."

"How?" said Mahnmut. "We don't know the context. We have no idea what's going on down there. For all we know, those headless metallic creatures are just killer robots that humans have built to kill each other. We'd be meddling in local wars that are none of our business."

"Do you believe that, Mahnmut?"

Mahnmut hesitated. He looked far, far down to where the ion-engines out on their booms lanced blue beams in the direction of the growing blue and white sphere.

"No," he said at last. "No, I don't believe that. I think something new is going on down there, just as it is on Mars and on Ilium-Earth and everywhere we look."

"I do, too," said Orphu of Io. "Let's go in and convince Asteague/Che and the rest of the Prime Integrators that they have to launch the dropship and submersible when we go around the backside of the Earth. With me aboard."

"Just how do you plan to convince them to do this?" asked Mahnmut.

This time, the Ionian's deep rumble was more in the amused spectrum of bone-rattling subsonics. "I'll make them an offer they can't refuse."

52.

Harman tried to get as far away from the crystal coffin as he could. He would have returned to the eiffelbahn eiffelbahn car but the winds outside were roaring-easily over a hundred miles per hour, enough to sweep him off the marble tabletop surrounding the Taj Moira-so he climbed through the spiraling levels of books instead. car but the winds outside were roaring-easily over a hundred miles per hour, enough to sweep him off the marble tabletop surrounding the Taj Moira-so he climbed through the spiraling levels of books instead.

The walkways were narrow and soon very high, each one a little farther out over the low-walled maze far below as the inside walls of the curved dome pressed the bookshelves and walkways farther in, and Harman would have been disturbed by the dizzying height beneath his feet on the open-iron catwalks if he hadn't been so eager to put distance between himself and the sleeping woman.

The books had no titles. They were of uniform size. Harman estimated that there were hundreds of thousand of volumes in this huge structure. He pulled one out and opened it at random. The letters were small and printed in pre-rubicon English, older than any book or writing he'd yet encountered, and it took him minutes to sound out and guess at the first couple of sentences he encountered. He slid the book back in and set his palm on the spine, visualizing five blue triangles in a row.

It did not sigl. No golden words flowed down his hand and arm to settle in his memory. Either the sigl function did not work in this place or these ancient books were impervious to sigling.

"There's a way you can read them all," said Prospero.

Harman jumped backward. He'd not heard the magus approaching across the noisy catwalk. He was just suddenly there, there, not an arm's length away. not an arm's length away.

"How can I read them all?" said Harman.

"The eiffelbahn eiffelbahn car will be leaving in two hours," said the magus. "If you're not on it, it will be a while until the next one stops here at Taj Moira-eleven years, to be precise. So if you're going to read all these books, you had best start at once." car will be leaving in two hours," said the magus. "If you're not on it, it will be a while until the next one stops here at Taj Moira-eleven years, to be precise. So if you're going to read all these books, you had best start at once."

"I'm ready to go now," said Harman. "It's just too damned windy out for me to get to the car."

"I'll have one of the servitors rig a line when we are ready to leave," said Prospero.

"Servitor? There are working servitors here?"

"Of course. Do you think the mechanisms of the Taj or the eiffelbahn eiffelbahn repair themselves?" The magus chuckled. "Well, of course, in a way they repair themselves?" The magus chuckled. "Well, of course, in a way they do do repair themselves, since most of the servitors are nanotech, part of the structures themselves and too small for you to detect." repair themselves, since most of the servitors are nanotech, part of the structures themselves and too small for you to detect."

"All of our servitors at Ardis and the other communities quit working," said Harman. "Just...crashed. And the power went out."

"Of course," said Prospero. "There are consequences to your destruction of the Firmary and my orbital isle. But the orbital and planetary power grid and other mechanisms are still intact. Even the Firmary could be replaced if you so choose."

Harman was stunned to hear this. He turned and leaned on the iron railing, taking deep breaths, ignoring the long drop to the marble floor far below. When he and Daeman-with this magus's instructions-had directed the huge "wormhole collector" into Prospero's Isle nine months ago, it had been to destroy the terrible banquet table where Caliban had been feasting for centuries on the bodies and bones of Final Twenty old-style humans in the Firmary. Since that day, since the destruction of the Firmary and the knowledge that one would be faxed there after any serious injury and on every twentieth birthday, mortality had lain heavily on everyone's spirit. Death and aging had become a reality for everyone. If Prospero was telling the truth now, virtual youth and immortality was once again an option. Harman didn't know what he thought of this new option, but just the thought of choosing made him sick to his stomach.

