Two Births

Poul Anderson. Tau Zero, CHAPTER 21.

There are only three chapters and twelve pages left in the novel but the changes do not stop. The universe outside the ship has changed utterly. No stars remain. A gang works to strengthen the hull against strange forces that the text describes as gales, thunder, winds, vortices and "...the noise of inward-falling worlds." (p. 178) Reprogrammed, the ship moves with more often than against the forces.

For the baby-welcoming party, combined with Halloween, a corner of the gym is dimmed to become a small, warm room. When some of us sat round a fire by the river at night, it was like being inside a cave but, when we stood and turned outward, we saw the expanse toward sky and horizon. Rituals and celebrations are controlled perceptions.

While a human baby is born, something else begins. A screen shows a small, dim, distant spark, the germ of the monobloc...