Ref: Book 1, Page 60.
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It was so easy for his heavy head to topple forward just one more time, and then again, and again. He dragged himself reluctantly out of a restless sleep back to this bizarre, all-encompassing reality. The dog had slid down the bank during the night and was lying at his feet.

Dawn, or something like it, was slowly spreading up from the horizon. This was not the way mornings should start. The whole sky was changing from purple to pink to satin yellow, and the ground, as far as he could see, was a yellow of a deeper kind. The trees and everything on the ground were covered thickly with this snowlike stuff so no leaf or branch could be discerned. It was like seeing long-passed wintry scenes in old picture books through yellow anti-glare eye protectors.

Nowhere was one part of the sky brighter than another to give some indication of where the sun might be rising - if there was still a sun, or a solar system?

Thorlainen lent forward and hesitantly patted the dog. It lifted its head and looked at him. In the daylight, Thorlainen could see the dog was blue, not black. He had never seen one that colour before. It was certainly a handsome beast.

Thorlainen felt in his pocket and brought out a piece of hard cheese.

"What about this, then?"

The dog courteously took it from his hand, but did not eat it. Thorlainen did not blame it.

He felt uneasy. He knew they were not safe, but there was nowhere that could be called safe for deserters from the Tellurian Empire. Any second, some fiendish machine could lock on to their position and hound them to death. Thorlainen could not imagine the types of deterrent that were in operation; these things were highly classified, but there were enough rumours to unsettle his mind.

He took his attention off the controls, for a moment, and chanced another look over his shoulder. The encouraging smile was still there. This young woman that had appeared so unexpectedly, when the last missiles where fired at them and they began their escape in earnest, had given him so much support just being there. He had a feeling she was the one Chitmaa called Sue Ling. He would surely know soon enough. He had never before experienced the nearness of someone with such an uplifting effect on him. He thought of Chitmaa and compared the two women. He did not know why his mind would suddenly do that just then. These young women had different kinds of individual energy unique to themselves. He was only too pleased this one was here: Chitmaa did not give him these kinds of feelings. This otherwise lonely vigil could continue until the end of time, while this woman stayed there, or more practically speaking, until his strength gave out, which was an imminent reality he could not ignore. He felt he could faint away at any instant with the constant pain and fatigue of this extraordinary watch he had taken upon himself.

It was good, though, to ignore his protesting limbs and feel her penetrating smile and her intense eyes watching, while he was making up his mind what to do.