“But they still failed.”

“Only because they are too limited; they can inhabit only a narrow range of environments, planets with low density and thick atmospheres.”

“The Architects should have known that, shouldn’t they?” Perhaps by challenging these statements, he could make the responses more useful.

“The Reivers spread to new environments faster than expected. This took place over…several thousand years.”

Zhao shook his head. Too much, too weird. It was like the first time, at age fifteen, he had been able to bypass his country’s filters to gain free access to the Internet. Naturally he had begun surfing pornography…clicking through one link after another, always chasing, never finding, never reaching the point where you think you’d found it, whatever it was.

“Who is this guy?” he said, not really intending it as a question.

“Oh,” Yvonne said, “didn’t I tell you? He’s a Revenant, just like me.”

“No, somehow you failed to let that slip,” Zhao said.

“I know I said something.”

Zhao was mortally sure Yvonne had never mentioned it. Besides, they’d been in the presence of the Architect for only a couple of hours. But why argue? “When did he die?”

“Long ago,” Yvonne said. “Very long ago. The figure comes into my head as a hundred million years. Give or take a decimal point.”

Zhao sat up. “That’s an impressive figure,” he said. “I’d always assumed that Keanu itself was on the order of several thousand years old…but you’re talking a hundred times that—”

“A thousand times,” Pav said. “Maybe a million.” He and Rachel were paying attention now, having stirred from their reveries.

“It’s like this,” Yvonne said. “He’s not really a person as we understand it,” she said.

Before Zhao could process that bizarre notion, the railcar began to slow…a nice change from the sudden lurches Zhao and the others had experienced, especially on this trip with its blackouts. “Are we here?” he asked.

“I think so,” Yvonne said. “I’ve got to tell you, I’m really tired of this. I don’t understand two thirds of what’s in my head. I just want to get something to eat and lie down and enjoy what time I have left.”

“What do you mean?” Zhao said.

“Revenants don’t last long,” she said. “We’re tools. We’re here to communicate, then…wear out.” She blinked back tears.

“That seems cruel,” Zhao said. “And horribly inefficient.”

“Well, yeah!” Yvonne said, forcing a laugh. “I think they’d be happy to have us stick around longer, you know, just in case anybody had a question a month from now. But this whole apparatus”—she indicated her body—“is fragile and wears out in a hurry. I’m not complaining, mind you. I mean, given what happened…I know that souls survive, which is probably the most important thing anyone’s ever learned, right? So even though I don’t know what’s next…I know there’s something.”

Zhao was not a toucher, but he couldn’t help reaching for Yvonne’s hand.

Then he forced himself to stand up, addressing the Architect directly. “Who are you?” he said. “Can you understand me?” He said it in English, in Mandarin, in Hindi.

“Lighten up,” Pav said. He had likely understood two of Zhao’s three statements. “He already said.”

“She said, you mean.” Rachel pointed at Yvonne.

Zhao was about to repeat his demand in French, when Yvonne went rigid and started to rise. She looked fearful. “He says that he can’t engage on a verbal level, even with the proper translation device. Says it’s a scaling problem—”

“Whatever that means,” Zhao said.

“His processes are…slower?” Yvonne seemed to be having a conversation with herself. Then she laughed out loud. “Okay, yes.” She turned to Zhao, Pav, and Rachel. “If you need to use a name, call him ‘Keanu.’”

“But that’s the NEO,” Rachel said.

“I think that’s what Keanu is trying to tell us,” Yvonne said. “This body is just a way for Keanu to communicate—”

The railcar came to a gentle stop.

“Everybody out,” Yvonne said. “Hurry.”

They emerged into another tunnel much like those they had visited earlier…during what was proving to be a day without end.

Beyond the railcar, however, the tunnel opened into what, on Earth, would have been a giant underground station worthy of the Paris or Moscow metros. And covering one wall of the station…a shimmering curtain of bubbles. “What on Earth is that?” Zhao said, pointing to the curtain.

“The way into the Skyphoi habitat,” Yvonne said. And just like that, the former order was restored: Zhao would question, Yvonne would answer for the Architect.

Yvonne turned to Rachel. “Your father called it a Membrane, I think.”

“My father.”

Zhao found that revelation interesting. “Did our friend Keanu tell you that?”

“No. During the first EVA, Zack sent video of something that looked just like that, only smaller, when he and Pogo and the others made that first ingress.” Zhao noticed that Yvonne was again blinking away tears. “God, that was only a week ago.”

“Or another lifetime,” Zhao said.

He and Pav and Rachel were following Yvonne and the Architect. The giant lumbered along like the drunks Zhao remembered seeing in the streets of Shuandong, though a more charitable explanation might be that its head kept brushing the top of the tunnel…and its legs appeared to be unsteady.

The dog trotted along happily, flanking them while taking momentary detours.

Zhao was fascinated by this big Membrane. “What’s on the other side?” he asked.

“The Skyphoi habitat.”

“So you said. Are we going in there?”

The lag between question and response was longer than expected. “No,” Yvonne said. “Keanu says you wouldn’t like it.”

“Can we be the judge of that?”

“He means, it will kill you. Atmospheric pressure too high, too toxic.”

“Is he going in?” Pav said.

“No,” Yvonne said. Before she could say anything more, the Architect slowed to a stop.

They were looking at what appeared to be an accident scene at a balloon festival…if you allowed for the fact that the festival was taking place indoors.

Three large spherical objects floated in the “station” area, occasionally bumping up against the Membrane. They were mostly blue in color, ranging from desert sky to almost aquamarine, with flickers of other shades, too. The creatures weren’t perfectly spherical; their shapes kept changing with a regular rhythm. It’s as if they’re breathing, Zhao thought—and why wouldn’t they?

The trio hovered over a fourth balloon, this one crimson in color, that lay half-deflated on the ground emitting clouds of nasty-smelling gas.

“Are these the Skyphoi?” Rachel said.

“Yes,” Yvonne said, “and that one is badly injured.”

Keanu the Architect approached the scene, stopping some distance away and freezing into near-immobility. Zhao caught Yvonne a handful of meters from the Keanu, with Pav and Rachel and Cowboy joining, too. He hoped this was a respectful distance.

He also hoped something would happen, because he felt even more paralyzed and helpless than at any time since being sluiced through the tunnels.

As they watched, the three Skyphoi barraged the Architect with colors. “They’re talking to him,” Yvonne said, “but he doesn’t understand. He needs a Skyphoi Revenant.”

Pav pointed to the dying Skyphoi. “What about that one?”

“That was the Skyphoi Revenant,” Yvonne said quietly. “We didn’t get here in time.”

The dog suddenly began barking furiously, startling the Architect and causing the Skyphoi to rise and bump against each other.

“What is it?” Pav asked.

Cowboy took off down the tunnel beyond the accident scene.

“God, I don’t like this,” Rachel said. Pav put his arm around her, a gesture Zhao appreciated. Even Yvonne seemed apprehensive.

Four figures emerged into the faint light of the “station,” one notably taller than the others and looking like an image from a dark ages nightmare.