Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

the
Expansion’s growing border. Naturally we will use our every resource
in our fight for survival, just as we did when our sun died. There
will be epic battles. But the logic is against us. Our most
optimistic projection is three thousand years.’
    ’Until what?’
    ’Until the Silver Ghosts are extinct.’
    Raoul said grimly, ’I spent my life fighting against such
outcomes, Ambassador. As did you. Are you telling me now it was all
futile?’
    ’From the beginning. But there is no failure, Jack Raoul. Here we
have found a sanctuary. Though the Xeelee do not intervene in the
squabbles of lesser types like us, they appear to embrace diversity.
They gave us this place. Perhaps they have prepared a haven for your
kind, against the inevitable day when humanity too must decline.’
    But Raoul found it increasingly hard to concentrate; his attention
was drawn away from the Ghost and his words, away from the tangle, up
to that infinite light.
    The Ghost spun on its invisible axis, this way and that. ’Jack
Raoul, I urge you to consider. If we are safe here, so are you. We
can provide any Virtual environment you desire.’ The Ghost seemed to
hesitate. ’We can give you Eve.’
    Ah, Eve…
    You can ’t stay. It was as if he could hear her voice, see her
pushing her fingers through her greyed hair. You held on to me for
too long. And now, this. You never could let go Jack. But now you
have to. You see that, don’t you?
    He felt himself rise further. The tangle shrank beneath him,
becoming lost in the light.
    It’s time to go, Jack.
    ’The Sink Ambassador is a friend,’ he told Eve.
    ’Jack Raoul?’
    Sure he’s a friend. That’s why he’s showing you what you want to
see. You don’t want to die a failure. But it isn’t real. You know
that, don’t you?
    Perhaps the Sink Ambassador somehow heard this inner voice. ’Jack
Raoul, it can be as real as you desire. We have only a single moment
to give you. But we can make that moment last an eternity.’
    ’Thank you, my friend. But this isn’t my place.’
    ’Jack Raoul, please…’
    The tangle faded into the light. Raoul had time for a last, brief
stab of regret.
    Then, artificial eyes raised, he ascended into the white glow that
was calling him.
     
    ’I attempted a third call, but there was no further movement. The
eyes finally took on the glazed look of the dead.
    ’The whole sequence of post-excision events lasted twenty-five to
thirty seconds. More precise timings are of course available in the
record.
    ’Death occurred due to separation of the brain and spinal cord,
after transection of the surrounding tissues and excision of the
brain from the chest cavity, which probably caused acute and possibly
severe pain. Consciousness was lost due to a rapid fall of
intracranial perfusion of blood. Throughout the procedure nervous
connections were maintained with sensory organs, notably the
>eyes<, >ears< and >nose<.
    ’As noted, Jack Raoul did not resist.
    ’It may be that because of Raoul’s unique physical condition, this
>beheading< was the only available mode of execution. However I
believe that my precise observations during my administration of this
case demonstrate that Raoul was aware of what was happening to him
even after excision, thus casting doubt on the humanity of the
procedure.
    ’I will concede that I saw a certain peace, at the last, in Jack
Raoul’s dying eyes. It may be that somehow he found consolation,
which may in turn give comfort to those who passed sentence on this
complex man.
    ’Death occurred at the time and place noted.
    ’Signed: HAMA TINIF, Attending Physician.’
     
    The Sink Ambassador was right. War was inevitable. The logic of
the Third Expansion would have it no other way.
    At first human forces made spectacular advances. The Ghosts,
capable of manipulating physical law, were on paper formidable
adversaries. But we were better at making war.
    In the centuries of conflict that followed, the Coalition
completed its control. Humanity’s ideology and economics were
reoriented. Our entire civilisation became a machine to serve the
Expansion and the war, and in turn became dependent on those two
projects.
    But then, as we approached the Ghosts’ home ranges, the Expansion
stalled.

 
ON THE ORION LINE
AD 6454
     
     
    The Brief Life Burns Brightly broke out of the fleet. We were
chasing down a Ghost cruiser, and we were closing.
    The lifedome of the Brightly was transparent, so it was as if
Captain Teid in her big