"There's another Firmary?" he said. He had spoken softly but his voice still echoed under the gigantic dome.

"Of course. There's another on Sycorax's orbital isle. It merely needs to be activated, as do the orbital power projectors and automated fax systems."

"Sycorax?" said Harman. "The witch you said was Caliban's mother?"

"Yes."

Harman started to ask how they might get up to the orbital rings to activate the Firmary, power, and emergency fax system, but then he remembered that Savi's sonie they kept at Ardis could fly to the rings. Harman took long breaths.

"Harman, friend of Noman," said Prospero, "you need to listen to me now. You can leave this place when the eiffelbahn eiffelbahn commences to run again in one hour and fifty-four minutes. Or you can go outside and leap to your death on the Khombu Glacier. All choices are yours. But it is as certain that night shall follow day that you shall never see your Ada again, nor return home to what is left of Ardis Hall, nor see your friends Daeman, Hannah, and the others survive this war with the voynix and commences to run again in one hour and fifty-four minutes. Or you can go outside and leap to your death on the Khombu Glacier. All choices are yours. But it is as certain that night shall follow day that you shall never see your Ada again, nor return home to what is left of Ardis Hall, nor see your friends Daeman, Hannah, and the others survive this war with the voynix and calibani, calibani, nor ever again see a green Earth not turned blue and dead by Setebos' hunger, if you do not waken Moira." nor ever again see a green Earth not turned blue and dead by Setebos' hunger, if you do not waken Moira."

Harman stepped away from the magus and balled both hands into fists. Prospero was leaning on his staff as if it was a walking stick, but Harman knew that one motion by Prospero with that staff would send him flying over the rail to his death on the jewel-encrusted marble walls hundreds of feet below. "There has to be another way to waken her," he said through clenched teeth.

"There is not."

Harman pounded the iron railing. "None of this makes any god-damned sense."

"Do not infest your mind with beating on the strangeness of this business," said Prospero, his words echoing under the high vault. "At picked leisure, which shall be shortly, Moira will resolve you of every one of these happened accidents. But first you must wake her."

Harman shook his head. "I don't believe that I'm descended from this Ahman Whatshisname Khan Ho Tep," he said. "How could I be? We old-styles were created by the posts centuries after Savi's people disappeared in the Final Fax and..."

Prospero smiled. "Precisely. Where do you think your DNA templates and stored bodies were taken from, friend of Noman? Moira can explain it all to you and more. She is a post-human, the last of her kind. She knows how you can read all these books before our eiffelbahn eiffelbahn car leaves this station. She may well know how you can defeat the voynix-or the car leaves this station. She may well know how you can defeat the voynix-or the calibani calibani-or perhaps even defeat Caliban and his lord, Setebos himself. But you will have to decide soon whether your Ada's life is worth one small infidelity. We now have one hour and forty-five minutes before the eiffelbahn eiffelbahn starts running again. Fourteen hundred years of sleep and more cannot be shaken off in an instant. Moira will need some time to awaken, to eat, to understand our situation, before she will be ready to travel with us." starts running again. Fourteen hundred years of sleep and more cannot be shaken off in an instant. Moira will need some time to awaken, to eat, to understand our situation, before she will be ready to travel with us."

"She'd go with us?" Harman said stupidly. "On the eiffelbahn eiffelbahn? Back to Ardis?"

"Almost certainly," said Prospero.

Harman gripped the railing so tightly that his knuckles turned first bright red, then white. Finally he released the iron and turned to the waiting magus. "All right. But you wait here. Or better yet, go back to the car. Out of sight. I'll do this thing, but I have to be alone."

Prospero simply winked out of existence. Harman stood on the high railing for a minute, breathing in the musty leather smell of ancient books, and then he hurried down the nearest flight of steps.

53.

It was a ragtag, motley group of forty-five freezing men and women that made the seven-mile walk from Starved Rock to the fax pavilion.

Daeman led the way, carrying the pack with its glowing, occasionally squirming white Setebos Egg, and Ada walked by his side despite her concussion and cracked ribs. The first few miles through the forest were the worst-the terrain was rough and rocky, the visibility was poor, it had started snowing again, and everyone was braced for the attack of unseen voynix. When thirty minutes passed, then forty-five minutes, and then an hour with no attack-no sign of the voynix at all-everyone began to relax a little.

