Logos run

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From this day forward the stars shall be ours . . .

—Emperor Hios, on the day that the fi?rst public star gate went into service, and he stepped onto the surface of the Planet Zeen The attack came without warning. The angen-drawn coach had been under way for hours by then, having followed the well-established ruts south through villages of neatly thatched roofs, past prayer ribbons that fl?ew with the wind, and miles of fl?ooded paddies. The genetically engineered draft animals strained at their harnesses as the road began to rise, the driver’s long, supple whip cracked over their vaguely equine heads, and they were forced to assume the fourwheeled vehicle’s entire weight. The angens expressed their unhappiness via snorts, grunts, and occasional bursts of fl?atulence as the low-lying paddies fell away and they pulled the coach up through a long series of switchbacks. But the driver was accustomed to such displays, and his passengers were largely unaware of how the animals felt, since two of the three were asleep within the boxy cab.

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