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In that hour when the Egyptians died in the Red Sea theof praise before the Holy One, but he rebuked the in the sea; would you utter a song before me in honor of that?

- The Sanhedrin, Shiprecords

OAKES FELT his heart pulesuit His feet hurt Still, he staggered away froata, how could you?

When he couldhis first look back They were not pursuing

They ed the distant hole in the here the e to eject him He stared at the hole His chest pained hirew conscious of sounds other than his own gasping The ground under his hand was tre with some distant thunder Waves!

Oakes looked toward the sea The tide was higher than he had ever seen it A white line ainst the headland where they had built the shuttle facility Even as he watched, a great wedge of headland slid into the waves, opening a jagged gap in the shuttle hangar He staggered to his feet, stared Black objectssea Rocks! There were rocks larger than a arden - his precious garden - sloughed away

Mewling cries like near-forgotten seabirds insinuated themselves across the spuhters? Gone Not one orange bag danced in the sky or hovered above the cliffs

The cries continued

Oakes looked toward the cliffs where Thoround lay there with pieces of people twitching in the harsh glare of the suns Figuresthem toward the cliffs

Once more, Oakes stared back at the Redoubt Certain death lay there He turned toward the battleground and for the first time, saw the demons A shudder convulsed hi in a wide arc beyond the battleground A single hunized the poet, Kerro Panille

Those cries! It was the wounded and the dying

Oakes staggered toward Panille What did it ainst roun mutilated bodies Oakes stepped on a dismembered hand It cupped his boot in reflex, and he leaped away froata His body refused He could only shuffle on toward Panille, who stood tall amidst the demons

Why do they just sit there?

Oakes stopped only a few meters from Panille

"You" Oakes was surprised by the flat sound of his own voice

"Yes"

The poet’s voice cah the pellet in Oakes’ neck and there was no movement of Panille’s mouth "You’re finished, Oakes"

"You! You’re the one recked things for me! You’re the reason Lewis and I couldn’"

"Nothing is wrecked, Oakes Life here has just begun"

Panille’s lips did not h the neck pellet!

"You’re not speakin but I can hear you"

"That is Avata’s gift to us"

"Avata?"

"The hylighters and the kelp - they are one: Avata"

"So this planet’s really beaten us"

"Not the planet, nor Legata"

"The ship then It’s hounded me down at last"

"Not Ship"

"Lewis! He did this He and Legata!"

Oakes felt his tears begin Lewis and Legata He was unable tomoved away from the poet, crawled onto the toe of Oakes’ boot, rested its bristling head there Oakes stared down at it in horror, unable to command his own muscles Frustration forced words from him

"Tell me who did this!"

"You knoho did it"

An anguished cry renched from Oakes’ throat: "Noooooooooooo!"

"You did it, Oakes You and Thomas"

"I didn’t!"

Panille merely stared at him

"Tell your demons to kill me then!" Oakes hurled the words at Panille

"They are not my demons"

"Why don’t they attack?"

"Because I show them a world which some would call illusion No creature attacks what it sees, only what it thinks it sees"

Oakes stared at Panille in horror Illusion This poet could fill ht you how to do that!"

"Avata taughtof hysteria crept into Oakes "And your Avata’s done fo all gone!"

"Not before teaching us the universe of alternate realities And Avata lives in us yet"

Oakes stared down at the deadly Flatwing on his boot "What does it see?" He pointed a shaking finger at the creature

"Soround all around the crept off his boot to squat quietly on the sand Oakes looked toward the source of the sound, saw that another coveside section of the Redoubt had slipped away into the surf The white line of the horizon had ht up to the land - thunderous waves The cove aainst the shore Oakes stared in dumb horror as another section of the Redoubt ripped away and fell from view

"I don’t care what you say," Oakes muttered "The planet’s beaten us"

"If that’s what you want"

"What I want!" Oakes rounded on hi a woundedin the brilliant light, walked alongside Her pribox was hooked to the patient Oakes looked down at the litter and recognized the ly at Oakes as they lowered Thomas to the sand

"How bad?" Oakes directed the question at Hali

Panille answered: "He is dying A chest wound and a flash burn"

A chuckle forced its way froulped it back "So he won’t survive me! At last - no Ceepee for the damned ship!"

Hali knelt beside Tho carried to the shelter He wantedhim to you"

"I know"

Panille stared down at the dying man Awareness of Thomas lay there in Panille’s mind, linked to Vata, to Waela, to enetic mix traced itself back to the Avata All of it was there, the complete pattern How profound of Ship to take the Raja Flattery of Ship’s own origins and make a personal nemesis out of the man

Thomas moved his lips, a whisper only, but even Oakes heard him: "I studied the question so lon I hid the proble about?" Oakes de to Ship," Panille said, and this time his lips moved, his voice was the re awareness

A series of gasps wracked the dyingPanille knows It’s the roc the child Yes! I know! The child!"

Oakes snorted "He just thinks he’s talking to the ship"

"You still refuse to live up to the best of your own hu at Oakes

"Wha what do you mean?"

"That’s all Ship ever asked of us," Panille said "That’s all WorShip was meant to be: find our own humanity and live up to it"

"Words! Just words!" Oakes felt that he was being crowded into a corner Everything here was illusion!

"Then throw out the words and ask yourself what you’re doing here," Panille said

"I’ to survive What else is there to do?"