Death And A Beginning

Two men have died. Gunnar Heim and his remaining companions might die also.

"His eyes went to the moon, his thoughts to Connie. He had no belief in survival after death, but it was as if she had drawn close to him."
-Poul Anderson, The Star Fox (London, 1968), p. 128.

Exactly: no expectation of a hereafter but we are nearer to our dead when we are near death.

Later:

"While his pilot flitted him the short way back to the yacht, he looked out. A flock of Staurni hunters was taking off. Sunlight flared across their weapons. The turmoil in him turned toward eagerness - to be away, to sail his ship again - as he watched those dragon shapes mount into the sky." (p. 132)

Heim is alive and going into action, inspired by sunlight on flying beings. Thus ends Part Two and thus begins Heim's private war.