At last there was little free baryonic matter outside the vast black holes which gathered in the cores of galaxies. Then, as the long night of the cosmos deepened, even protons collapsed, and the remaining star-corpses began to evaporate.

Paul wearied of puzzling over the huge, slow projects of the photino birds. He sought out what had once been a neutron star. The carbon-coated sphere floating between the huge black holes was so dense that proton decay was actually warming it, keeping it a few degrees above the near-absolute zero of its surroundings; Paul, as if seeking comfort, clustered his attention foci close to this shadow of baryonic glory.

After some time he became aware that he was not alone: the last of the Qax had come sliding through the interstices of space and now hovered with him over the frigid surface of the star.

Human and Qax, huddled around the chill proton star, did not attempt to communicate. There was nothing more to say.

The river of time flowed, unmarked, towards the endless seas of timelike infinity.

Epilogue

Epilogue

EVE

Eve was receding from me. I saw her face, as if it was turned up towards me, and I was rising, away from her.

The walls, the apartment, had disappeared. There was only Eve's face, and darkness.

"You must remember what you have seen, Jack. You must understand. You can see now why the Ghosts' project must go ahead. Can't you? Can't you, Jack?"

I shouted at her: "Tell me who you are, damn you. Tell me how you know all this, the future. Tell me!"

But my voice was a whisper, an insect-rustle; and she didn't reply.

Her face faded, as if a light had been turned off. And the Galaxy came out, crystallizing above me like a gaudy frost.

A Ghost hovered before me, concern sending ripples across its skin. "Jack Raoul. Can you hear me?"

I looked down. My hands were chrome, shimmering, returning complex highlights from the Galaxy's glow. "Oh, Lethe. I'm back."

"Jack Raoul? You have been unresponsive to stimuli for some time--"

I wanted to punch a hole in the Ambassador's complacent hide, and then retreat into the safe warmth of my own metal stomach. "What have you done to me? What right have you -- what right..."

Slowly, I became aware that all around me the Ghosts were rising, clustering around their skeletal ships, and sailing away from the deformed moon.

I tried to think beyond my own concerns. "Ambassador. What's going on?"

"Jack Raoul, it seems you have, after all, achieved your purpose. You have come here to observe our experiment. Now, you are ready to witness its climax, its magnificent conclusion." I heard pride in those thin translated tones, saw an insufferable arrogance about the Ambassador's sleek shimmer.

I looked down at the moon. The intrasystem pods were active, working symmetrically around its battered surface, holding the moon in place.