An animal doesn’t need to develop curiosity and intelligence if it has no problems that need solving. — Robert L. Forward

After a short flurry of national and international concern over the “death of the Sun,” the human race settled down to solving the insoluble problem in the best way that they knew—they ignored it and hoped it would go away.

If the computer had been a human, its eyebrows would have raised.

The Leader of the Combined Clans, although nominally a devout worshiper of the God Bright, was willing to compartmentalize her mind and look at the pictures without being bothered by the religious overtones.