when Johanna is not returned as well, but Johanna secretly reveals to Ravna that she has since become Tycoon's advisor and that their support of Nevil is a temporary ruse. In reality, Tycoon is forging a business partnership with Woodcarver and Ravna, who can provide technical expertise from Oobii. The story concludes as Johanna, in the Tropics with Tycoon, speculates that with Tycoon's industrial power and the condensed information of countless civilizations in Oobii's archives, decades' worth of technological progress could be made in a couple of years. In Woodcarver's Domain, Ravna prays that Tines World will be ready for the Blight, which to her knowledge is still 30 light-years away. Time The Qeng Ho and other spacers in this series use kiloseconds, megaseconds, and gigaseconds as units of time. A kilosecond roughly equals 17 minutes. Megaseconds are close to 277.76 hours or 11.57 days. A gigasecond is 31.69 years. References Hard science fiction 2011 American novels Transhumanist books Novels by Vernor Vinge 2011 science fiction novels Tor Books books