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longest war in human history?”
    â€œBut we’re not, are we? I mean, be realistic. It’ll take tens of thousands of years simply for the knowledge of this weapon’s existence to reach the remotest areas of the war. Nothing will happen overnight.”
    â€œI can see why it would disturb you,” Merlin said, tapping a finger against his teeth. “None of us have ever known anything other than war with the Huskers.”
    â€œJust show me where it is.”
    They made one low orbital pass over the pyramid, alert for buried weapons, but no attack came. On the next pass, lower still, Merlin’s ship dropped proctors to snoop ground defenses. “Maybe they had something bigger once,” Merlin said. “Artillery that could take us out from millions of kilometers. But if it ever existed, it’s not working anymore.”
    They made groundfall a kilometer from the pyramid, then waited for all but three of the proctors to return to the ship. Merlin tasked the trio to secure a route into the structure, but their use was limited. Once the simple-minded machines were out of command range of the ship – which happened as soon as they had penetrated beyond the outer layer of the structure – they were essentially useless.
    â€œWho built the pyramid? And how did you know about it?”
    â€œThe same culture who got into the war I told you about,” he said, as they clamped on the armored carapaces of their suits in the airlock. “They were far less advanced than the Waymakers, but they were a lot closer to them historically, and they knew enough to control the weapon and use it for their own purposes.”
    â€œHow’d they find it?”
    â€œThey stole it. By then the Waymaker culture was – how shall I put it – sleeping? Not really paying due attention to the use made of its artifacts?”
    â€œYou’re being cryptic again, Merlin.”
    â€œSorry. Solitude does that to you.”
    â€œDid you meet someone out there, Merlin – someone who knew about the gun, and told you where to find it?” And made you young in the process? she thought.
    â€œMy business, isn’t it?”
    â€œMaybe once. Now, I’d say we’re in this together. Equal partners. Fair enough?”
    â€œNothing’s fair in war, Sora.” But he was smiling, defusing the remark, even as he slipped his helmet down over the neck ring, twisting it to engage the locking mechanism.
    â€œHow big is the gun?” Sora asked.
    The pyramid rose ahead, blank as an origami sculpture, entrance ducts around the base concealed by intervening landforms. Merlin’s proctors had already found a route that would at least take them some way inside.
    â€œYou won’t be disappointed,” Merlin said.
    â€œAnd what are we going to do when we find it? Just drag it behind us?”
    â€œTrust me.” Merlin’s laugh crackled over the radio. “Moving it won’t be a problem.”
    They walked slowly along a track cleared by proctors, covered at the same time by the hull-mounted weapons on
Tyrant.
    â€œThere’s something ahead,” Merlin said, a few minutes later. He raised his own weapon and pointed toward a pool of darkness fifteen or twenty meters in front of them. “It’s artifactual; definitely metallic.”
    â€œI thought your proctors cleared the area.”
    â€œLooks like they missed something.”
    Merlin advanced ahead of her. As they approached the dark object, it resolved into an elongated form half buried in the ice, a little to the left of the track. It was a body.
    â€œBeen here a while,” Merlin said, a minute or so later, when he was close enough to see the object properly. “Armor’s pitted by micrometeorite impacts.”
    â€œIt’s a Husker, isn’t it.”
    Merlin’s helmet nodded. “My guess is they were in this system a few centuries ago. Must have been attracted by the