Uncharacteristically, she hesitated.

"Yes?"

"And the spin is used to reinitialize the logic trees."

"These poor trees are like Schrodinger's cat," Hassan said, sounding amused. "Schrodinger's trees!"

Reinitialize?

"Lethe," Chen said. "The trees are being culled. Arbitrarily, almost at random, by a quantum system -- that's against the sentience laws, damn it." She stared at the fist-sized quantum device with loathing.

"We are far from Earth," Hassan said sharply. "Has Marsden found his quantum nonlinearity?"

"I can't tell." Bayliss gazed at the data desks, longing shining through her artificial eyes. "I must complete my data mining."

"What's the point?" Hassan asked. "If the nonlinearity is such a tiny effect, even if it exists--"

"We could construct chaotic quantum systems," Bayliss said dryly. "And if you're familiar with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox--"

"Get to the point," Hassan said wearily.

"Nonlinear quantum systems could violate special relativity. Instantaneous communication, Hassan."

Chen stared at the floor uneasily. The thrashing of the trees in the logic pool was becoming more intense.

The Sky was close, a tangible presence above him. He devoured statements, barely registering their logical content, budding ferociously. Diminished brothers fell away from him, failed copies of himself, urging him on.

He remembered how -- last time, before the Cull -- he had struck at that vast, forbidding Interface -- lashed through it in the instant before he had fallen back. How he had pushed into something soft, receptive, yielding. How good it had felt.

The Sky neared. He reached up--

"I think the trees killed Marsden."

Hassan laughed. "That's absurd."

She thought it through again. "No," she said, her voice measured. "Remember they are sentient. Motivated, by whatever they see as their goals. Growth, I suppose, and survival. The culling, if they are aware of it, must create murderous fury--"

"But they can't have been aware of Marsden, as if he were some huge god outside their logic pool."

"Perhaps not. But they might be aware of something beyond the boundary of their world. Something they could strike at..."

Bayliss was no longer with them.

Chen stepped away from Hassan and scanned the dome rapidly. The glowing logic pool was becoming more irregular in outline, spreading under the floor like some liquid. And Bayliss was working at the data desks, setting up transmit functions, plugging in data cubes.

Chen took two strides across to her and grabbed her arm. For a moment Bayliss tried to keep working, feverishly; only slowly did she become aware of Chen's hand, restraining her.

She looked up at Chen, her face working, abstracted. "What do you want?"

"I don't believe it. You're continuing with your data mining, aren't you?"

Bayliss looked as if she couldn't understand Chen's language. "Of course I am."

"But this data has been gained illegally. Immorally. Can't you see that? It's--"

Bayliss tipped back her head; her augmented cornea shone. "Tainted? Is that what you're trying to say? Stained with the blood of these artificial creatures, Chen?"

"Artificial or not, they are sentient. We have to recognize the rights of all--"