“We’ve come to finish the last of our work, to…bring one of your own back to you, and…” He stumbled over the words in his head, trying to express himself clearly and in a way non-humans might understand. “I carry part of the mentality of another human, who once did work that helped me design the Way. We wish to return this mentality to an appropriate world, in the geometry stacks…behind where we are now.” He gestured awkwardly over his shoulder, unsure even of direction. “We hope to journey on and help the Final Mind. With you, or alone.” How naive and childlike, to even think of being able to help something so vast as the Final Mind…

“Command individuals have accessed and stored a human-occupied world in the regions you refer to,” the voice said. Then it did not speak for several long minutes. Finally, “Command is aware. Command did not create the Way. Do you have knowledge regarding human designator individual Patrikia Vaskayza or Patricia Luisa Vasquez, human duty expediter or of similar rank?”

Korzenowski closed his eyes, then licked his lips, as if savoring some inner taste, and said. “Yes. I carry part of that individual. Do you have her, did you find her…?”

The voice’s tone altered radically; it now sounded female.

“This is command oversight. We have the sexually generated twice-removed progeny of designator individual Patricia Luisa Vasquez.”

“I think they mean they have Patricia’s granddaughter,” Ry Oyu said. Olmy agreed.

“Where did they find her?” Korzenowski asked. Eyes square and bright, he faced the command individuals. “Where did you find this woman?”

The female-toned voice answered. “We have accessed and stored the world where human designator individual Patricia Luisa Vasquez traveled from the Way. Sexual progeny twice-removed is stored also.”

“But not Patricia Vasquez herself?”

“Individual Patricia Luisa Vasquez is dead.”

“Can we speak to her granddaughter?” Ry Oyu asked.

“This individual has been damaged by our investigations.”

Korzenowski felt a sudden tremor of horror and despair. He struggled to control his anger—and a deeper anger, from the ghost of a grandmother who had never met this granddaughter, never even known of her existence.

“We’d like to speak with her, damaged or not,” Ry Oyu said. “If that’s possible.”

The command individuals wrapped themselves in shifting black cloaks again. Korzenowski turned away, sickened by this strangeness, this incomprehensibility; this casual cruelty. What had happened to the world Patricia found? What sort of world had it been before the Jarts “stored” it? In what condition was it now? Ry Oyu touched his shoulder again, and Olmy moved closer, lending support through solidarity.

“This damaged individual is highly valued,” the female voice said. “Damage was unintentional.”

“Let us speak with her,” Korzenowski said, his voice cracking.