“Or there is no path and you're wasting your life.”
“That is a possibility. Or perhaps thinking like that is simply one more obstacle in the road to the truth. That's something I learned when I spent a couple of years on the planet of Teremoniat, after I left Sintorus. Are you familiar with the world?”
“No.”
“I realise this is an odd thing for a scientist to say, but my time there among their mystics helped to clarify my thinking. The labyrinth is a core cultural concept in their civilisation. The idea informs everything upon Teremoniat: they never build straight transportation links that connect two points by the shortest distance; to them that would miss what could be learned on a long and circuitous route. The books they write and the paintings they paint: they're all about negotiating some knotty or hidden trail and the growth you can achieve by simply not giving up. When I was there, I began to see that there was a trail among the stars for me to follow, if only I accepted it.”
“It sounds like crazy shit to me,” said Selene. “Our brains look for patterns and see meaning in randomness. A trail is wishful thinking.”
The twinkle in Ondo's eye as he glanced at her suggested that he was, partly at least, playing devil's advocate. “Yes, of course, but what if the pattern we see is really there? What if the face in the shadows really is the predator stalking us? I began to pull together what scraps of information I had and make connections. I'm convinced the path is there: subtle, weak, largely obliterated, but real, and I'm determined to follow it.”
“If you see a trail, then you must believe someone is leaving you a trail,” said Selene.
“Honestly, I think that might be the case. It's subtle and elusive, but I believe it's there.”
“Who would do that? Why would they do that?”
“I assume I'll find out at the end.”
“I want to join you,” she said. “I don't know about any labyrinth, and I don't care what searing insights I gain along the way, but I do know I want to fight them. The only meaning and purpose I can see is to obliterate them, or at least be able to say I tried. What they've done, I don't even know what you'd call it. It's a crime so large there's no simple word for it.”
It took him a moment to adjust to what she was saying. “Obliterating Concordance is not really what I'm doing. I'm simply trying to understand how and why they became what they did.”
“What is the use of such knowledge if you don't use it? This isn't some interesting academic investigation you're carrying out, it's people's lives. And their deaths. Didn't you set out to destroy them? Didn't my father?”
Now he seemed to be staring into a distance of time, not space. “Perhaps we talked like that when we were young.”
“Then you should talk like that again. There must never be another Maes Far.”
“Perhaps I will be able to learn enough to make such a thing possible, but I'm nowhere near doing so yet. So much is hidden or destroyed. You know how powerful they are.”
“Between us we can get somewhere. You can guide, and I can act.”
His mouth opened and closed as he tried to decide how to reply. “No. I don't want your death on my conscience. I didn't put all that effort into keeping you alive so you could go and get yourself killed.”
It was, perhaps, an attempt at humour. She ignored it. “This isn't your choice, it's mine. This is what I want to do.”
“It is a dangerous life. Dangerous and lonely. As you say, there may be no answers at the end of it all, just our own deaths.”
“My old life is over; I can't settle down and live out a normal existence on some other world.”
“You are sure of this?”
“Yes.”
“I would have conditions.”
“If this is where you tell me to always follow your orders, think again.”
“Not that. First, you need to get well, get strong. You're in no condition to travel the galaxy fighting Concordance; you've nearly killed yourself crawling a few hundred metres along a corridor. I won't give you orders, but I also won't let you leave until you're well enough to do so.”
He was right; she needed to be strong. “Agreed.”
“Also, you need to know to tell me if you're ill or in pain. I could have stopped the infection cascading to the point it did. You didn't need to go through this last death. The medical sensors and flecks in your body: I'd like to enhance them so they tell me about the state you're in, alert me if you're in trouble. I'll respect your privacy but your life is more important.”
At her request he had hobbled the devices so he couldn't intrude upon her. It suddenly seemed a ridiculous and petty restriction. “Very well.”
“And I'd like to make one more addition to your brain.”
Despite his protestations, it seemed he'd thought about this. “What addition?”
“You're clever and resourceful, but you don't know much about the workings of the galaxy. I can give you that: a copy of my engrams embedded within your brain for you to call upon whenever you need it. I've seen a lot of Concordance, and I know how they operate.”
“You want to put a copy of yourself inside me?” The thought repelled her.
He held up his hand as if to deflect her objections. “The flecks will be dormant unless you activate them. They won't be able to intrude on your thoughts, and they won't know anything you're
