subspace sensors.
Fairchildâs ship was over four light-hours away. More disturbing, it was heading toward a nebulosity which charts said contained three collapsars, two of them black holes. Kamon deftly probed the nebula with his protogeometry sensors.
None of these singularities had ever been used for pilgrimages, thus they did not radiate Thrina songs. The area had not been thoroughly charted except on visual and radio levels from thousands of light-years away, where the patterns of the roiling gas-clouds had given away the presÂence of hidden collapsars.
His scan revealed another member in the family, elusive and sacred: a naked singuÂlarity. The very presence of humans in such a region was sacrilegeâand if they were choosing suicide over destrucÂtion at his hands, the danger was unthinkable. A shudder racked his entire body. He had heard of huÂmans going insane under stress, but if they fell into a sinÂgularity here, the Venging was a failure and the Rift would never be sacred again.
He forced himself to be calm. They wouldnât know how to prepare themselves for the Fall. They knew nothing about the mental ritual involved. It would be, in effect, nothing more than a suicide.
Or it might be something much worse, for them.
But Kamon would take no chances. He must destroy them before they ever reached the cloud. For the first time he felt anxiety that he might fail, even fear.
âIt canât be done!â Lady Fairchild shouted. âDisjohn, Iâm not ignorant! I know what those things are. Graetikin has to be insane to think we can survive that!â
âIâve heard him explain it. The computers back him up.â
âYes, on his assumptions!â
âHeâs on to something new. He knows what heâs talking aboutâand heâs right. We donât have any other choice. The Aighor has every advantage over us, including reliÂgious zealâas you pointed out. Weâve tested our course on the computers again and again. We have one chance in a thousand of coming out alive. With Graetikinâs plan, our chances are at least a hundred times greater.â
âWeâre going to die, is what youâre saying, either way.â
âProbably. But thereâs something grand about this way of going. It robs Kamon of his goal. We hold the upper hand now.â
âYou know what will happen if we suicide in one of the singularities?â Edith asked.
âWe donât plan on suiciding.â
âJust going down one, we make this entire region useless to them for their pilgrimages. Mixing souls is an abomination to them, just as mixing meat and milk is to an orthodox Jew.â
âThere was a hygienic reason not to mix meat and milk.â
Such bloody-minded rationalism. âAre we so materialistic that we canât see a reason for this kind of tabu?â
Fairchild swung out his hands and turned away from her, talking loudly to the wall. âDamn it, Edith, we have to use Occamâs razor! We canât multiply our hypotheses until we avoid stepping on cracks for fear of killing our mothers. Weâre rational beings! Kamon has that advantage over usâhe is not acting rationally. Heâs on a Venging, like a goddamned berserker, and heâs got a faster, better armed ship. Weâre doomed! What should we do, bare our breast to him and shout âmea culpa?ââ
Edith shook her head. âI donât know. I just feel so lost.â
Fairchild shivered. His teeth clicked together and he wrapped his arms around himself. âYouâre not alone. Iâm petrified. Weâre about to do something no one else has ever done.â
âExcept Aighors,â Edith reminded him. âAnd theyâve alÂways been prepared for it.â
âHe wonât let us dock with him, heâs turning toward the singularitiesâthereâs nothing more I can do,â Anna said. âHeâs
Learning to Kill: Stories