" Her friends leave them there , " Dorthy said .sx " There must be a vein out to sea somewhere .sx Inshore , it's all metamorphosite .sx " .sx " I was hoping to see the shadow dancers , " Robot said .sx " But the people at the station said they were further west .sx " .sx " If you're fishing , you might see them .sx " .sx " To be honest , I joined the boat a day ago , and I fly back the day after tomorrow .sx You heard about the expedition ?sx " .sx " No , and I'm not going to look in your head to find out what it is .sx Those days are more or less over , for me .sx My daughter probably knows , though .sx She's something , Robot .sx A natural Talent , the first .sx No training to bring it out , and no implant to regulate it .sx She does that herself .sx I've turned down a double lifetime's worth of credit from the Elysium Kamali-Silver Institute for exclusive rights to her .sx " .sx Robot shifted his zithsa-hide boots - already cracked and salt - stained - as the child surfaced right at the lip of the slab and added another glittering pebble to her small cairn .sx Hair was pasted in knives to her forehead .sx Then she dived again , bare rump flashing as she effortlessly shimmied down through the clear water .sx Robot said , " I didn't know what you were doing here .sx I heard about the times you went back to Earth , those semi-covert diplomatic missions .sx But that was all .sx .. Partly why I came , Dorthy .sx To catch up .sx Been a long time .sx Six years .sx " .sx " And partly something else .sx What are you up to , Robot ?sx You've changed .sx " .sx " I'm not as crazy as I was , you mean .sx " He grinned .sx " I wrote a substitute for Machine .sx Dumb as a box of rocks , but he keeps me steady .sx You've changed , too .sx You're not so .sx .. well , driven .sx " .sx " I've grown up .sx She helps me .sx We live here , and learn marine biology together , and help out as best we can with the shadow dancer programme .sx " .sx " And stir up trouble on Earth .sx " .sx " That's not how it is at all .sx " .sx He grinned .sx " Yeah , I know that .sx You haven't quite lost all your edges , I see .sx " .sx " The revolution will come of itself , Robot .sx We don't need to do anything to encourage it but tell the truth .sx The Witnesses can't hold on for ever .sx Mustn't .sx Because every second that passes the hypervelocity star is seventeen thousand klicks nearer to wrecking the solar system .sx Twelve hundred years seems a long time , but there are billions of people on Earth .sx It will be the greatest and most difficult evacuation in history , but it must be done .sx " .sx They talked about the Witnesses and the slowly growing resistance to their rule , and Dorthy's missions to contact clandestine governments that had survived fifty years of Witness rule .sx She too was a witness :sx at last she was free to tell the story of the Alea and the angels and the secret history of the Universe to anyone who would listen .sx And they talked about the problems of hatching and rearing to adulthood the shadow dancer cysts the crab-things had carried , of trying to alter their biochemistry so that , like the killer whales that were for now the shadow dancers' surrogate bodies , they could live in the oceans of Iemanja .sx The shadow dancers had problems adjusting to the strange streamlined bodies of killer whales .sx " You could try manta rays , " Robot suggested .sx " Not enough cranial capacity .sx " .sx " Not even with hardwiring ?sx But I guess you've already thought of stuff like that .sx It's good to see you've found a place , a career .sx " .sx " My life has never been normal , Robot .sx I brought a lot of trouble on myself fighting against that instead of accepting it .sx Rejoicing in it , even .sx I was a nasty piece of work , when I was younger , I'd cut you open as soon as look at you .sx This , now , is as normal as it ever will be , I think .sx Teaching half-million-year-old alien ghosts to use killer whale bodies , watching my daughter grow into something wild and strange and wonderful .sx " .sx " She still doesn't have a name .sx " .sx " She's had a dozen this year alone .sx But she doesn't have one at the moment .sx " Dorthy watched as the girl swam through deep dappled shadow amongst boulders at the bottom of the pool .sx Her tireless mermaid .sx " She frightens me sometimes , Robot .sx She knows that , and tries to comfort me .sx But still , she frightens me .sx We were all changed , but she was changed most of all .sx And not just because she could speak from birth .sx They've heavy weaponry out at the marine station , not all of it to keep off hive sharks .sx I do wonder what she will grow into , this daughter of mine .sx " .sx " I've been thinking about that , too .sx " Robot said , " amongst other things .sx " He had an arch , almost Mephistophelean air about him , not at all the wild despairing young man Dorthy had known and loved all those nights when they'd been fugitives on Earth .sx He crossed his elegant boots , brushed at the puffed sleeves of his raw silk shirt , leaned back on both elbows .sx " You know that I was closer to the angels than anyone else , except perhaps Talbeck Barlstilkin's bonded servant .sx I've been thinking about that a lot .sx Especially since Little Machine took up residence .sx " .sx " And you've come to certain conclusions .sx You want my opinions about them .sx " .sx " I do keep forgetting about your Talent .sx " .sx " Oh , Robot , I don't need what's left of my Talent to tell me you're up to something .sx " .sx " Did you ever wonder what the angels are ?sx What they really are ?sx " .sx " Changelings .sx Thinking creatures once like us , or like the shadow dancers , or the Alea .sx Creatures of flesh and blood who'd turned themselves into something else .sx Pure thought , Gunasekra once said .sx He liked that idea .sx Living on like the dead people who were read into computer dumps before the Interregnum .sx But with their animas .sx " Dorthy smiled .sx " You don't think that at all .sx " .sx Robot said , " Perhaps their masters are like that .sx But I don't think the angels are .sx You know that they only ever spoke