Noel Vorst had cobbled together an eclectic religion, borrowing the confessional from Catholicism, absorbing some of the atheism of ur-Buddhism, adding a dose of Hindu reincarnation, and larding everything over with ultramodernistic trappings, nuclear reactors at every altar, and plenty of gabble about the holy electron. But there was also talk of harnessing the minds of espers to power a stardive, of a communion even of non-esper minds, and--most startling of all, the big selling point--personal immortality, not reincarnation, not the hope of Nirvana, but eternal life in the here-and-now present flesh.

But some held out, believing in the wonder that is man, in his ability to adapt to the miracle of the universe, to become one with it. And some few grew powers forever barred to the Vorsters.

No man fights as viciously as the man who knows he is right.