06 Kenpo X

Then,06 Kenpo X, "I'm ... focusing Countermeasure. I see now, Countermeasure, what it is.... It was designed by something beyond the Powers. Maybe there are Cloud People,复件 (74) air max2, maybe this is signaling them. Or maybe what it's just done is like an insect bite, something that will cause a much greater reaction. The Bottom of the Beyond has just receded, like the waterline before a tsunami." The Countermeasure glared red-orange, its arcs and barbs embracing Pham more tightly than before. "And now that we've bootstrapped to a decent Zone ... things can really happen. Oh,复件 (91) air max1, the ghost of Old One is amused. Seeing beyond the Powers was almost worth dying for." The fleet stats flowed across Ravna's wrist. The Blight was coming on even faster than before. "Five minutes, Pham." Even though they were still thirty light-years out. Laughter. "Oh, the Blight knows, too. I see this is what it feared all along. This is what killed it those aeons ago. It's racing forward now, but it's too late." The glow brightened; the mask of light that was Pham's face seemed to relax. "Something very ... far ... away has heard me, Rav. It's coming." "What? What's coming?" "The Surge. So big. It makes what hit us before seem a gentle wave. This is the one nobody believes, because no one's left to record it. The Bottom will be blown out beyond the fleet. Sudden understanding. Sudden wild hope. "... And they'll be trapped out there,复件 (79) air max1, won't they?" So Kjet Svensndot had not fought in vain, and Pham's advice had not been nonsense: Now there wasn't a single ramscoop in the Blighter fleet. "Yes. They're thirty-light years out. We killed all the speed-capable ones. They'll be a thousand years getting here...." The artifact abruptly contracted, and Pham moaned. "Not much time. We're at maximum recession. When the surge comes,复件 (31) air max1, it will --" Again a sound of pain. "I can see it! By the Powers, Ravna, it will sweep high and last long." "How high, Pham?" Ravna said softly. She thought of all the civilizations above them. There were the Butterflies and the treacherous types who supported the pogrom at Sjandra Kei.... And there were trillions who lived in peace and made their own way toward the heights. "A thousand light-years? Ten thousand? I'm not sure. The ghosts in Countermeasure -- Arne and Sjana thought it might rise so high it would punch into the Transcend, encyst the Blight right where it sits.... That must be what happened Before." Arne and Sjana? The Countermeasure's writhing had slowed. Its light flickered bright and then out. Bright and then out. She heard Pham's breath gasp with every darkness. Countermeasure, a savior that was going to kill a million civilizations. And was killing the man who had triggered it. Almost unthinking, she dodged past the thing, reaching for Pham. But razors on razors blocked her, raking her arms. Pham was looking up at her. He was trying to say something more. Then the light went out for a final time. From the darkness all around came a hissing sound and a growing, bitter smell that Ravna would never forget. For Pham Nuwen, there was no pain. The last minutes of his life were beyond any description that might be rendered in the Slowness or even in the Beyond. So try metaphor and simile: It was like ... it was like ... Pham stood with Old One on a vast and empty beach. Ravna and Tines were tiny creatures at their feet. Planets and stars were the grains of sand. And the sea had drawn briefly back,tataga coffee, letting the brightness of thought reach here where before had been darkness.