“No. I don’t think he does.” A dreaming expression came to Lanier’s face. “I’ve never met anybody like him. I envy him.”

“Perhaps we should all be cautious in our evaluations,” Korzenowski suggested dryly. “Having an angel in our midst.”

Mirsky paced back yet again. “Nervous! I haven’t felt nervous in…a very long time! It is exhilarating.”

Korzenowski’s irritation grew. “Are you beyond caring?” he asked.

“I beg your pardon?” Mirsky stopped pacing, facing the Engineer with an intensely puzzled expression.

“We are—I am being forced to make a decision I have tried to avoid for forty years! If we do have to fight the Jarts, the results might be disastrous—we might lose everything.” He grimaced. “Including the Earth.”

“I am more concerned than you know,” Mirsky said. “There is more at stake than just the Earth.”

Korzenowski was not mollified. “If you are indeed an angel, Ser Mirsky, you might not be as concerned as we are about our own skins.”

“Angel? Are you angry with me?” Mirsky asked, his face bland again.

“I am angry with this situation!” Korzenowski said, drawing his head closer to his shoulders. “Pardon my outburst.” He looked to Olmy, who had stood with arms folded throughout the exchange. “We are both torn by our emotions. Ser Olmy would love to get back to his paper work, keeping our Hexamon intact in the Way, and I am fascinated by the prospect of re-opening. The part of me that remembers Patricia Vasquez…”

Lanier almost flinched as Korzenowski glanced in his direction.

“That part is eager. But what our less responsible selves want, and what is safe for our Hexamon, could be very different things, Ser Mirsky. Your reasons are compelling…I am just irritated by your carefree attitude.” Korzenowski looked down at the floor and took a deep breath.

Mirsky said nothing.

“In truth,” Olmy interceded, “the pressures on the Hexamon to re-open would be strong even without you.”

“Thank you for your guidance,” Mirsky said quietly. “I lack perspective. I must approach the Nexus carefully.” He spread his arms and looked down at his body, still clad in hiking clothes. “To have limitations, to think in channels. It’s exhilarating to be back in flesh again! A wild, half-drunken blindness…a fleshy peace.”

The Earth circled by a strand of DNA, the symbol of the Terrestrial Hexamon Nexus in session, appeared by the doors to the chamber. A partial of Presiding Minister Dris Sandys materialized beside the symbol.

“Full chamber,” the partial said. “Please enter now and be sworn in.”