A Fire Upon the Deep Author:Vernor Vinge In Straumli Realm, human scientists discover an archive of quantum data lost to the nets for 5 billion years . . . and unwittingly unleash the Blight. A god-like Power, it's now free to prowl the multilayers of space from the High Beyond to the Slow Zone destroying its human enemies. Piloted by two scientists and their children, Johanna and ... more »Jefri, one ship escapes and lands in the Slowness, on a world inhabited by hostile beings. Captured and separated, each convinced the other is dead, Johanna and Jefri find themselves in a complex alien society only to learn that the Blight has followed . . .« less