A hundred feet above them, Greogi, Tom, and the eight seriously injured survivors of Ardis filled the sonie. Greogi would flit ahead, circle high over the forest, and then come back, swooping low just long enough to shout information.

"Voynix ahead about half a mile, but they're retreating-staying away from you and the egg."

Through the pounding headache and the duller ache from her wrist and broken ribs-every breath pained her-Ada found little comfort that the voynix were only a half mile away. She'd seen them run at full speed, watched them leap into and out of trees. The creatures could be on them in a minute. The group had about twenty-five flechette rifles or pistols with them, but not many extra magazines of ammunition. Because of her broken right wrist and taped-up ribs, Ada didn't carry a weapon, which made her feel all the more exposed as she walked up front with Daeman, Edide, Boman, and a few of the others. The drifts were a foot or more deep here in the woods and Ada barely had the energy to kick her way through the clinging wet snow.

Even after they got out of the rockiest, thickest part of the forest, still heading southeast to intercept the road between Ardis and the fax pavilion, the group traveled with excruciating slowness because of those who were ambulatory but more seriously injured or sick, including some who'd been victims of hypothermia the last two nights. Siris, their other medic, was walking with them and she shuttled back and forth constantly, making sure that the ill and injured were getting help and reminding the leaders to slow their pace.

"I don't understand," said Ada as they came out into a wide meadow that she remembered from a hundred summer hikes.

"What's that?" asked Daeman. He carried the rucksack with the glowing egg in it ahead of him at arm's length, as if it smelled bad. In truth, as Ada had noticed, it did did smell bad-a mixture of rotten fish and something sewerish. But it was still glowing and it vibrated from time to time, so presumably the little Setebos inside was still alive. smell bad-a mixture of rotten fish and something sewerish. But it was still glowing and it vibrated from time to time, so presumably the little Setebos inside was still alive.

"Why do the voynix stay away while we have this thing?" said Ada.

"They must be afraid of it," said Daeman. He slipped the rucksack from his right hand to his left. He was carrying a crossbow in his free hand.

"Yes, of course," said Ada, speaking more sharply than she'd meant to. The throbbing in her head, ribs, and arms was making her short-tempered. "I mean, what is the connection between that...thing...in Paris Crater and the voynix?"

"I don't know," said Daeman.

"The voynix have been around...forever," said Ada. "This Setebos monster just arrived a week ago."

"I know," said Daeman. "But I feel that somehow they're connected. Maybe they always have been."

Ada nodded, winced from the pain of nodding, and trod on. There was very little talking in the rough ranks of the forty-five men and women as they trudged through another patch of thick woods, crossed a familiar stream that was now mostly frozen over, and headed down a steep hill of frozen high grass and weeds.

The sonie swooped low. "Another quarter mile to the road," Greogi called down. "The voynix have moved farther south. Two miles at least."

When they reached the road there was a stir among the survivors, urgent whispers, people clapping one another on the back. Ada looked west toward Ardis Hall. The covered bridge was in sight just before the turn in the road that ran up to the manor house, but there was no sight of the great hall, of course, not even a plume of black smoke. For a minute she thought she was going to be sick to her stomach. Black spots danced in front of her eyes. She paused, put her hands on her knees, and lowered her head.

"Are you all right, Ada?" It was Laman speaking. The bearded man wore only rags, including one wrapped around his right hand where he had lost four fingers during the battle with the voynix at Ardis.

"Yes," said Ada. She rose, smiled at Laman, and hurried to keep up with the small group at the front of the shuffling pack.

It was less than a mile to the fax pavilion now and all looked familiar, except for the unusual snow. There was not the slightest sign of voynix. The sonie circled above, disappeared in wider circles, and then swept back, Greogi giving them a thumbs-up as he dipped the machine low and then flew on ahead.

"Where are we going to fax, Daeman?" asked Ada. She heard the flatness and lack of affect in her own voice but was too tired and hurting to put any energy in her tone.

"I don't know," said the lean, muscled man who had once been the pudgy aesthete who'd tried to seduce her. "At least I don't know where to go for the long run. Chom, Ulanbat, Paris Crater, Bellinbad, and the rest of the more populated nodes have probably been covered with blue ice by Setebos. But I do know an unpopulated node I stop by from time to time-it's in the tropics. Warm. Nothing but an abandoned little town, but it's on the ocean-some ocean, somewhere-and has a lagoon. I haven't seen many animals there other than lizards and a few wild pigs, but they don't seem to be afraid of people. We could fish, hunt, make more weapons, take care of our injured...lay low until we come up with a plan."

