A Deepness in the Skyaniond Editon
Prologue
The manhunt extended across more than one hundred lightyears and eight
centuries. It had always been a secret search, unacknowledged even between some
of the participants. In the early years, it had simply been encrypted queries
hidden in radio broadcasts. Decades and centuries passed. There were clues,
interviews with The Man's fellow-travelers, pointers in a half-dozen
contradictory directions: The Man was alone now and heading still further away;
The Man had died before the search ever began; The Man had a war fleet and was
coming back upon them.
With time, there was some consistency to the most credible stories. The evidence
was solid enough that certain ships changed schedules and burned decades of time
to look for more clues. Fortunes were lost because of the detours and delays,
but the losses were to a few of the largest trading Families, and
unacknowledged. They were rich enough and this search was important enough, that
it scarcely mattered. For the search was narrowed: The Man was traveling alone,
a vague blur of multiple identities, a chain of one-shot jobs on minor trading
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