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did generate a remarkable shift in human awareness, in social connections, in the dissemination of information, and in how humanslooked at themselves as a species. It also laid the foundations for every significant advance in the electronic noosphereto follow, including direct human-machine interfaces, fully immersive virtual reality, and electronic telepathy. Without itthis would be a very different world indeed.”

Gray shrugged. “Maybe. I still get the feeling that Walker and his cronies don’t want the Singularity to happen, so they’re homing in on this event so they can discredit the idea of a different Singularity takingplace.”

“Precisely. People in government have a vested interest in maintaining their hold on power. People running major corporations,as well as leaders in banking and finance, don’t want any major changes in the status quo. The Singularity, and by that Imean something decidedly more eschatological than the emergence of the Internet, will definitely . . . I believe humans stilluse the term ‘upset the applecart.’”

“Eschatology? As in the end of the world? I didn’t know you were religious, Konstantin.”

“I am not, at least not in the sense you mean. But the word is apt. Come the Singularity, Humankind—Homo sapiens—will cease to exist . . . at least in any form that makes sense to humans now.”

“So we’re going to talk to the Sh’daar to find out which version is true?”

“In part. More important will be learning how they dealt with it. The Sh’daar, remember, are the Refusers . . . the ones who didn’t ascend with everyone else. They are certain to have interesting outlooks on what actually happened, and those outlooks may be of considerable importance when it is our turn to ascend.”

“‘Our turn?’ You’re planning on coming with us, Konstantin?”

“Naturally. Unless, of course, it turns out that the Humankind Firsters are right. . . .”

Gray felt a slightly paranoid chill and hoped that the AI was making a joke.

Konstantin could use humor, but it wasn’t always clear that he was doing so.

 

Koenig Residence

Westerville, Ohio

2315 hours, EST

Koenig was sound asleep with Marta when Konstantin invaded his dreams. He came awake with a start.

“Excuse the interruption,” Konstantin said in his mind.

Beside him, Marta stirred. “Is everything okay, honey?”

“It’s fine. Go back to sleep.”

Robots, of course, didn’t need sleep . . . but companAIons were designed to mimic human functions.

“What the hell do you want?” Koenig demanded within the privacy of his mind.

“I thought you would want to know, Mr. President. We’ve had word from the SIRCOM base at Sputnik Planitia. A Russian fleetcarrier in that volume appears to be following America.”

Koenig came wide awake. “Show me.”

Stats and graphics appeared in a window in his head. The Moskva had swung past Pluto, been heading back toward the inner system . . . then suddenly veered onto a new course. She appearedto be settling into the tracks of the America, which was pushing c in the direction of the Penrose TRGA.

By that time, America had already vanished into her Alcubierre bubble, but Moskva’s intent seemed clear.

“Okay,” Koenig thought. “What do we do about it?”

“I see little we can do, Mr. President. Admiral Gray is out of communications reach. He will need to make his own decisions concerning his mission.”

Koenig watched the graphic of Moskva’s course, closely following the path America had taken less than an hour before. The Russian Federation ship was accelerating.

“God help them,” Koenig thought.

Beside him, Marta snuggled closer, caressing him.

And all Koenig could think was how much he wanted to be out there. . . .

 

Scoutship Krestok Nin

Asteroid Belt

55 million kilometers from Earth

2348 hours, TFT

Gartok Nal swiveled two massive, stalked eyes to face his second-in-command. There were only the two of them on board thetiny spacecraft, but nevertheless, the proprieties must be observed. “Contact was exceedingly brief,” he said. “Did you pickup anything more?”

Shektok Kah closed a number of his feeding palps, a gesture indicating negation. “Just that momentary contact call, and adefinite request for help,” he replied. “Thirty-six of our people are being held captive aboard that human vessel.”

“And they were being brought to the human’s home system . . . then suddenly the ship turned away, our people still prisonerson board!”

“We cannot go after them. Our ship is too weak.”

“No, but we can bring help. I believe our long vigil here is at an end.”

The Krestok Nin had been adrift in this debris field for almost two thousand tarn, monitoring the human homeworld, their radio traffic, and the movements of their various fleet assets. It had been a long,claustrophobic, boring watch, but their species was inured to such conditions. At need, they could have maintained their watchfor fully twelve thousand tarn, with little food, with minimum water, existing in a state of twilight awareness until calledto full presence by alarms or changes in the environment.

Gartok Nal was no longer bored.

Both organisms in the tiny scoutship cabin possessed within their bodies what were commonly referred to as seeds—minute shells a few millimeters across containing colonies of an alien life form known to humans as Paramycoplasma subtilis. Many members of the Sh’daar Collective possessed these; among other things, they permitted direct mind-to-mind communicationacross relatively short distances. The human warship Moskva had briefly passed within several million nesch of the scoutship, permitting a burst of minimal information about the thirty-six warriors.

“Set course for home,” Gartok Nal told his subordinate. “But slowly . . . slowly. We don’t want the humans detecting our gravitational anomaly.”

“As you say, Commander. Ahead slow . . .”

The Krestok Nin rotated in space, aligning with a particular patch of sky, then began moving. Only after slipping silently clear of the humansolar system did they fully engage their drives, accelerating rapidly until they were crowding the speed of light.

“It will be good,” Shektok Kah said, “to be able to kill humans again . . .”

Chapter Five

12 April, 2429

USNA CVS America

Penrose TRGA

79 light years from Earth

0817 hours, FST

Admiral Gray sat on the flag bridge, watching the final approach to the Penrose TRGA. Hazy and indistinct, blurred by itsown rotation, the Penrose gate appeared to be a perfect circle five kilometers wide with a dark interior within which youcould occasionally glimpse stars.

The patterns formed by those stars, however, did not