Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

You were alone in unspace, always. The illusion of being that a sentient mind transitioned into was utterly solitary.

The illusion was that you shared the vastness with something. That it became aware of you and came closer, from outside the ship to inside, from inside to lurking in the next room. From the next room to standing at your very shoulder. And the one key characteristic of this presence that everyone imagined was that it was intolerable. It represented the worst, absolutely unabideable thing for any given observer. When it finally caught up and was there, breathing on your neck, darkening the corner of your vision… When the choice was to turn and gaze upon it or…

Because one thing we absolutely do know is that the Architects have a huge unspace presence, and can obviously navigate it without difficulty. I can also absolutely confirm they displace unspace disproportionately once they’re out in the real.