Titans of Chaos

Vanity wants to be a movie actress. Colin wants to get into my pants."

Colin actually looked embarrassed. "Hey!" he said. Then, to cover up his embarrassment, he triedto make a joke of it. "That was supposed to be a secret."

I was actually so puzzled by his reaction that I stared at him, looking into his inner nature,guessing what the lines of moral energy between us were supposed to mean, watching the littleflickering ripples of usefulness travel on the sound waves he made with his voice, wondering whatuse those words were to him.

At a guess... ? He thought he had a chance with me. Before, it was all rude jokes because I wasout of reach. Now I was coming within his reach, and it was serious. No more jokes.

Quentin said, "I want to solve the mystery of creation. Why did Saturn make the materialuniverse? Why trap all the free and perfect spirits inside gross material bodies?" Quentin lookedat Victor. "What about you, Victor?"

Victor gave the smallest of smiles. "I have an ongoing operational preference, rather than an endgoal. I was raised in a prison, as a war hostage. War is illogical, wasteful. Wars become lessfrequent the more incentives rational beings have to cooperate rather than to compete. A free andpeaceful commonwealth embracing all rational entities of this and every other universe, Cosmicand Chaotic, mortal and immortal, will deter wars.

"The primary requirement, however, is freedom: universal freedom. If there are other people outthere, raised in imprisonment as I was, I have a duty to liberate them, for the same reason why Iwould have welcomed any outside liberator who would have attempted to free me. We were in themost pleasant prison imaginable. It was still unacceptable. The present condition of the universe isunacceptable. Anything I can do, large or small, along these lines, I will do. Other problems aresecondary, and may resolve themselves once this primary problem is solved."

If Victor had said this in any other tone of voice besides his normal cold and methodical tone, Iwould have shrugged it off as a daydream. It would have been pompous.

But he said it so reasonably. Anything I can do, large or small, along these lines, I will do. Vanitywas staring at Victor with sort of an awestruck hero-worship-type look in her eyes.

"Wow," said Vanity. "Pretty cool. You think it will work? Conquering all the universes?"