Intended Purpose: Unknown. However, Scorpesi has conjectured that Paradox is a “cleansing vat” for large Builder intelligent artifacts, such as Elephant (see Entry 859), prior to reuse. Note, however, that this suggestion is inconsistent with the physical dimensions (4,000 x 900 kilometers) of Elephant itself, unless such objects were subjected to multiple passes through the Paradox sphere.
CHAPTER 2
Summertide minus thirty-six
The second shift of the working day was just beginning, and already it was clear to Birdie Kelly that it was going to be a bad one. The new supervisor might still be half a world away on Starside, but already the boss was brooding over the man’s impending arrival.
“How can someone who has never even visited this system be competent to control travel between Opal and Quake?” Max Perry stared at Birdie with pale, unhappy eyes. Birdie looked back, saw the starved jut of Perry’s jaw, and thought how much good it would do if the other man could just eat a square meal and relax for a day or two.
“Quake traffic is our job,” Perry went on. “We’ve been doing it for six years. How much does this Rebka, a total stranger, know about that? Not a thing. Do they think at Circle headquarters that there’s nothing to it, and any idiot can understand Quake? We know the importance of forbidding access to Quake. Especially now, with Summertide almost here. But do they know it?”
Birdie listened to Max Perry’s stream of complaints and nodded sympathetically. One thing was sure: Perry was a good man and a conscientious boss, but he had his obsessions. And Captain Hans Rebka, whoever he might be, was sure going to make Birdie’s own life more difficult.