through me or Machine , or through Talbeck's servant .sx " .sx " They spoke to me , when they took me wherever it was , so that I could speak to that combat pilot .sx " .sx " Suzy Falcon .sx " .sx " Yes .sx And they spoke to Abel Gunasekra too , I suppose .sx .. I wonder if they still do ?sx " .sx " They could speak to you because you were all inside my dream .sx When the angels first took us , Suzy and me , I was put to dreaming the , well , metaphor I suppose .sx The interzone between the strange virtual reality of the angels and our own perceptions .sx Meanwhile , Suzy thought she was talking to me , but she was really talking to Machine .sx And Machine was closer to the angels than me , that's why he went a little crazy , I think .sx That and the neuter female .sx " .sx " You mean , the angels were machines ?sx Serving something else ?sx " .sx " What's a machine , Dorthy ?sx Something to do work .sx A lever , an orchestra , a combat singleship , a subroutine in a circuit .sx I think that's what the angels were .sx Subroutines at the interface .sx We never saw their masters at all .sx They were too far from us .sx To try and talk to them would have been like trying to stand inside a star .sx " .sx Out in the middle of the pool , Dorthy's daughter surfaced with a cry of triumph .sx Then she was swimming strongly to the side .sx " Another !sx " she cried , and tossed her prize to her mother before heaving herself onto the slab of rocks , gasping like a beached seal .sx Dorthy turned the quartz-veined pebble over in her fingers ; handed it across to Robot .sx " Pretty , " he said .sx " You've found a whole bunch , huh ?sx The shadow dancers find things like this for you ?sx " .sx The little girl shrugged and stretched out on her belly , resting her sleek wet head on her mother's bare feet .sx She closed her eyes and seemed to instantly relax into sleep .sx " The crab-things bring them , " Dorthy said .sx " Rub your thumb over it .sx Go on .sx " .sx Robot did , then frowned and transferred it to his prosthetic hand , turning it round and round brushing it with fine sensory wires that extruded from the joints of the elongated fingers .sx " Engraving , " he said .sx " So small , so dense .sx ..Does it mean anything ?sx " .sx Dorthy wiggled her toes under the weight of her daughter's head .sx " You know , don't you ?sx Only you won't say .sx Like a lot of things .sx " .sx " Do you know who the angels' real masters were ?sx " Robot asked .sx " I bet you do .sx I think I do , too .sx I knew them , once , like you .sx " .sx Dorthy said " She won't tell you whether she knows or not .sx And if she knows , she won't tell you what she knows .sx " .sx " I'll tell her what I know , then .sx Or what I think I know .sx " .sx " So that's why you came here , really .sx To ask her .sx It's been tried , Robot .sx Many times .sx " .sx " To see her , to see you .sx Those were fine times we had , on Earth .sx Kingman Seven .sx I guess it hasn't changed .sx " .sx " I remember the cold , and the rain .sx And you getting drunk a lot .sx And don't try and get around me , Robot .sx " .sx He smiled .sx He shrugged .sx He said , " I came to tell you a couple of things , too .sx " .sx " That the angels were only machines , only subroutines .sx Servants to something else .sx You figured this out by yourself ?sx " .sx " They told me some of it .sx I just took a while to understand .sx A while , and with some help from Little Machine .sx It was all inside my head , but we needed to write our own algorithms to be able to read it .sx 'In the realm of light there is no time .sx ' No future , no past , not as we understand it .sx Just this eternal now , eternal light .sx If there is a God , that's what She must be like , outside our time , outside clocks , outside entropy .sx Eternal and unchanging , like a standing wave at the horizon of a black hole .sx I've been hanging out with physicists lately .sx Been trying to think their way .sx " Robot grinned crookedly and tapped the left side of his head .sx " Little Machine , he understands a whole lot better than I do .sx We manage .sx " .sx " So that's why we came out when we did , fifty years in the future .sx " " That's something else I want to tell you about .sx " .sx They talked on , while out beyond the rise where the house stood , the huge soft orange sun sank towards the horizon .sx The child seemed to sleep on ; although Dorthy knew that she was not asleep , or not as anyone would understand it .sx Robot tried to explain the history that had been dumped in his head , past and future mixed up .sx There had only been one real intelligence in the Universe , just as the weak anthropic principle had proposed all along .sx Everything , hundreds of billions of galaxies , each with their three or four hundred billions stars , had been necessary , just enough room , for this one species to evolve intelligence .sx Only it had happened early on , at a time when the galaxies were still close together ; or perhaps even earlier , in the era before galaxies , the era of supermassive stars and black hole formation , the era when most of the Universe's light had been created .sx A time when the Universe was only a few hundred million years old , a few hundred million light years in diameter .sx Had to have been that early , because the masters of the angels had been all through the Universe , Robot said , living in the centre of every galaxy .sx He thought that perhaps they had lived somehow in the accretion discs of black holes , or maybe at the event horizon itself , nourished by the welter of Hawking radiation , virtual particles that crossed into this Universe while their antiparticles , that should have been born and died with them , stayed trapped inside the singularity .sx " I think I was shown what they looked like , but I can't remember it .sx Couldn't understand it , maybe , so it didn't stay with me .sx But I don't think they were like us , or the Alea , or the shadow dancers .sx That's what my physics friends say , too :sx the Universe that young , there wasn't time for carbon-based life to have got much past the bacterial stage , if that .sx "