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and pushing, testing and mingling
Logothian
Human
hrisi
and another, far vaster, reverberating with power and bewilderment
Bright, carrying the knowledge of eons, searching the heavens of all life for
understanding of what might lie beyond
beyond all existence.
and astonished
That you my children so small could do this to me
((
If only
))
((
If only
))
((
You knew
))
((
You knew
))
((
How very small we are
))
((
We are
))
And how very sorry
sorry
sorry
But time was the destroyer, which no one could turn back.
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Chapter 35
Time was a vast bubble expanding in space, and Ruskin was on its surface,
peering in &
& and what he saw were other faces, one of them blindingly bright,
peering into expanding bubbles of time, peering inward at him
.
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Reflections in a hall of mirrors:
The gateway was forming even as his mind slipped through this distorted
corridor of time.
Matter at the heart of the star had been crushed out of existence, the
singularity snatching at the hyperstring and holding it secure. The
K-space field had multiplied in strength; and the entrance to the
gateway was being sculpted out of twisted space-time by the forces he had put
into motion a lifetime ago.
In the very shape of that opening were being determined the secrets that could
guide future travelers through the treacherous waters of transit or send them
hurtling to destruction. And nothing he could do now could influence that
shape or map its secrets.
Ganz, succumbing to madness, had destroyed the very instruments of control.
But did that truly matter? Zeta station itself was being twisted into
a realm of half existence, and its occupants with it; and with or
without instruments, what could any man do now?
A parade of failed dreams:
The Querayn, he perceived, had wanted the project diverted to a
study of the star consciousness itself. That was now impossible, though a
moment had come and gone when he had nearly yielded. The Tandeskoes and
Auricles had each wanted the gateway for themselves;
and that, too, now seemed unlikely.
And what did want? He knew now: that no one should own the gateway or its
secrets. A
he star was dying for this gateway, and he would have no one rob it of the
meaning of its death.
He would have the gateway for all or for none.
An extraordinary world was opening around him now as the space-time
that held him twisted like a Möbius strip, as the control station
in which he had stood and fought was wrenched out of its universe.
Ali Maksam s soul had become entwined with his own, and he saw now how the
Logothian suffered, knowing that he had sinned against his friend,
doing what he thought had to be done though it was a betrayal,
knowing no other way; and a terrakell winked at him as it opened a
small window into his own past, showing him how indeed he d been
unwilling to listen to reason, or to Max s intuitions, back when it might
have mattered.
Willard, I am sorry
Max, I understand. I forgive
.
Their two voices drifted apart and then together again, like spirit
elementals. But in this reality of souls entwining, Ali Maksam s was not
the only one wrapped around and mingled with his &
There was also a hrisi assassin:
It was a stricken Tandesko soul that touched his. The rigidity of
hrisi training had been
overcome by madness; he had struck a blow in blind destructiveness,
obliterating the mapping console that could have brought some order out
of this chaos. A madness of death had overcome him, in the place of the
dignity that he would have wished at the end.
He has failed in disgrace. There can be no excusing, no forgiving, ever &
And Ruskin s soul eyed his soul, willing itself to speak: & and
found itself unable to
I
complete the thought. Could he forgive an assassin who had tried to
kill him, who had savagely killed so many others?
Could he?
The station was contorting around him; and though he felt Dax still alive
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within him, it was clear that they would die together. (
I ll miss you, Dax
.)
((
I would remain a part of you, Willard
.))
But still Ali Maksam s words were ringing in his ears, ringing as the sun
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