Anxiety is a useful tool: it forces us to make plans. But when too much anxiety freezes us into indecision, it needs checking. - Alastair Reynolds

Don't tell me you aren't the slightest bit curious, Norquinco." "I hope you burn in hell, Sky Haussmann." "I'll take that as a yes.

So you've no qualms." "Qualms?" Merlin set down the papers he had been leafing through. "I've so many qualms they're in danger of self-organizing. I occasionally have a thought that isn't a qualm. But I'll tell you this. Sometimes you just have to do the obvious thing. They have an item I need, and there's a favor I can do for them. It's that simple. Not everything in the universe is a riddle.

For whatever reason, I am now fully conscious. Perhaps all beta-levels are capable of this, or perhaps my sheer connectional complexity ensured that I exceeded some state of critical mass. I have no idea. All I know is that I think, and therefore I’m exceedingly angry.