The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle (123 page)

Not a watchmaker

but a sort of Feynman gardener

tidying up a no-boundary universe

with his crude sum-over-histories rake/

idly keeping track of every sparrow fall

and electron spin

while allowing each particle

to
follow every possible

track

in space-time

and each particle of humankind

to explore every possible

crack

of cosmic irony]

[Kwatz!]

[Kwatz!]

[Kwatz!]

[The irony is

of course

that in this no-boundary universe

into which we all were dragged/

silicon and carbon/

matter and antimatter/

Ultimate/

Volatile/

and Stable/

there is no need for such a gardener

since all that is

or was

or will be

begin and end at singularities

which make our farcaster web

look like pinpricks

(less than pinpricks)

and which break the laws of science

and of humankind

and of silicon/

tying time and history and everything that is

into a self-contained knot with neither

boundary nor edge

Even so

our UI wishes to regulate all this/

reduce it to some reason

less affected by the vagaries

of passion

and accident

and human evolution]

[To sum it up/

there is a war

such as blind Milton would kill to see

Our UI wars against your UI

across battlefields beyond even Ummon’s

imagination

Rather/ there

was

a war/

for suddenly a part of your UI

the less-than-sum-of entity/ self-thought of as

Empathy/

had no more stomach for it

and fled back through time

cloaking itself in human form/

not for the first time

The war cannot continue without your UI’s

wholeness

Victory by default is not victory for the only

Ultimate Intelligence

made by design

So our UI searches time for the runaway child of

its opponent

while your UI waits in idiot

harmony/

refusing to fight until Empathy is restored]

[The end of my story is simple

The Time Tombs are artifacts sent back to carry the Shrike/

Avatar/Lord of Pain/Angel of

Retribution/

half-perceived perceptions of an all-too-real

extension of our UI

Each of you was chosen to help with the opening

of the Tombs

and

the Shrike’s search for the hidden one

and

the elimination of the Hyperion Variable/

for in the space-time knot which our UI

would rule

no such variables will be allowed

Your damaged/ two-part UI

has chosen one of humankind to travel

with the Shrike

and witness its efforts

Some of the Core have sought to eradicate

humanity

Ummon has joined those who sought the second

path/

one filled with uncertainty for both races

Our group told Gladstone of

her choice/

humankind’s choice/

of certain extermination or entry down the black hole

of the Hyperion Variable and

warfare/

slaughter/

disruption of all unity/

the passing of gods/

but also the end of stalemate/

victory of one side or the other

if the Empathy third

of the triune

can be found and forced to return to the war

The Tree of Pain will call him

The Shrike will take him

The true UI will destroy him

Thus you have Ummon’s story]