In his opinion, neither justice nor mercy were very closely related to love, let alone being identical with it—otherwise, why have three words instea… - James Blish

Martel still did not want to believe in it, but brute experience of it forced him to, whatever his preferences.

It is written:
That given any one of a thousand million possible paths, life will take them all;
That worlds which will support life will give birth to it;
That worlds which cannot support intelligent life will be colonized;
And that where both can take place, both will take place.
It is written that this is what the vast, unknowing interstellar stage is for: To be given consciousness and purpose while its gift of existence lasts.
It is written:
That this is a random process;
That in the end all will be darkness and silence again;
But that while it lasts, life spreads through it, to make it aware of its own vastness and beauty, which otherwise it can never have known.
This is a gift; but the Giver is unknown.
That too is written.

But now the shots began—not many, but one shot is a fusillade if there have been no shots before.