"Are we still in contact, Rodi of the Integrality?"

"Yes, Comms Officer..."

"Rodi, you have one minute to begin your approach to Unity. After that we open fire. Do you understand?"

"Comms Officer, what is your answer?"

"I must consult."

"Please hurry. I am desperate."

Thet's smile broadened as the minute passed. Rodi realized that the metamorphosis was a liberation for her; she made a much better warrior than missionary.

"Time's up, Rodi."

"Integrality? We will do as you say."

"Thank you!"

And Rodi slammed the flitter into hyperspace; Thet snarled.

The Exaltation was beginning to split up.

The Arks, the metamorphosed battleships, continued to drop into three-space... but they returned battered and bleeding, and there were fewer each time.

The bulk of the fleet, now isolated from infection, cruised on its way.

Rodi probed at his feelings. Had he betrayed his race by wrecking this grand design?

But the stratagem itself had been a betrayal -- of the generations who had lived and died in the Exaltation, and, yes, of the ideal of the Integrality itself.

He wondered if Gren's hypothesis, of a key embedded in fragments of poetry, could hold truth. It seemed fantastic... and yet the fragments of verse had indeed been laid there, like a trail. Perhaps there were a dozen keys, scattered across the light years and centuries, reinforcing each other -- some perhaps even embedded in the structure of the space through which the Exaltation must pass.

Or perhaps, Rodi thought bleakly, no key was necessary. He thought of Thet. She, in retrospect, had been all too willing to throw over the ideals of the Integrality, and indulge in warfare once more -- key or no key.

But the perpetrators of this epochal plot had been too clever. In their search for a fine lie they had stumbled on a truth -- the truth at the heart of the Integrality's philosophy -- and that truth, Rodi realized, was driving him to act as he did.

And so in the end it was the truth which had betrayed them.

Rodi would never see his parents again.

But the Exaltation would go on. He could join another Ark, and--

Thet's voice hissed through the distorted inseparability net. "I know... you've done..."

Unity Ark loomed in his monitors, its bulk cutting him off from the Exaltation.

"Thet. There's no point--"

The flitter slammed.

"...next time..."

Roaring with frustration he dropped into three-space, emerging poised over the Ring.

Unity Ark closed, bristling with weapons. Thet's image was clear. "It's over, Rodi."

Rodi took his hands from the controls. He felt very tired. "Okay, Thet. You're right. It's over. We're both cut off from the Exaltation. We're stranded here. Kill me if you like."

Unity Ark exploded at him. Thet stared into his eyes.

Then she cried out, as if in pain.

The Ark veered sideways, avoiding Rodi, and disappeared into the mist at the heart of the Ring.

"Integrality calling Comms Officer."

"This is the Comms Officer."