orne down the swift water-gap
of crisis, toward the razor knifing across his path, CAN I SURVIVE THE
VERY TIP OF THAT BLADE, AND PASS THROUGH? IS MY RAFT OF FLESH STRONG
ENOUGH, MY SHIELD OF WILL AND UNDERSTANDING SUFFICIENT? And while
caught on that blade, how multiplied the anguish by the fact that his
hope never leaves him. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast."

But even this would not make the struggle so overpowering, if it were a
false hope, and we knew it. But all around us there is the rumor of
triumph (and tragedy), of those who have survived personal hells,
accomplished the impossible, and stand now on a more permanent footing,
if only in posterity. How then can we, caught in the midst of the
fray, despair, and surrender our dreams? We cannot.

Age approaches us, inevitable death, suffering that cannot be avoided.
And yet there is also the eternal Spring of youth inside us, that hope,
that yearning, if not for peace in this world, then at least for some
last accomplishment before release into the great unknown: some reason
for having been here.

For this Battle is not fiction. It is not words, nor one man's
opinion. It is life: LIFE, the beautiful and terrible.

How can a man survive?

*

Olaf Brunner experienced more physical, emotional, and spiritual
torment in those thirty-six hours than he would have thought possible
for any man to bear, let alone himself, and in his weakened state. The
physical anguish came from sickness and fatigue, and from the
intolerable heat upon the wounded bridge, the emotional, from the loss
of ships and lives that had been given him to protect, and the
spiritual, from the Godless red carnage that lashed back and forth like
a writhing, bloodied serpent: the death and mutilation he saw with his
eyes and heard through the earpiece. And from the Goddamnable and
agonizing question of whether or not they could still break through.

The dual colonies having no substantial defense shields or stations
(those of the Dutch had been destroyed in conquest, and not
sufficiently rebuilt), the Bel-Swiss had chosen to counter-attack, and
to make their stand in the open Space around them. Meanwhile the
Soviets, epitomizing their policy of conditional help, held their own
forces back, lending only long-distance firepower in times of greatest
need.

After the first twenty-four hours, Brunner had realized grimly that his
poor physical health and personal trauma were