Power failed; weapons exploded, or dissolved, killing their operators. The Interfaces were dragged into the Core, or fell into uselessness, their linking wormhole tunnels collapsed. Once the Mantle had sustained a single community of Star-humans, united by the wormhole network. In a few heartbeats that Star-wide culture collapsed.

Humans, naked, defenseless, fell into the Air.

A huge silence fell over the Star.

With the War ended, the Colonists retreated into the Core and prepared for eternal life.

—

Hork pounded his fist into his palm. "The bastards. The cowardly bastards. They abandoned us, to generations of suffering. Illness, disease, Glitches. But we showed them. We built Parz City, didn't we? We survived. And now, five centuries after dumping us, they need us again..."

Dura couldn't drag her eyes away from the Ring. Lights flickered over the huge construct, dancing silently. "What's happening to the Ring? I don't understand."

Hork snorted. "Isn't it obvious? The Ring is under attack. It's a war, Dura; someone is attacking the Xeelee."

He pointed at the incongruously delicate patterns of light. "And it would be too much of a coincidence for us to arrive here, aboard this Star, just as the first battle is being waged. Dura, this war — the assaults on the Ring — must have been enduring for a long time." He rubbed his chin. "Generations, perhaps; centuries of war..."

She felt a pulse pound in her throat. "Humans? Are they Ur-human ships?" She stared at the tableau, willing herself to see more clearly, seeking the huge ships of those spectral giants.

The battle unfolded, slowly, even as she watched. Some of the sparkling ships disappeared, evidently destroyed by Xeelee defenders. Others plummeted through the Ring, she saw; and if the old stories were correct those ships were now lost in different universes. She wondered if the crews of those ships would survive... and if they did, what strange tales they would have to tell.

"Oh, yes," Hork said grimly. "Yes, the assailants are humans. Ur-humans, anyway."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because the Star is heading straight for the Ring. Don't you see it yet, Dura? The Star has been aimed at the Ring. We're going to collide with it..."

—

Dura stared at the remote, twinkling battlefire. Was Hork right? "I don't know how big the Ring is. Perhaps it's bigger than the Star; perhaps it will survive. But surely the Star is going to be devastated."

Hork raised his fists to his chest. "No wonder the Xeelee have been attacking the Star; they're trying to destroy it before it gets to the Ring. Dura, the Star has been launched on this trajectory, straight at the Xeelee artifact, as a missile." His tone had become hushed, almost reverent. Dura looked at him curiously; his eyes were locked on the images of distant battle, evidently fascinated.

She wondered if he were still quite sane. The thought disturbed her.