I felt my biochemical stupor lifting; the odor of decaying seaweed seemed to help. I waited for Kuwale to volunteer an assessment of our situation; after several minutes of silence, I said, “You know all their faces; they know all your communications codes. Now tell me who’s winning the intelligence war.”

Ve shifted irritably. “I’ll tell you this much: I don’t think they’ll harm us. They’re moderates; they just want us out of the way.”

“While they do what?”

“Kill Mosala.”

My head swam from the stench; the smelling-salts effect had outlived its usefulness and gone into reverse. “If moderates want to kill Mosala, what do the extremists have in mind?”

Kuwale didn’t answer.

I stared out into the blackness. Back on the docks, ve’d insisted that the threat to Mosala had nothing to do with technolibération . I said, “Do you want to clear up one small point of Anthrocosmological doctrine for me?”

“No.”

“If Mosala dies before becoming the Keystone … nothing happens, nothing changes. Right? Someone else will take her place – eventually – or we wouldn’t even be here to talk about it.”

No reply.

“Yet you still feel responsible for keeping her safe? Why? ” I cursed myself silently; the answer had been staring me in the face ever since I’d spoken to Amanda Conroy. “These people are not the political enemies of someone who just happens to be a potential Keystone. Are they? They’re a walking affront to every mainstream Anthrocosmologist – because they’ve stolen your ideas, and pushed them to their logical conclusion. They’re AC, just like you – except that they’ve decided they don’t want Violet Mosala as creator of the universe.”

Kuwale responded venomously, “It’s no ‘logical conclusion.’ Trying to choose the Keystone is insanity. The universe exists because the Keystone is given . Would you try to change the Big Bang?”

“No. But this act of creation still hasn’t happened, has it?”

“That makes no difference. Time is a part of what is created. The universe exists – now – because the Keystone will create it .”

I persisted, “But there’s still room left to change things, isn’t there? No one knows yet exactly which TOE is true.”

Kuwale shifted again; I could feel vis body grow rigid with anger. “That’s the wrong way to look at it! The Keystone is given! The TOE is fixed!”

I said, “Don’t waste your breath defending the mainstream to me. I think you’re all equally brain-dead; I’m just trying to come to grips with the more dangerous version. Don’t you think I have a right to know what we’re up against?”