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By Root 1835 0

that Nikolai could barely comprehend. When they watched him their faces showed a mixture of aggression, pity, and awe. To Nikolai, they always seemed to be shouting. "I feel outnumbered," he murmured.

"You are outnumbered, old Nikolai! This bar is your museum, right? Your mausoleum! Give our ears your old frontiers, we're listening! Those idiot video ideologies, those antique spirit splits. Mechs and Shapers, right? The wars of the coin's two halves!"

"I feel tired," Nikolai said. "I've drunk too much. Take me home, one of you."

They exchanged worried glances. "This is your home! Isn't it?" 20. EYES CLOSED. "You've been very kind," Nikolai told the two youngsters. They were Kosmosity archaeologists, dressed in their academic finery, their gowns studded with awards and medals from the Terraform-Klusters. Nikolai realized suddenly that he could not remember their names.

"That's all right, sir," they told him soothingly. "It's now our duty to remember you, not vice versa." Nikolai felt embarrassed. He hadn't realized that he had spoken aloud.

"I've taken poison," he explained apologetically.

"We know," they nodded. "You're not in any pain, we hope?"

"No, not at all. I've done the right thing, I know. I'm very old. Older than I can bear." Suddenly he felt an alarming collapse within himself. Pieces of his consciousness began to break off as he slid toward the void. Suddenly he realized that he had forgotten his last words. With an enormous effort, he remembered them and shouted them aloud.

"Futility is freedom!" Filled with triumph, he died, and they closed his eyes.

A Shaper/Mechanist Chronology

2045 - Spider Rose born

2053 - Interdict with Earth

2050-2150 - Concatenate Period

2186 - Abelard Lindsay born

2195 - Hitsune cloned

2203 - Lindsay scholorsbipped to Shaper Ring Council

2205 - Constantine scholarshipped

2209 - Nikolai Leng "born"

2210 - Simon Afriel "born"

2213 - Lindsay returns to Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic

2215 - Lindsay exiled to Mare Tranquillitatis People's Circumlunar Zaibatsu

2216 - Coup in Republic: Lindsay joins the Red Consensus

2217 - Investors arrive

2217 - Lindsay and Nora Navrides join Goldreich-Tremaine 2253 - Lindsay leaves Goldreich-Tremaine for Dembowska Cartel 2267 - Vera Constantine cloned 2283 - Nora Mavrides dies; events of "Spider Rose" 2284 - Czarina-Hluster founded

2286 - Lindsay duels with Constantine

2291 - Lindsay recovers from duel, moves to Czarina-Hluster 2328 - Hans Landau "born"

2354 - Events of tbe "Cicada Queen"; fall of Czarina-Hluster: Lindsay visits Earth

2386 - SCHISMATRIX ends

2554 - Events of "Sunken Gardens"

Table of Contents

Part 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Part 2

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Part 3

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11