The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)

by Dan Simmons

“The TechnoCore did not cut the fatline,” she said softly. “All right,” I said, taking a breath. “That was some mysterious entity … your Lions and Tigers and Bears, say. But it was still the Core behind the attack.” Aenea nodded and poured more tea for herself. I folded my thumb against my palm and touched the first finger with my other hand. “Second, did or did not the TechnoCore use the farcasters as a sort of cosmic leech to suck up human neural networks for their damned Ultimate Intelligence project? Everytime someone farcast, they were being … used … by those damned autonomous intelligences. Right or wrong?” “Correct,” said Aenea. “Three,” I said, folding the first finger away and tapping the next one in line, “the poem has Rachel—the pilgrim Sol Weintraub’s child who has come backward with the Time Tombs from the future—tell about a time to come when,” I shifted the tone of my voice as I quoted, “ ‘… the final war raged between the Core-spawned UI and the human spirit.’ Was this a mistake?”