Adda rubbed his nose. "Perhaps. But I don't think we'll have Farr here to help us."

"No," Dura said. "He's determined to return to the Quantum Sea, in a new, improved 'Flying Pig.' To find the Colonists again. But he's accepted he needs to put in some time rebuilding his own world first, before flying off to win new ones..."

"Not a poor ambition to have," Muub said, smiling thinly. "Quite a number of us are intrigued by what you learned of the Colonists... and the huge Ur-human engines at the North Pole. Of course, we don't know any way of traveling more than a few tens of meters from the South Pole, let alone of crossing the Equator... but we'll find a way."

"Why should there be a way at all?" Adda asked cynically. "This Star is a hostile environment, remember. The Glitches have forced that home into our heads, if nothing else. We've no guarantee we'll ever be able to achieve much more than we can do now. After all the Ur-humans left us to die with the Star, they didn't believe in any future for us."

"Perhaps." Muub smiled. "But perhaps not. Here's a speculation for you. What if the Ur-humans didn't intend us to be destroyed when the Star impacted the Ring? What if the Ur-humans left us some means of escaping from the Star?"

Dura said, "Like the wormhole to the planet—"

"Or," Muub said, "even a ship — an Air-car that could travel outside the Star itself." He looked up at the Crust, a look of vague dissatisfaction on his face. "What lies beyond that constraining roof over our world? The glimpses you saw, Dura, of other stars — hundreds, millions of them — each one, perhaps, harboring life — not human as we are, and yet human, descended from the Ur-stock... And then, behind it all, the Ur-humans themselves, still pursuing their own aloof goals. To see it all — what a prize that would be! Yes, Adda; many of us are very curious indeed about what might lie at the far Pole...

"Yet even that will tell us so little of the true history of our universe. What is the true purpose of Bolder's Ring? What are the Xeelee's intentions — who, where is the enemy they seem to fear so much?" He smiled, looking wistful. "I will resent dying without the answers to such questions, as I surely will..."

—

In the distance, in the opened heart of the City hundreds of mansheights away, pipes began to bray: Hork calling his citizens to him. Muub bid a hasty farewell to his friends.

With Adda, Dura began to make her way toward the heart of the debris cloud. As they Waved, peacefully, she slipped her hand into his.

"We've come a long way, daughter of Logue," Adda said.