"We got some precis on the current conflicts, but history was for our Masters to tell us or not. Mine was fond of history, and if we'd had more regular missions and fewer battle-oriented ones, I'm sure . . . but no. I'm . . . I was thinking more about war, and what it really costs, and what it really means. I remember we all thought it was a kind of adventure, in the crèche. Ca -- I thought about it like that for a long while after, too. Until it was too late."

He doesn't smile.

"I wonder if they thought about it that way, too, somehow. But it doesn't seem likely."