Evangeline stepped down off the space plane. "Is there someplace we could
talk!" she whispered, unheard by her maelstrom of handlers. "Alone!" she
hissed. There was no mistaking the urgency in her voice.

She stopped them with a wave of her hand. We descended the concrete
stairs to a cold, quiet alcove, dim in the utility light. There, she
kissed me, and slipped the lozenge into my mouth. I dutifully swallowed
it. Inside of it was a datacrystal smaller than a virus, containing the
plans for the construction of the universe. All I had to do now was get
to Tau Ceti Prime — alive if possible, but dead was okay too — and
mankind would be released from the tyranny of matter once and for all!