He turned slowly around and faced Caroline. "How does it feel," he asked, "to win a war?”
The face she turned to him was strained and worn. "Don't say that to me,”
she said. "I had to do it. They were a terrible race, but they were alive — and there is so little life in this universe.”
"You need some sleep," he said.
He saw the tragic lines of her mouth.
"There is no sleep," she said. "No rest at all. We have just started. We have to save the universe. We have to create more and more of the fifth-dimensional frameworks, many of them and larger. To absorb the energy when the universes meet.”
Gary started. He had forgotten the approaching universe. So absorbed had they become in ending the Hellhound attack that the edge of the real and greater danger had been dulled.
But now, brought back to it, he realized the job they faced.
He spun on the Engineer. "How much longer?" he asked. "How much longer have we?”
"Very little time," said the Engineer. "Very little. I fear that energy may flood in upon us at any time.”