Part Two: Community and Anarchy: Chapter Five Summary

The aliens, who called themselves the Investors, appear to have unlimited power. They trade among nineteen intelligent races and are so old they have no memory dating before their own space flight. Humans flourish as the Investors buy into human enterprises and dispense novelty technologies in return. Lindsay and Nora, living on Goldreich-Tremaine, have a good life, settled with children cloned from the Mavrides lineage. The children are named after the Mavrides who died so that Nora and Lindsay could live on. Now, the children are grown and gone from their creche.

Constantine unexpectedly arrives at one of Lindsay's productions. It has been twenty years since Lindsay and Nora accompanied the aliens there, and while Lindsay is prepared to run, Nora is unwilling to give up what they have. With life...