In his final hours, Kassner wondered where the dead went after dying again.

The ancient Ghazele believed the souls to be recycled, the dead being born again. But that couldn't work: the population was growing, and those extra souls had to come from somewhere. Did they split each time, each person born being half the human their ancestors were? Were the lost souls crawling from the Stygian Marsh to meet the demands of Asphodel? Did the dead have souls anymore?

"I love you, daddy."

"Love you, too, Sally. Talk to you... later."

Bill wasn't a particularly religious man. Sometimes he thanked the Fates under his breath, when flying attack runs. He knew some religious folk, though, and the astronaut found the things they said to be interesting. Some preached the lessons to be learned from the dead gods of the mountain kingdom. Others begged the sun or the void for forgiveness. And some more put their lives in the hands of angels. Kassner thought maybe that's what he was waiting for: angels, to save him or take him away.

"[i]Gödel[/i], this is Control speaking. The Sañirans should be in orbit around Akheron now. They were just planning an intercept when we last spoke. How you doin'?"

The communications officer paid less and less attention to radio procedure as the hours ticked by. The occasional 'over', and of course the obligatory hailing of the [i]Gödel[/i], but little else. Few rogers, fewer copy thats. Bill guessed formalities had little worth to a doomed man.

"How long?"

"Not long."

"Well, if they take much longer, I'm gonna find out what Akheron looks like from the surface. Don't fancy dying the slow way much."

"Just sit tight, Bill. We're gonna get you back home."

[i]No,[/i] he thought, [i]the Sañirans are, and I don't think 'home' is on their list of priorities.[/i] The police state had eyes and ears everywhere, and a fondness for old-fashioned information gathering, if common opinion was to be believed. Don't turn your back on a Sañiran, they would say. You'll end up dead, if you're lucky, and in a dungeon if you're not. Kassner believed the cold war had something to do with the perpetuation of that belief. Though the us-versus-them mentality might save us today, what of tomorrow?

"Control?"

"Just a moment, Kassner. The astronaut went to rub the tiredness from his eyes, but his glove met the glass instead. He sighed. "All right, [i]Gödel[/i], good news. Look out your viewport."

He couldn't see it at first, dark as the horizon was. It took some focusing on the darkness before he could see for certain what it was. 

Angels. Come to him on fiery wings.

But did they come to return him home, or to drag him to a deeper layer of hell?