Gabrielle found herself somewhere else not in space, exactly, but in a grey and featureless void. She could sense that her physical body lay somewhere nearby, and yet, when she turned to look for it, she saw only a confusing mass of threads that hung in emptiness, burning with light.

This tangle of threads, she somehow knew, was the Ingersoll itself, seen from a perspective she struggled to comprehend. Further away she could see other structures, but on a scale that defied comprehension.

Think of this as the mainframe that the entire universe runs on, she heard Bash say.

She twisted around until she spotted a tightly wound knot of light floating in the void close by her. This, she sensed, was Bash.

What happened? she cried out. Where are we? What happened to us?

You could call this information space, said Bash. The thing you have to understand is that the universe is just one giant computer, computing itself. Dig down far enough into the quantum level of reality, and all thats really happening is an exchange of information regarding mass, velocity, energy all of that, and more. The Makers want to change the fundamental rules by which all of it works. All this you see is a virtual data system created by races even older than the Makers themselves. Its threaded deep into the weave of reality, so deep you cant ever see it.

And . . . this is where youve been? All these years?

Here and so many other places, said Bash. When the Wanderer first entered my mind, the last time I was out here, it wanted to pick me apart, to try and understand who we are and how we work. It took my body and discarded my mind, like a landlord evicting an unwanted tenant. But I didnt die. I remained in one piece. And every now and then I sneak back into the old place for a little while, just as I have now.

Then why didnt the same thing happen to Megan? asked Gabrielle.

Shes different just as youre different, said Bash. The Magi changed you; made you too strong.

Are you going to help us? Is that why you came to me just now?

I came to warn you. The pattern of light shifted slightly. The Wanderer isnt a single unified entity, as it appears to be. Its made up of tens of thousands of individual craft, just like the Maker Swarms, except that theyre all clustered together into a single body.

So?