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made arrangements to send four hundred podships from the original Liberator fleet back to the starcloud, to get thousands of more Tulyans. They needed enough pilots to transport the rest of the huge fleet of recovered vessels, and none of the new ships could be moved yet.
    This was because the Tulyan pilots and web maintenance crews needed time to familiarize themselves with the new podships, and to practice operations with them. Since time immemorial, there had always been a methodical breaking-in process in which the various personalities and talents—Tulyan and Aopoddae—were sorted out and meshed properly. If this was not done correctly, the ancient legends held that there could be extremely adverse results, even disasters in which podships rebelled and caused destructive havoc. Thus, it was worth taking the extra time to ensure safety, and—to the extent possible—to enhance predictability.
    In addition, the Liberators were setting up defenses, securing the galactic fold militarily to prevent Parviis from returning and regaining multiswarm strength there. General Nirella had set up a guard post near the tiny bolt hole where the Parviis had disappeared, and made plans to leave a guard force of one hundred podships and military personnel in other key areas of the fold, including the entranceway to the Asteroid Funnel.…
    * * * * *
    Continuing the inspection tour on a prearranged route, Tesh caused Webdancer to hover over the bolt hole. Using a magnaviewer aboard the flagship, Noah saw the barely-perceptible opening through which the Parviis had escaped. Inside the hole, he saw something move, and identified it as a solitary Parvii. A sentry, Noah surmised.
    Noah set the viewer aside, and said, “We must guard this area well.”
    “Where there’s one hole, there may be others,” Eshaz said.
    Both of them knew Tulyan teams were looking, but so far nothing had turned up.
    Once more the podship nudged up against the membrane, this time near the bolt hole. Inside the passenger compartment, Noah touched the skin of the vessel, but unlike the experience of Eshaz, Noah did not link with Tesh. The skin trembled, as if in fear of Noah. Then it calmed, and abruptly his vision shifted, flooding his consciousness with a wash of gray-green. Presently it focused, and one star seemed to twinkle in the broad field of view, but for only a moment before turning the blackest black.
    With his mind, Noah Watanabe—this most unusual of all men—peered into Timeweb and absorbed the entire vast enclosure of his own galaxy, including the decaying infrastructure and this remote, intricately folded section of membrane that had once protected the Parviis.
    The opening through which they had fled was a tiny point of blackness in the midst of the gray-green membrane. With his inner eye, Noah peered through the hole into another galaxy, and saw distant, twinkling star systems, nebulas, and belts of undefined, streaking color.
    He then experienced an even more peculiar sensation, and felt his consciousness shifting, spinning, making him dizzy. Presently he regained his internal balance, and found that his mind was now inside the alternate galaxy, experiencing it paranormally. From this new vantage point, he saw the small Parvii swarm near the other side of the bolt hole.
    They’re in the undergalaxy , he thought, feeling both a rush of excitement and deep trepidation.
    Oddly, Noah could not see very far in this realm, and he wondered if his own anxiety had something to do with that. In his own galaxy, he had learned to overcome physical fear, for he was as close to immortal in that realm as any person could be. But in the undergalaxy, he sensed the rules of physics and laws of nature were entirely different. Nothing was as it seemed there, and he curbed his own curiosity, didn’t really want to venture further. Everything he had been through in his own galaxy was more than enough for him, and he couldn’t afford to lose focus, couldn’t