IF THE SYSTEM SURVIVES, THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE INEVITABLE: THERE IS NO WAY OF REFORMING OR MODIFYING THE SYSTEM SO AS TO PREVENT IT FROM DEPRIVING PEOPLE OF DIGNITY AND AUTONOMY. Ten minutes to op zone as the bat flies (which the Q-ship generally does) and all he gets to do is sit there reading the inside of his helmet. In a little while the ship will pop up on strike vector, he'll go to visual momentarily (you actually get to look out the window!), tell the machine it has found the right thing to kill, insert his left thumb into the verifier and depress the Weapons Actuation Selector. Rumor says the WAS is not connected in any meaningful way to the aircraft's offensive capabilities. Rumor says many things, some of them even more outrageous than that. Di Manes believes some of what he hears, at least the part about the WAS, because he personally knew a man who attempted during a rather featureless mission to remove a certain coverplate. To wit, the coverplate on his aircraft's WAS. I. NO INTERRUPTIONS READING SHOULD BE A SEAMLESS AND UNINTERRUPTED EXPERIENCE. ITS CHOICES PROCEED FROM THE EXPRESSION OF POSSIBILITIES AS A NARRATIVE MEDIUM, AND DEPEND UPON THE COMPLICITY OF THE READER IN THE CREATION OF A NARRATIVE. READING IS DESIGN ENACTED. This poor sucker's ship spun into violent high-gee maneuvers sufficient to induce serious disorientation, whereupon it frisbeed back to base in an inverted flying position and ejected the hapless pilot at less than nominal altitude. You did not monkey with the WAS. Now this is when it happens, right after Harry pushes the button that makes the eye blink out. At first there's nothing strange. Light spills from the TV screen as always in pale contracting squares shrinking down to the old self-swallowing dot. A little graphic demonstration or parable. As if to say unto the nations, this is the sign of ending. The final implosion of spacetime, the end of the world as we know it: or maybe just your own little stroll into the light. It might be just like this. Or perhaps not: because this is where the odd things start. Usually when Harry turns off this set he hears a loud, resinous click from the A design constitutes an interpretation of breakdown and a committed attempt to anticipate future breakdowns. power supply and the sound goes instantly dead. But this time things are different. As the picture dies away now, the muted clamor of scuffles, shouts, and gunshots goes on for a good ten seconds, whispering weirdly in a softened voice, like the whimper from an old transistor radio with the battery almost gone. Harry stares at the television, suddenly far from sleep.