When this remnant was hatched out of its parent supernova explosion, it happened to be spinning very rapidly—turning a thousand times a second, perhaps even faster. For the first few milliseconds of the neutron star’s life, the convection in the interior was ferocious, and where the hot material flowed it generated huge electrical currents. The whole thing was like a natural dynamo, and those tremendous currents generated an intense magnetic field. As the star lost energy through gravity and electromagnetic radiation, the spin slowed down. But a good fraction of the tremendous energy of that spin poured into the magnetic field.

Dans said, “The field is still there, lacing the star’s interior. The field will decay away quickly—quickly, meaning in ten thousand years or so. But while the star is young—”

“And the crust quake?”

“The magnetism laces the solid surface, locking it to the interior layers. But the star is slowing down all the time, and the whirling interior drags at the solid crust. Every so often something gives. Happens all the time—like, hourly. But every so often the magnetic field collapses altogether, and the star flares, and . . . Lethe.”

“What?”

“Pirius, I’ve got another plan.”

“Make your flyby over these coordinates.” Data chattered into the Claw’s systems.

“Why?”

“Because a flare is about to blow there.” She downloaded a rapid Virtual briefing: a major collapse of the planet’s magnetic field, more faulting in the crust—and a huge fireball punching out of the star’s interior, a fist of compressed matter exploding out of its degenerate state. The magnetic field would hug the fireball to the star’s surface, whirling it around in a manic waltz.

The energy released by this event, it seemed, would be enough to cause ionospheric effects in the atmospheres of planets across the Galaxy. “Think of it,” Dans breathed. “This flare will batter the upper air of Earth itself—though not for twenty-eight thousand years or so. And you are going to be sitting right on top of it.”

“Tell me why this is good news,” Pirius said grimly.

Dans paged through Virtual data, copying everything to Pirius. “Pirius, in the middle of that flare the structure of spacetime itself is distorted. Now, we know Xeelee ships fly by swimming through spacetime, that their essence is controlled spacetime defects. Surely not even a Xeelee can survive that.”

“And so—”

“So you fly through the middle of the flare. See how it will arch through the magnetic field? If you pick your course right you can avoid the worst regions, while leading the Xeelee right into it.”

“But if a Xeelee can’t survive,” Enduring Hope pointed out reasonably, “how can we?”

Pirius said, “We don’t have a choice right now.”

“Four minutes to closest approach,” Dans said.

Pirius swept his fingers through Virtual displays. “Cohl, I’m sending you Dans’s coordinates. Let’s aim for that flare. We can’t end up any more dead, and at least it’s a chance. Dans—we’ll need time to plot the maneuver. How long will the flare last?”