The planet behind which they had sheltered from the nova inevitably began to disintegrate under the onslaught of superheated plasma, so the Magi ship made a short-range jump of half a light year. The crafts encounter with the Wanderer had seriously depleted its energy resources, and it now needed a few days to prepare for the first in a series of much longer jumps.

Megan or Dakota, as she had once again come to think of herself hardly needed to ask where it was taking them next. They were clearly on their way to a confrontation with the Maker Swarm.

After that first brief touch of his fingers, Bash had reverted to his familiar near-vegetative state, and remained that way despite her desperate coaxing and prompting. She returned to her own quarters, and woke later from a long and dreamless sleep only to find that Bash, and even his newly formed quarters, had completely disappeared.

She stared, dumbfounded, at the smooth expanse of wall where his cabin door had been. She then yelled out for the Librarian, demanding its presence instantly.

We are merely attempting to repair the damage done to your friend by the Marauder, explained the Librarian, from beside her shoulder. As ever it appeared from nowhere, as if it had been hovering just out of sight, unnoticed and unheard until it was required. In your past life, your body was similarly absorbed into the ships own flesh in order to carry out necessary changes and repairs.

You dont do anything for nothing, she remarked. And you certainly didnt ask my damn permission.

We didnt need to, the Librarian replied, as he gave it himself.

She stared dumbfounded at it. He did?

He well understands the necessity of the extensive rebuilding of his neural pathways that must be undertaken, the Librarian continued. And, yes, it is also an opportunity to interrogate his implants for more information about the Wanderer and the Core Transcendence. We know very little about the civilization that created the Wanderer, after all.

Bash returned a week later and she found, to her delight, that he seemed to be more aware of his surroundings than ever before. He was even able to speak a few simple words, though that clearly exhausted him, and after less than a minute his eyes would drift away from hers, staring at some unseen horizon. His full recovery, assuming the ship was successful in aiding him, was clearly going to be long and protracted. There would, she realized with sadness, be none of those sudden bursts of lucidity that Gabrielle claimed to have experienced in Bashs presence.