Kimmer, confounded by the rapid turning of events, glowered at her. “What do you mean?”

“The decision to go on doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to Pirius Red. Who has heard every word we have said. Haven’t you, Pilot?”

The voice from the center of the Galaxy was sepulchral. “I have, Luru Parz.”

Pirius Red pressed his gloved hands to his temples.

He and Bilson, his surviving crewmate, had made it back to the rump of his squadron. But he was grateful that he was alone in his blister. He was still trying to absorb the shocks of the last few minutes—the death of his engineer and the sudden loss of his own older self. He had no idea how he was supposed to feel about that. And now this, a questioning of the whole basis of the mission by the man who had instigated it all.

He found it difficult even to speak. He knew he was close to burnout.

This Burden Must Pass said, “It’s your decision, Squadron Leader.”

Pirius’s laugh was bitter. “Now you have something to say.”

Torec, her voice strained by grief, snapped at Burden, “Yes. And for you it doesn’t matter, because, right or wrong, everything will be put right at the end of time, won’t it?”

“Perhaps not this,” Burden said softly.

“We should wait,” Bilson said hesitantly. “We need time. If Nilis is right . . . We need time to check.”

Torec said, “But we won’t get as good a chance to strike again. We know that. The Xeelee will be waiting for us next time.”

“We will find another way,” Bilson said. “People are smart like that.”

“Yes, we are,” said Burden.

Pirius was anguished. If Nilis was even half-right, they could be committing a terrible crime, a crime that might transcend the universe itself. How could he possibly know the right thing to do? Who was he to have such a decision thrust upon him?

And yet the choice seemed clear.

Pirius said, “Enough of us have died today.” Including half of myself, he thought. He tried to rehearse the words. We pull back . . .

“Pilot.” Bilson’s voice was full of wonder.

Pirius looked down at the accretion disc. A kind of cloud was rising above that puddle of light, a black cloud. When he increased the magnification of his images, he saw they were ships, a horde of them, rising like insects.

“It’s the Xeelee,” Torec said. “They’re streaming out of the Cavity. I don’t believe it. They are abandoning Chandra.”

Burden said, “It looks as if they agree with Nilis. There are some things just not worth destroying, whatever the cost.”

“Let’s go home,” Pirius said.

The five battered ships swiveled as one and turned away from the heart of the Galaxy, where the Xeelee ships were still rising, countless numbers of them.

When Pirius Blue came to, he was embedded in darkness, unable to move. Impact foam, he realized.