The long ship lifted steadily and majestically through the batteringstorm and the driving rain of dust and crystals. Out beyond the densespace that surrounds all stars, the long ship probed the ever-shiftingcurrents in the four-dimensional universe. The long ship found alow-density flaw, where space could hardly be said to exist at all. Thelong ship, described mathematically, was half as long as thecontinuum--the length being inversely proportional and related only tomass. Time was but a moth's wing between twin cliffs of eternity.Inside Miracastle's orange sun, at its very core, an atom of hydrogenwas destroyed completely; and in the inconceivable distance, an atom ofhydrogen appeared. The pulsing, steady-state equation of the universemaintained its knife-edge and inevitable thermo-dynamic balance.Inside the long ship, a pilot-machine ordered the destruction of avastly greater collection of matter. The atoms of the ship and thesailors--fixed in relationship, each to each--imploded into nothingness.And the long ship and the men aboard it were born again at a low-densityarea a million light years away--halfway to Earth. Born and weredestroyed again, in the blink of an eye.Beyond the ship now lay Sol, pulsing in its own warmth and warming itschildren embedded in the cold and distant texture of the universe. Thesailors were ghosts come home.Miracastle was alone with her conquerors