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| - Burgess, a hiver, acted as a diplomat to other hives. After he contacted a hive which suffered from the mental disease of bigotry, his own hive cast him out and forced him to flee across the plains. Bereft of his community, he eagerly becomes an anchor person and joins the companions of the Virtual Mode. Colene, Darius, Seqiro, and Nona are initially concerned that the new anchor person may be an alien monster, but Seqiro soon helps Nona to establish mental contact, and their fears are allayed. Colene soon realizes that this reality is the product of Earth’s alternative evolution, and she names the mode Shale and the new anchor Burgess.
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| abstract
| - Burgess, a hiver, acted as a diplomat to other hives. After he contacted a hive which suffered from the mental disease of bigotry, his own hive cast him out and forced him to flee across the plains. Bereft of his community, he eagerly becomes an anchor person and joins the companions of the Virtual Mode. Colene, Darius, Seqiro, and Nona are initially concerned that the new anchor person may be an alien monster, but Seqiro soon helps Nona to establish mental contact, and their fears are allayed. Colene soon realizes that this reality is the product of Earth’s alternative evolution, and she names the mode Shale and the new anchor Burgess. Though the party plans to continue traveling the Virtual Mode, Colene is soon pursued by the mind predator which once attacked Provos. The anchor persons, attacked by the hivers near the anchor point, are forced to spend several days in Shale. While there, each of the humans learns to relate to Burgess, and Burgess declares the strange group to be his new hive. Though the companions encounter many hostile native creatures, they are eventually able to reach the anchor point and return to the Virtual Mode. As the companions approach the Julia mode, the mind predator returns and attacks Colene. Only Burgess seems able to mitigate the effect, so he carries Colene while the pursuit continues. The party, once again forced to wait in an anchor mode, soon discovers that Oria is in a martial state due to the lack of strong magical leadership. Because Nona doesn’t want to remain and become queen, she enlists Angus’ help to recruit Amazons from a slightly larger anima world to become regents on Oria. Afterwards, Nona feels free to return to the Virtual Mode with the others. As they travel toward Earth, Burgess’ health begins to fail, and the anchor persons plan to spend some time in the Earth mode while he recuperates. Colene and Nona enlist the help of Amos Forell to cure Burgess’ malady, which turns out to be a magnesium deficiency. In order to repay Amos, Darius and Seqiro help a troubled boy by spreading his despair to his unsympathetic community. While in the bad part of town, they are also able to seek revenge on the group of delinquents who mugged Darius in the first novel, as well as the boys who raped Colene. Colene reconciles with her parents, who agree to allow her to marry Darius, but she misses her own wedding while tiding Burgess through a bad reaction. Nona, however, acts as Colene’s proxy, so Darius and Colene do become legally married on Earth. While passing through the modes of the telepathic animals, Colene is once again attacked by the mind predator. The companions, forced to seek refuge in Seqiro’s mode, discover a mare who has been mind-blasted, telepathically attacked and stripped of her memories. Colene heals the mare by imprinting her with the character of her imaginary friend, Maresy Doats. After defeating his rival Koturo, Seqiro becomes herd stallion. Though he would prefer to remain on the Virtual Mode, Seqiro is forced to free his anchor to relieve Colene of the mind predator’s pursuit. Colene, Darius, Nona, and Burgess slide through the modes until they reach the newest anchor mode, DoOon.
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