"The Qeng Ho fleet was the first to arrive at the OnOff star. That might not matter. For the last fifty years of their voyage, they had watched the torchplumes of the Emergent fleet as it decelerated toward the same destination." Chapter 1, Page 27

"The OnOff star might better have been called 'old faithful.' Its catastrophic variability had first been noticed by the Dawn Age astronomers of Old Earth." Chapter 11, Page 105

"Victory Smith had bought into Underhill's scheme - and sold it to the High Command. The next thirty years were going to be even more exciting than Hrunkner Unnerby had thought." Chapter 14, Page 147

"If we could take over some Spider nation - maybe just pretend to ally with it - we could speed things up." Ritser, Chapter 16, Page 170

"Brent, the other twelve-year-old, was more like the stereotype of an out-of-phase child: withdrawn, a little but sullen, perhaps...