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Though this square had been rebuilt by unlimited lldiran labourers, the place held sad memories for him. Here, hydrogue warglobes had crashed down into the city, maiming and killing thousands, including old Tery'l. Gazing into the light that flashed from his prismatic medallion, Kolker sensed that his philosopher friend was still there somewhere, linked by soul-threads, existing on the plane of the Lightsource. Tery'l would be proud of him now.

The green priest shifted his thoughts in another direction until he seemed to be standing beside Tabitha Huck aboard one of the new warliners. She and her mentally linked engineers and work crews had by now assembled twenty-one of the giant vessels, an unparalleled accomplishment in so short a time.

In the park, Kolker closed his eyes completely, feeling the warmth of the suns on his skin. He concentrated on watching Tabitha, vicariously joining her skeleton crew of human engineers and Solar Navy soldiers as they took the vessel on its first shakedown cruise.

Tabitha tested the in-system engines and the Solar Navy weapons. She primed their ekti tank and engaged the stardrive, and took the new warliner out on a circuit of the nearby solar systems. She strutted about on the bridge, issuing orders. The Ildiran crewmen followed her every suggestion as if she were the Adar himself.

'Approaching Durris-B, Captain Huck,' said one of the Ildiran station managers. She had assigned the title to herself and was quite pleased by it. '

'Plot a tight orbit and swing close.' She wanted to see the dead sun for herself, a dark scar in the Ildiran psyche. Astronomer kithmen had continued to monitor the stellar cinder, hoping for signs of rekindled nuclear fires. Tabitha thought it a perfect war memorial.

'Let's check out our systems. Run full tests with our analytical panels and calibrate them according to previous baselines.' Even though Durris-B was a cooling ember that no longer shone of its own accord, the star retained all of its mass and gravity. Tabitha had the warliner approach with caution, constantly monitoring their engines to be sure they could pull away if necessary.

'Calibrations are off, Captain Huck. Durris-B exhibits far more thermal output than anticipated.'

'Remove some of the filters. Let me see for myself.' As she watched, the burned-out lump began sparking. Light glimmered through from deep layers as if something had reignited within its core, like an ember fanned into flame. Durris-B began to brighten.

'We're seeing an energy spike.'

She did not want to take any chances with her new warliner. 'Increase our distance.' She turned to her Hansa engineers, not trusting the Ildirans to have sufficient imagination to figure out what was going on. 'How do you reignite a star - start its nuclear reactions again?'

'Not by any natural means.' One of her engineers frowned down at the bridge console. He shrugged. 'But remember, I used to design skymine pumps. What the heck do I know about stellar mechanics?'

Standing out in the open square of Mijistra, Kolker lifted his head to gaze with closed eyes into the cloudless sky. Around him, his other converts paused in their activities, also sensing something unusual taking place. The rest of the Ildirans in the city had not yet noticed any change.

'I don't like this,' Tabitha said in the warliner's command nucleus. 'Not one bit.'

Through her new connection with the , she could sense the Ildirans aboard growing uneasy. Finally picking up on that distant connection, the people in Mijistra became unsettled. Now everyone could feel the stirring sun. But the Mage-Imperator could not offer his strength or guidance, from far-off Theroc, he did not have the mental power to soothe them all, and the Prime Designate was not capable of doing it from the Prism Palace.

In the warliner's command nucleus, Tabitha shielded her eyes and cried out. Faster than automatic filters could cover the viewing screen, Durris-B brightened with a blinding flare as lightning