CHAPTER 20

After the Old One’s death, Pham Nuwen is kept alive aboard the OOB and slowly revives physically, yet he remains emotionally vacant and unresponsive. He spends time on the bridge, detached, while Greenstalk monitors ultrawave maps for pursuers and judges it unlikely they are being tracked. The OOB continues rapid, incremental jumps, but its descent through the Beyond is slowing more than Blueshell predicted.

Ravna Bergsndot grows increasingly anxious as Pham does not return to himself and as their travel time lengthens. She follows the Net, where the “Alliance for the Defense” pushes a “death race” theory that humans are Blight thralls and calls for pogroms. Other voices counter with technical limits on the Blight’s control and warn of spies rather than invasions, while Hanse presents tests suggesting humans are natural emigrants from the Slow Zone; the Alliance attacks these findings.

Amid the hostile discourse, Ravna treasures intermittent, low-bit contact with Jefri. Through garbled messages, she learns of Amdi, the stern Tyrathect, and “Mr. Steel,” and of the Tines’ feudal world. Jefri reports Steel’s growing desperation, asking if the crashed ship can fly or if Ravna can teach them to make guns to resist Woodcarver.

The extended travel time raises the stakes: Woodcarver’s forces may return before the OOB arrives. Ravna fears reaching the Tines’ world too late, appeals inwardly for Pham to recover, and wonders if his medieval and trader instincts could help navigate the Tines’ crisis and the rising interstellar suspicion.