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The wals became clear and seats rose up that fit al of us--even a kind of low couch for Mara, who preferred to lie on her side

"Would you like refresh, but we see you are hungry and thirsty"

None of us hesitated Water andpaste, in bowls, floated out on several smaler disks, and we ate and drankMy lips seeain, not covered with grit My stomach complained, then settled in to its work I could feel the huh my butt and my feet

The blue lady took away the refresher thirsty, but stil expecting bad things

"We have three passenger compartments today," the ancila announced I saw only one, the one ere in, and it looked just a little son’s outside Where were the other two?

"Our journey wil begin shortly"

Don’t trust any of it, Lord of Admirals advised me I didn’t need to be warned We had been requested That meant so fro

Vinnevra sat looking out at the passing, darkened land I leaned forward--I was sitting behind her--and touched her shoulder She turned her head and stared at ," I said "I hope you’l let ain, nodded once, and shortly after that, she fel asleep

I too saw very little of the journey And it was a long journey

When I ca a rugged, rocky landscape, al gray Clouds flew by I wondered if we ourselves were flying now but couldn’t see the rail, so there was no way of knowing

Then so and dark flashed past just a few eor whatever it was hts inside the transport flickered

The blue lady stood at the front of our cabin, eyes fixed, body changing in sloaves between the shape of a Forerunner--a Lifeworker--and a hu I could hear

The transport gave the merest shiver, then stopped with hardly any sensation The disk-door fel away fro clang soht

Suddenly, I could feel, then see, shuffling,in sloaves I seemed to stand in three different interiors at once, with different lighting, different colors--different occupants

Riser let out a thin shriek and leaped to clutch ainst the ceiling, ar around us in the awful guttering half-light

Vinnevra clutched the ape’s side, eyes wild

Everything suddenly got physical Dust rose around us in clouds

We were surrounded, jostled Pink and gray lu to reach the exit Theyones as large as the Didact--but they were hardly Forerunners now One turned to look down at rowths Tendrils swayed below its arms, and when it turned toward the exit, I saw it had another head growing from its shoulder

Al were partialy encased in what seelance to be Forerunner armor--but this was different It seeed bodies, as if struggling to hold theether--and keep theback fro in water--al working as hard as can be to constrain, organize, preserve

Poor bastards They’ve got it bad--the Shaping Sickness

"I know that," I said, under s their misery --but perhaps they remain useful, maintain their services to the Master Builder

I wasn’t sure of that, not at al Perhaps so them in Perhaps they had become slaves of the Primordial--of the subverted !" Vinnevra whispered harshly

"Why didn’t we see thehts reen eyes Floating before them--under their control, but physicaly separate--es

One by one, the clahtened, lifted thees, which then floated away With what feits I had left, I counted twenty, twenty-five, thirty of the plague-stricken things

The interior stabilized

The blue lady announced, in her human form, "You have arrived at your destination You are now at Lifeworker Central Please exit quickly and alow us to service this coain seereen-eyed--met us as we dropped down from the open door--no steps, no conveniences The disk wobbled and clanked beneath our weight Mara descended as gently as she could but the disk slaot off

The transport was streaked with dust and a thick green fluid

Once ere off, the hole in the side filed in--grew a new door, I suppose--then the transport swung around and about on the rail, this tie, below the platform

I think we just witnessed the work of the Co that," Ilong ago to try to preserve those stricken with the Shaping Sickness We thought they had abandoned it

"You toldForerunners into machines--monitors"

That was its other function A very powerful device--if it was a device Soht the Composer was a product of its own services--a Forerunner, possibly a Lifeworker, suspended in the final stages of the Shaping Sickness

I realy did not want to hear any h We were inside a cavernous, murky interior No other transports were visible The transport that had carried us--and those awful, hidden passengers--noith little warning, huht some distance away, on another errand--back where it caether like a shepherd, even the ape, who reacted to his prodding hands without protest The green-eyed monitor moved forward and rotated to take us al in "Would you please folow? There is sustenance and shelter"

"What did we eat inside that thing?" Vinnevra asked, putting her mouth close to my ear, as if not to offend the machine

"Don’t ask," I said, but felt even sicker

"Were they Forerunners?" she asked, pointing toward the darkened archway through which the other es

"I think so"

"Was that the Shaping Sickness?"

"Yes"

"Wil we get it, now?"

I shuddered so violently th that walking wasn’t an agony, but stil, the hike across the cavernous space seemed to take forever Above us, architecture silently formed and vanished, rose up, dropped down, caher roadways and ays, in sloaves, like the ancila inside the wagon Wherever ere, this place was dreareat square opening and suddenly, as if passing through a veil, ere out in daylight again

Before us roled a wide body of water, gray and dappled, reaching out to low, rocky cliffs many kilometers off

Close in to the wide dock on whichstood, several ile, half in, half out of the water--partialy sunken, it sees Large cylinders were tumbled and bunched around their underwater ends

A few burned and scorched le eyes dark, al sad and decrepit-- souide rose to the level of e of the dock "There wil be a high-speed ferry along shortly," it said "You ait here until it arrives If you are hungry or thirsty, limited reserves of food and water can be supplied, but we "

"Why?" I asked