The flitter docked at a pole. Rodi slipped his arms into a set of light wings and swam along the axis. He was due to meet his seminary tutor, Gren, to discuss his voyage, and he tried to lift his mood. He stared around at the bustling life of the Ark: people coasting to and from work, children fluttering stubby wings in some complex game. Rodi felt isolated from it all, as if his senses were clouded by his depression.

There was a free fall common room at the center of the Ark. Gren met him there, tethered to a floating table. Gren was a round, comfortable man. Over a coffee globe he congratulated Rodi. "I was interested by that bit of doggerel Thet picked up," he said. "Did you know we've found similar fragments before?"

"Really?" Rodi hung up his wings and fiddled with his table tether.

"Strange, isn't it? These scattered bits of humanity slavishly maintaining their scraps of verse. We've a data store full of them... But what's it all for?" Gren put on a look of comic puzzlement.

Rodi drew a coffee globe from the table's dispenser. "Gren, why are the Ark's corridors tiled?"

Gren sipped his drink and eyed Rodi. He said carefully, "Because it's more comfortable that way."

"For us, yes. But this Ark is a Spline ship. How must the Spline feel? Once the Spline were free traders. Now we've sanitized this being's guts and built controls into its consciousness. Gren, we preach the wholeness of life, the growth to completeness. Is that a suitable way to treat a fellow creature?"

"Ah. Your first drop didn't turn out as you expected." He smiled. "You're not the first to react like this."

Rodi cradled the coffee globe's warmth close to his chest. "Please take me seriously, Gren. Is our philosophy, this great crusade to the Ring, a sham?"

"You know it isn't. The Integrality is a movement based on centuries of hard human experience. It has quasi-religious elements. Even the words we use -- 'seminary,' 'mission' -- have the scent of ancient faiths. That's no sham; it's quite deliberate. We want the Integrality to be vibrant enough to replace other faiths... especially man's dark passion to die on a mass scale."

"War--"

Gren thumped the table, his round face absurdly serious. "Yes, war. And that's why the resources of planets were spent to send the Exaltation here, to the site of man's greatest and most futile war.

"Rodi, come to terms with your doubts. Humanity is large: scattered, diverse. You found the Moon people discouraging. Well, they have found their own peace. That is not a threat to the validity of our crusade."

Another table drifted by. A young couple whispered into each other's mouths. Rodi watched them absently, thinking of his parents. Both of them worked in the Ark's biotech tanks. He recalled their pride when he was selected for the seminary, and then for the missionary cohort...