Fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four ...

As Nigel counted to himself, the screens showed all the flowers of Iaxia bowing and waving at once. Not in farewell--though that was a pretty thought--but as a sign of emergency.

No kidding, flowers. He was about to be toast.

When his count hit sixty, as if on cue, the screens shut down.

Good. The pod was passing through the comms-dark zone around Iaxia. All a spy would hear now was static.

How much time did he have before the pod fried him? Trust Eustace to leave that out of the manual. He'd just have to talk fast.

He took a deep breath. "After the Hunara passed through that stellar cloud, we were able to hear the voices of the past and future.

"Em saw but couldn't bear a future that involved destroying all the new homeworlds as badly as we had old Earth. She dreamed of it constantly; she couldn't forget. Though she ultimately died of illness, I think the guilt is really what took her.

"Your grandfather saw the cultures of the past that would be destroyed by the crash of the Hunara. The peoples had been no larger than ants, but their civilization was plant-based and extraordinarily complex. Their arts and sciences far surpassed what humans had ever developed. We could have advanced so far by learning from them. But the Hunara would land on them, killing them all in an instant."

"And I..." he sighed. "I was trapped in the now. Never to age, never to change.

"We crashed the Hunara ourselves because we could neither avoid nor bear the times we witnessed."

The world around him had dissolved into light. He could just make out Melliblue reaching for him, shouting words he couldn't hear.

"Your grandfather spread rumors of noxious substances and dangerous force fields to make sure no one would pass through there again. You will continue that work. No one must pass through that cloud again. And..."

Could she still hear him? Her expression was frantic. He grinned. "Don't sweat it, kid. I've lived long enough. Just remember to smell the flowers."

With that, he vanished in a brilliant blast of particles.