"How will Harman, Hannah, and Odysseus-Noman find us?" asked Ada.

Daeman was silent for a minute and Ada could almost hear him thinking-We don't even know if Harman is alive. Petyr said that he disappeared with Ariel. But what he finally said was, "No problem there. Some of us will fax back here regularly. And we can leave some sort of permanent note at Ardis Hall with the faxnode code for our tropical hideout. Harman can read. I don't think the voynix can." But what he finally said was, "No problem there. Some of us will fax back here regularly. And we can leave some sort of permanent note at Ardis Hall with the faxnode code for our tropical hideout. Harman can read. I don't think the voynix can."

Ada smiled wanly. "The voynix can do a lot of things none of us ever imagined they were capable of."

"Yeah," said Daeman. And then they were silent until they reached the fax pavilion.

The fax pavilion looked pretty much as Daeman had seen it forty-eight hours earlier. The stockade had been breached. There was dried human blood everywhere, but the voynix or wild animals had carried off the bodies of those Ardisites who'd fought to the death trying to defend the pavilion. But the pavilion structure itself was still intact, the faxnode column still rising in the center of the open, circular structure.

The band of humans stood awkwardly at the edge of the pavilion floor, looking over their shoulders at the dark forest. The sonie landed and the injured were helped out or carried.

"Nothing for five miles," said Greogi. "It's weird. The few voynix I saw were fleeing south as if you were in pursuit of them."

Daeman looked at the milkily glowing egg in his backpack and sighed. "We're not pursuing them," he said. "We just want to get the hell out of here." He told Greogi and the others of his plan.

There was a brief spate of argument. Some of the survivors wanted to fax to familiar locations and to see if friends and loved ones were alive. Caul was sure that the Loman Estate node wouldn't have been invaded by this Setebos thing Daeman had told them about. Caul's mother was there.

"All right, look!" Daeman called over the rising voices. "We don't know where where Setebos might be by now. The monster turned the huge city of Paris Crater into a castle of blue-ice strands in less than twenty-four hours. It's been more than forty-eight hours since I got back and I was the last person to fax in. Here's my suggestion..." Setebos might be by now. The monster turned the huge city of Paris Crater into a castle of blue-ice strands in less than twenty-four hours. It's been more than forty-eight hours since I got back and I was the last person to fax in. Here's my suggestion..."

Ada noticed that the babbling stopped. People were listening. They accepted Daeman as a leader just as they had once accepted her leadership...and Harman's. She had to stifle a sudden urge to weep.

"Let's decide now if we're going to stick together for a while or not," said Daeman, his deep voice easily carrying to the edge of the crowd. "We can vote and..."

"What does 'vote' mean?" asked Boman.

Daeman explained the concept.

"So if just one more than half of us...votes...to stay together," said Oko, "then we all have to do what the others want?"

"Just for a while," said Daeman. "Let's say...a week. We're safer together than traveling apart. And we have people injured, sick, who can't defend themselves. If people all fax different directions right now, how are we ever going to find each other again? Do we let those who want to strike off alone carry the flechette rifles and crossbows, or do those stay with the larger group who wants to stick together?"

"What do we do in that week...if we agree to go with you to this tropical paradise?" asked Tom. we agree to go with you to this tropical paradise?" asked Tom.

"Just what I said," answered Daeman. "Recuperate. Find or build some more weapons. Build some sort of defensive perimeter there...I remember a little island just beyond the reef. We could make some little boats, set up our homes and defenses on the island..."

"Do you think voynix can't swim?" called Stoman.

Everyone laughed nervously but Ada glanced at Daeman. It had been gallows humor-a phrase she'd learned sigling the old books in Ardis Hall's library-but it had broken the tension.

Daeman laughed easily. "I have no idea if voynix can swim, but if they can't, that island would be the perfect place for us."

"Until we breed so many children that we won't fit on it anymore," said Tom.

People laughed more easily this time.

"And we'll send reconaissance teams out from the faxnode there," said Daeman. "Starting the first day we arrive. That way, we'll have some idea of what's going on in the world and which nodes are safe to fax to. And after a week, anyone who wants to leave can. I just think it's better for all of us if we stay together until our sick people are better and until we all get a chance to eat and sleep."

"Let's vote," said Caul.

They did, hesitantly, with more laughter at the thought of raising their hands to decide such a serious issue. The vote was forty-three to seven to stay together, with three of the most seriously injured not voting because they were unconscious.