PRE page-break-after: always Fictionwise www.Fictionwise.com Copyright ?? NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Makingcopies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means includingwithout limit email floppy disk file transfer paper print out or any other methodconstitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severefines or imprisonment. This is a story about a bird. A bird a ship a machine a woman—shewas all these things and none but first and fundamentally a bird. It is also a story about a man—a gambler a liar and a cheat but only for the best ofreasons. No doubt you know the famous Portrait of Denali Eu also called The Third Decision whose eyes have been described as “two pools of sadness iced over with determination.”This is the story behind that painting. It is a love story. It is a sad story. And it is true. The story begins in a time before shiftspace before Conner and Hua even before the casterpeople. The beginning of the story lies in the time of the bird ships. Before the bird ships just to go from one star to another people either had to give up theirwhole lives and hope their childrens children would remember why they had come or freezethemselves and hope they could be thawed at the other end. Then the man called Doctor Jay madea great and horrible discovery: he learned that a living mind could change the shape of space.He found a