Free War in Heaven by David Zindell

decide what is to be done."
    At this implied rebuke of Bardo's abandonment of the Order, Bardo ground the toe of his nall-skin boot against the floor. As nall is almost the hardest thing there is, it left scratches in the smooth black diamond. But Lord Nikolos was devoid of neither compassion nor good sense, and so he said, "You know that it's our way to decide such questions among ourselves. But since you were once a master pilot and are clearly involved in this nightmare which has befallen us, I'd like to ask you to remain."
    So saying, Lord Nikolos indicated that Bardo should take a seat at the master pilots' table.
    "Thank you, Lord Nikolos," Bardo said. He stepped out of the circle and strode across the room. He found an empty chair across from Danlo and, with much huffing and sighing, sat down.
    "This has been a strange day," Lord Nikolos said. "First Danlo wi Soli Ringess falls out of the stars to tell us that Tannahill has been found and a madman is loose among the galaxy with a star-killing machine. And two hours later, his father's best friend arrives to tell us that the whole city of Neverness has fallen mad. What are we to make of such strangenesses?"
    This was the first anyone had remarked upon the incredible coincidence of Bardo and Danlo meeting each other on a faraway planet in the Vild after so many years apart. But fate itself is strange, and as Danlo looked at Bardo looking at him in astonishment across a few feet of swirling air, he felt something wild and irresistible pulling Bardo and himself (and all the other pilots in the hall) towards a singular point in time not very far in the future.
    "And now we must decide which course of action to pursue," Lord Nikolos said. "I would like to ask the lords for their wisdom."
    Sul Estarei, the clear-thinking and cautious Lord Holist sitting at the end of Lord Nikolos' table, suddenly found his voice and said, "The Bardo has called us to a gathering on Sheydveg in only ninety-five more days. And what will be the result of this gathering? War — a civil war on a vast scale, for I think it's clear that many of the Civilized Worlds have already been overwhelmed with this Ringism madness and will support the Old Order. And many more will remain loyal out of habit. We must ask ourselves if we're prepared to be part of such an inconceivable war?"
    "Are we prepared not to be?" the Sonderval asked.
    "That's surely the correct question," Lord Morena Sung said. For all the softness of her face and soul, she was a fearless woman driven by a desire to view the truth of any situation no matter how terrible. "If we don't send our pilots to Sheydveg, what will happen?"
    "But our mission is to the Vild," said an old lord named Demothi Bede from a table at the rear of the hall. "What will come of what Danlo wi Soli Ringess has gained on Tannahill if we send all our pilots to Sheydveg?"
    "Are we just to abandon the Civilized Worlds?" Morena Sung asked. "Neverness, herself, where I was born?"
    "Are we to abandon the Vild and let the supernovas consume the entire galaxy?" Demothi Bede countered. "I'd rather see every one of the Civilized Worlds converted to Ringism than even one of worlds in the Vild destroyed because its star had exploded."
    At this Morena Sung pursed her plump lips and asked, "Do you mean, as the star of the Narain people whom Danlo told us about was exploded?"
    "The Lord Sung reminds us," the Sonderval said, "of what we shouldn't have forgotten. What of Bertram Jaspari and his Iviomils with their star-killer? How can we let these fanatics loose among the Civilized Worlds?"
    For a while, as the sun fell towards the ocean outside and sent rays of light streaming through the hall's dome in a brilliant display of colour, the Lords of the New Order debated war. During a moment of silence after Lord Fatima Paz recited the names of all the men and women killed during the Pilots' War, Danlo closed his eyes and whispered a prayer for the spirits of each of these pilots.