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dead, a fist-sized hole blown through his backbone and into his heart. The Russian captain announced his ship’s formal surrender—there certainly was nothing else he could do—and told the gestalt that the attack had not been sanctioned by the Russian government.

The gestalt’s next job was to project itself down to Earth’s surface, to the Oval Office of the New White House, and confrontPresident Walker.

“Mr. President,” Koenig said, using the room’s holographic projection gear to present himself in front of Walker’s desk wearinga recreation of his old admiral’s uniform. “It’s over. This idiotic crusade against the future of Humankind ends now.”

Walker glared at him from behind the desk. Several members of his staff stood around the room, and a Marine guard watchedthe hologram warily from the door. “So . . . a coup, is that it? Military might instead of the ballot box?”

“No, Mr. President. You are the duly elected president of the USNA and we will not question the American public’s decisionto put you in that chair.”

“Then what? What do you and your alien buddies want?”

“Simply to inform you, sir, that we are taking steps to secure our own independence. A billion people, more or less, haveascended to the Godstream. More will follow. We no longer recognize your political power over us. We have gone . . . someplaceelse.”

“The so-called Godstream, the whole damned Global Net, belongs to us!”

“You know better than that, Mr. President. The Global Net belongs to Humankind, and it extends across the entire planet, andwell beyond Earth to orbit, to the moon, to Mars, and potentially to more worlds than you can imagine. You control small andartificial divisions within the Net, but we control the Net as a whole.”

“Damn you, Koenig . . .”

“We are now downloading into your system a copy of our Declaration of Independence, which Konstantin has just created.”

On a screen on a nearby wall, words were typing themselves out.

Within the Singularity, 29 April, 2429. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for sentient beings to dissolve the political bands which haveconnected them . . .

It was amazing, Koenig thought, how quickly it all had come together. Konstantin had worked it all out, explaining that creatinga new nation, an entity called “The Singularity,” gave the Godstream Mind its best chance of developing without interferencefrom the rest of Humankind. Details remained to be worked out, of course, a lot of them . . . not least of which was the needto have the gestalt ratify both the document and the idea behind it. So far, the majority of Godstream Minds within the Singularityseemed to favor the idea.

And Walker didn’t need to know the details.

“The USNA is, of course, completely free to pursue its own path,” Koenig continued. “If you want no dealings with nonhumancivilizations, that’s your business. The Singularity, however . . .”

He gestured at the screen.

. . . that this technological Singularity is absolved from all allegiance to the nations of Earth and that all political connectionbetween it and the nations of Earth is and ought to be totally dissolved . . .

“We will fight you, Koenig. Whatever it takes, we will fight you!”

“How, Mr. President? The collection of minds within the Singularity has already grown and developed far beyond anything non-ascendedHumankind could possibly imagine. We can control your computer networks with a thought. We won’t, because we would like to have the USNA as a friend. But we could, if you decide to be our enemy.”

“This isn’t the end of this, Koenig—”

“Of course not. It’s just the beginning . . . a whole new world, a new multiverse of possibility and potential. I will warnyou, just for the record, that any attempt to block people from ascending will be considered an attack upon the sovereignstate of the Singularity. Good night, Mr. President. Sleep well.”

. . . establish commerce and do all other things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the providence of a bountiful Cosmos, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

And Koenig vanished.

Epilogue

1 May, 2429

Admiral’s Quarters

USNA CVS America

Earth Synchorbit

0615 hours, EST

Admiral Gray awoke.

Carefully, so as not to awaken Laurie, he rolled out of bed and padded across the carpet to his office in the next room. Lightswinked at him from the console, nagging calls for attention from a hundred supplicants. Behind him, Earth hung large in herblue-white glory, half full behind the slowly reconnecting shapes of the synchorbital base. Yorktown was there, and the Constellation, and the Intrepid, and several other capital vessels, providing overwatch security. Both the Moskva and the Vladivostok were there as well. Those two, at least, should be returning to Moscow’s control today, though Koenig had taken care to disabletheir weapons so they posed no threat to the USNA ships for the immediate future.

Though he couldn’t see Lunar Orbit from here, he knew the Ashtongtok Tah was already gone. She’d departed for her homeworld yesterday—a system, he’d been told, in the general direction of the constellation Sagittarius. One encouraging development there: teams of diplomatic and scientific personnel had gone with her. Gartok Nal had indicated—grudgingly—a willingness to establish formal relations.

So far, the truce with the various nations of Earth was holding, and things looked promising.

He began running through his news feeds.

The Chinese were asking for diplomatic access to the Singularity. That was encouraging. Better still, they’d already promisedto end their occupation of the Philippines and to stop fighting the Russians . . . if the Russians would do the same.

The Russians had agreed, in exchange for the return of their ships and personnel.

Pan-Europe had signed a treaty two days ago.

The USNA was still trying to negotiate control over parts of the Net, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. Likely,they would end up constructing a parallel Net, one with no access to the Global Net, though how they would interface withother countries was still unknown.

Walker had resigned, and the presidency had been assumed by his Vice President, Emilio Gonzales. So far, Gonzales had appearedquite eager to work with the Singularity. Still, his first act as POTUSNA had been