A hundred crewmen worked to bolt together a huge, cubical lattice. Eventually, Rodi realized, it would fill the common room. Medical devices and supplies were strapped to struts. Rough hands pushed a man-sized bundle of blankets into the lattice. Then another, and a third...

Crew members in sterile masks unwrapped the bundles.

Suddenly Rodi saw it.

This was a hospital. It was being built in the soft heart of the Ark -- the most protected place in case of attack. And towards the hull they were taking heavy-duty lasers -- to use as weapons?

Holism Ark was preparing for war.

Rodi's head pounded and there was a metallic taste at the back of his throat.

Thet came sweeping across the bustling space, towing a small package of clothes.

Rodi pushed away from the wall and grabbed her arm.

"The philosopher returns," Thet said, grinning. Her eyes sparkled and her face was flushed.

There was a growth at the top of her spine.

"Thet... what's happening?"

"I'm going to Unity Ark. As a Battle Captain. Isn't it fantastic?"

"Battle? Against who?"

"The Xeelee. Who else? Why do you think we came all this way?"

Rodi tightened his grip on her upper arm. "We came for the Integrality. Remember? We came to remove war, not to wage it."

She laughed in his face, her mouth wide. "That's yesterday, Rodi. It's all gone. And you know who we have to thank? You. Isn't that ironic?" With fingers like steel she prised open his hand and kicked away.

"Where's Gren?"

"In the sanatorium," she called back. "And, Rodi... that's your fault too."

Rodi hung there for long minutes. Then he turned to the makeshift hospital.

Gren lay in a honeycomb of suffering people. Bandaging swathed his neck.

Rodi touched the shrunken face. Gren's eyes flickered open. His face creased as he recognized Rodi. He whispered: "...our grand Foe, / Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy / Sole reigning holds the tyranny of heaven!" He grimaced. "You have to admire the planning. Over thousands of centuries, even as humans died before the Xeelee, they hid those words among thousands of fragments of verse, and built an epic deception..."

"Please," Rodi said miserably, "I don't understand any of this."

Gren stirred. "I'm sorry, Rodi. The truth is that the Integrality is a fraud, an epic deception spanning millennia. Our mission was a lie which has allowed this huge armada to penetrate Xeelee space, its true purpose unknown even to generations of crew.

"The reassembled poetry was the key, you see. Hearing those words ignited something in each of us -- something locked in the genetic code that defines us. We began to suffer explosive growths--"

Rodi fingered his own smooth neck.

"You're a lucky one," Gren whispered. "It doesn't always work. A tenth of us are unaffected. Perhaps two-thirds have been -- programed. Like Thet. And the rest of us are dying."

Rodi turned away.