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Those remaining were likely to have self-imposed limitations. "Yes. Tradition. Many who once were Riders have changed -- even Transcended. But we persist." Greenstalk paused, and when she continued sounded even more shy than usual. "You've heard of the Rider Myth?" "No,habari birch mbt," said Ravna, distracted in spite of herself. In the time ahead she would know as much about these Riders as about any human friends, but for now there were still surprises. "Not many have. Not that it's a secret; it's just we don't make much of it. It comes close to being religion, but one we don't proselytize. Four or five billion years ago, Someone built the first skrodes and raised the first Riders to sentience. That much is verified fact. The Myth is that something destroyed our Creator and all its works.... A catastrophe so great that from this distance it is not even understood as an act of mind." There were plenty of theories about what the galaxy had been like in the distant past, in the time of the Ur-Partition. But the Net couldn't be forever. There had to be a beginning. Ravna had never been a big believer in Ancient Wars and Catastrophes. "So in a sense," Greenstalk said, "we Riders are the faithful ones, waiting for What created us to return. The traditional skrode and the traditional interface are a standard. Staying with it has made our patience possible." "Quite so," said Blueshell. "And the design itself is very subtle,mbt boots on sale, My Lady,mbt tariki mens, even if the function is simple." He rolled to the center of the ceiling. "The skrode of tradition imposes a good discipline -- concentration on what's truly important. Just now I was trying to worry about too many things...." Abruptly he returned to the topic at hand: "Two of our drive spines never recovered from the damage at relay. Three more appear to be degrading. We thought this slow progress was just the storm, but now I've studied the spines up close. The diagnostic warnings were no false alarm." "... and it's still getting worse?" "Unfortunately so." "So how bad will it get?" Blueshell drew all his tendrils together. "My Lady Ravna, we can't be certain of the extrapolations yet. It may not get much worse than now, or -- You know the OOB was not fully ready for departure. There were the final consistency checks still to do. In a way, I worry about that more than anything. We don't know what bugs may lurk, especially when we reach the Bottom and our normal automation must be retired. We must watch the drives very carefully ... and hope." It was the nightmare that haunted travelers, especially at the Bottom of the Beyond: with ultradrive gone, suddenly a light-year was not a matter of minutes but of years. Even if they fired up the ramscoop and went into cold sleep, Jefri Olsndot would be a thousand years dead before they reached him, and the secret of his parents' ship buried in some medieval midden. Pham Nuwen waved at the slowly shifting star fields. "Still, this is the Beyond. Every hour we go farther than the fleet of Qeng Ho could in a decade." He shrugged. "Surely there's some place we can get repairs?" "Several." So much for "a quick flight, all unobserved". Ravna sighed. The final fitting at Relay was to include spares and Bottom compatibility software. All that was faraway might-have-beens now. She looked at Greenstalk. "Do you have any ideas?" "About what?" Greenstalk said. Ravna bit her lip in frustration. Some said the Riders were a race of comedians; they were indeed,GHD Hair Care Tools, but it was mostly unintentional. Blueshell rattled at his mate. "Oh,sandals on clearance! You mean where can we get help. Yes,mbt staka, there are several possibilities. Sjandra Kei is thirty-nine hundred lights spinward from here, but outside this storm.