Of course, even without Black Orpheus, life—and death—continued on the Inner Frontier.

Geronimo Gentry, Poor Yorick, and Jonathan Stern were all dead within a year—one from old age, one from too many alphanella seeds, and one from a plethora of sins that still had no names.

The Sargasso Rose remained a lonely and bitter woman, cursing Sebastian Cain nightly for not fulfilling his promise to her. Skullcracker Murchison lost his unofficial title, regained it, and finally retired after taking one blow too many to the head.

Peacemaker MacDougal hunted down Quentin Cicero and Carmella Sparks, then went deeper toward the core of the galaxy in search of Santiago. Dimitri Sokol served as ambassador for two years on Lodin XI, resigned when he felt he had accumulated enough political favors, and moved to Deluros VIII, where he ran successfully for a minor office and later was offered a major post within the government.

Father William was slow to heal from his wounds. He remained in the hospital for the better part of six months, invoking the wrath of God upon all the doctors who refused to release him until he had lost half his body weight. The day he walked out he began regaining his lost bulk with a vengeance, but his stamina was gone, and he finally settled on Safe Harbor, the pastor of that planet’s only church.

As for the Swagman, he actually did team up with Virtue Mackenzie for a brief period. After they had yet another falling-out, he returned to Goldenrod and sat down to write his memoirs. His enthusiasm soon waned, though he never completely abandoned the project, and before long he had hired a new batch of menials and was once again adding to his collection in his inimitable way.

Virtue had left the Democracy in obscurity, but she returned as a celebrity. Her series of interviews with Santiago won her three major awards, and her biography of the notorious bandit made her wealthy. She returned to the Inner Frontier every couple of years for fresh material on the King of the Outlaws and never failed to come up with it. She drank too much, slept with too many men, and spent too much money—and enjoyed every minute of it.

Cain carried on his campaign for nine more years, spending what his network of illicit enterprises accumulated where it would do the most good, fighting only that handful of battles he knew he could win, and spreading the myth of Santiago even farther across the Frontier.