Ashikaga Shin's body screamed at him to tremble, but he would not allow himself to appear weak.

He looked out at his men. There were almost five hundred of them. Even aligned in rows and resplendent with lacquered armor and steel weapons they looked every bit the peasants they were. It seemed not even the horrors of a losing war was going to be enough to turn them into soldiers.

Where once Shin would have felt frustration at this now he found a twinge of pride.

Shin looked out over the crowd for one long, pregnant moment. The crowd quieted in anticipation. He was sure all the men knew that he had recently received orders. While they may not have been soldiers his unit would have made excellent spies.

There was nothing left to do but to get on with it. Ashikaga Shin was already at peace with his decision.

"Great Sumitomo has issued us our orders. I will be blunt: they are the ramblings of a madman. In vile language I will not repeat to soldiers of the realm he blames his subjects for his strategic ineptitude, for the loss that is his and his alone. He orders not so much a plan of attack as a childish lashing out in anger, an attempt to drag as many of us down into hell with him as he goes. Our orders are suicide in all but name."

A murmur of hushed conversation fell upon the crowd. This was not what they had been expecting to hear.

"These are dishonorable orders issued by a dishonorable man. I choose to be executed rather than ask you to carry them out. Great Sumitomo is broken. Do not throw your lives away fighting for nothing. Return to your homes and families. Those are my orders. I command you thus with all the authority of my position. Go now. Don't waste even a moment!"

The general sense of confusion bubbling in the crowd suddenly came to a boil. A few men peeled away from formation, followed by a stampede. The camp was thrown into chaos as the soldiers began preparations to desert en mass.

Shin returned to his tent to calmly await his just punishment. Great Sumitomo should be able to cling to power just long enough to have him executed. Shin preferred it that way. He had spent a lot of time thinking about it and this was the only outcome where he retained his honor intact.

Shin sat at his desk, took pen and ink, and began to write letters to his friends and relatives informing them of his death. For the first time in his life he was glad he never married.

"Hello!" said a strange woman's voice.

Shin turned around. Somehow an immodestly dressed woman had snuck into his tent.

"Who are you?" Shin demanded.

"My name is Sparkle. I'm a dog," said the woman.

Her accent was tinny and unnatural. Shin couldn't begin to place where she was from. It was all most unusual.

"I cannot believe that," said Shin.

"Humor me," said the woman called Sparkle "We don't have a lot of time. I'm going to ask you a question and it will sound absolutely crazy-"

Shin was willing to believe that part at least.

"-but I need you to answer me honestly. Consider it a- um," she snapped her fingers "Right. Hypothetical."

"Very well," said Shin, for he could think of nothing else.

"I'd like to talk to you somewhere a little less stressful. Do I have your permission to displace all the space around you into a flying ship in the sky? There's a... very small chance there will be a critical error and you'll be sent off course, probably into the sun."

Sparkle performed a pantomime of what Shin assumed must be a human being thrown into the sun. This included sound effects.

"But that basically never happens. Like, 1 in 90-some billion chance."

Those odds did seem markedly better than what Shin would get waiting around for the Sumitomo to come execute him. Shin wasn't particularly religious but he decided that since his life was forfeit anyway he could afford to be open minded.

"I give you my permission," said Shin "I would be interested to see you perform such a deed."

"Cool," said Sparkle, and she gestured with her wrist.

Suddenly Shin was overwhelmed by the most intense case of vertigo he had ever experienced in his life. He fell to his knees and had just enough time to register that the floor was smooth instead of dirt before vomiting.

"Yeah," said Sparkle, rubbing Shin's back in a most distressingly familiar way "Displacement's a bear if you don't have conscious control of your body's physiological responses."

Shin followed none of that.

Sparkle helped Shin to his feet. He was in a rounded metal room of some kind. Of the two windows, one looked out on the night sky while the other looked out on some mess of bright colors Shin couldn't begin to understand.

"Check it out, it's your homeworld. That's always a mindfuck. Only yours is really more of an orbital space habitat," said Sparkle.

She gestured to one of the windows, and Shin went over to look. Among the stars in the night sky was a ring. A tiny metal ring, suspended in the night, clearer than any philosopher could have dreamed.

It was as if he had been standing in an illusion that had suddenly been pierced to reveal the real world. His perspective would never be that of a limited soldier's again. Perhaps he would become a monk.

"So," said Sparkle "You probably know a lot about military stuff, right?"

* * *

Min-ji's flier landed on a small remote island on the planet of her ancestor's ancestors.

The whale Sings-To-Strangers was already in the nearby waters, awaiting her arrival. Neither of the two women could see each other but their implants informed them they were within range of instant communication.

<Thank you for agreeing to speak with me,> signaled Min-ji.

<I acknowledge that I owe you a great debt. It troubles me to be in the debt of a human. I would relish the opportunity to expunge this obligation,> signaled Sings-To-Strangers.

<You don't owe me anything,> signaled Min-ji.

<Humans have a shallow understanding of obligation,> replied Sings-To-Strangers.

<Very well,> said Min-ji <I was hoping to get your council about something. If you can offer that consider your debt repaid.>

<That much I can promise even you,> said Sings-To-Strangers.

<I'm not certain how much attention you pay to the goings on of the greater galaxy-> began Min-ji.

<None at all,> interjected Sings-To-Strangers.

<My people are in danger. We face a genuine existential threat for the first time since the Singularity.>

<Describe this threat,> signaled Sings-To-Strangers.

<Some kind of alien device or starship, we're not even sure, seems determined to wipe out humanity. One of our ringworlds has already been lost. My homeworld. The death count was incalculable and the alien machine has some means of blocking the retrieval of mind-state data. That means permanent, irretrievable braindeath.>

<I see,> signaled Sings-To-Strangers.

<Our only advantage is that it moves slowly, but it is on a trajectory for the next nearest ringworld. All attempts at communication have been met with violence but we have reason to believe it is alive in some way. There is a... faction within our society that wants to fight the thing to- to essentially revive the practice of war. Of course I and the majority of my people are hoping to find an alternative solution. Your people have always been steadfast in your dedication to non-violence. I would greatly value your perspective.>

<It is wise that humans are seeking to suppress your destructive nature,> signaled Sings-To-Strangers <But much of the damage is already done. Perhaps your destruction is penance for your sins. Above all you must not return to the path of violence.>

<I don't accept that,> signaled Min-ji <The Concensus protects the space around Earth, it could be conquered by hostile aliens. Do you think the repayment of our sins would be worth the cost of Earth as well?>

<If you don't already know the answer to that then your people had not acquired even the meager wisdom I give them credit for,> signaled Sings-To-Strangers.

<I don't want my people to readopt violence, what has happened already physically disgusts me, but I can't believe that our only path is the acceptance of death.>

<There is dignity in the acceptance of the inevitable,> signaled Sings-To-Strangers <In any case you have my council, that is all there is. All I ask is that whatever you do, leave the Earth out of it. We want no further entanglement in the doings of humans.>

<That might not be something either of our people have any control over,> replied Min-ji <Like it or not, our fates are intertwined.>