CHOICE, AND IT WAS THE RIGHT ONE. HE WILL NOT SIMPLY BE REMEMBERED.
FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, ALL THE CRYSTALS IN THE UNIVERSE ARE
CHANGING. EACH AND EVERY ONE HAS JOINED THE HUMAN CLAN-AND EACH AND
EVERY ONE KNOWS AIDE TO BE THE FOUNDER OF THEIR LINE.
THINK OF HIM, BELISARIUS, AS THEIR ALEXANDER. OR BETTER STILL,
THEIR ACHILLES. THE SHORT BUT GLORIOUS LIFE THAT BREATHED LIFE INTO
ALL OF THEM.
BUT ENOUGH! I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS TO KEEP.
A quick half-spin, and the shining leviathan was speeding off, with most of the others following.
WOULD YOU CARE TO WATCH? asked one of the remaining Great Ones.
Yes, Aide replied, before Belisarius could speak. I would.
They were somewhere else, in an instant. Still hanging in the void, or seeming to, but there was more than just stars and galaxies to see. Below them-in front of them, perhaps-hung a dark, very ugly…
Something. A moon?
It's an asteroid, Aide explained. A pretty big one. Big enough for gravity to have pulled it into a sphere.
How did we get here so Nothing you are seeing is happening according to the time frame you are accustomed to. It is much faster-or much slower. In a way, it's already happened, in the far future.
Somewhat plaintively: Time is a lot more slippery than it looks.
Either they moved forward or Belisarius' eyesight became more acute. He could now see that the asteroid was covered with what looked to be machines of some sort.
Is that-?
Yes. The last-the only remaining-fortress of the new gods. Where they retreated, to await what they thought would be their Armageddon. Which, in fact, it is about to become-but not the way they planned.
Suddenly, the surface of the asteroid erupted. Dazzling beams of light sprang up, intermixed with odd flashes.
The Great Ones are coming. Those are weapons firing. Don't ask me how they work. I don't know, exactly, and I couldn't explain even if I did. They're very powerful, though. If they still had the resources of a planet to draw on, the Great Ones could do nothing but die here.
Some of them will probably die anyway.
Belisarius could feel himself taking a deep breath, even though there seemed to be nothing he could actually breathe.
You're not really here. You're still sitting on a bench outside the imperial palace in Kausambi, staring at nothing. A familiar tone of humor came: People would think you were crazy-might lock you up-except it'll only last for a split-second. Back there. What we're watching here is actually taking several years to happen.
Now Belisarius could see the phalanx of the Great Ones approaching. Except, as it neared, he realized it wasn't so much a phalanx as a three-dimensional version of the old Roman maniples. There was fluidity, here.
Tactics, in fact.
Several of the Great Ones veered off, then back, racing toward the asteroid. The light beams and flashes concentrated on them. If Belisarius was interpreting what he saw correctly, they were being hit.
Pretty badly, in fact. But they can absorb a lot of punishment, before Aide seemed to take a deep breath himself. This is dangerous, what they're doing.
The Great One nearest the asteroid seemed to brush its surface. Scrape along it, rather, for almost a quarter of its diameter. As the Great One passed back into space, a gout of blazing material followed. Molten and half-vaporized weaponry, Belisarius realized.
Not to mention quite a few new gods. What's left of them, which isn't much. The emotion behind that thought was more savage than any Belisarius could ever remember, coming from Aide.
I really hate those creatures.
Another Great One struck the surface. Then another, and another. With each grazing blow, more and more of the asteroid's surface was being peeled away.
Another Great One came. A truly huge one. The same ancient female that had spoken to Belisarius. Somehow, he recognized her.
THAT'S BECAUSE I'M THE PRETTIEST, he heard her mocking voice. USED