Perhaps it wasn't from our time; perhaps it wasn't even from our universe, but the arrival of the three-hundred-kilometer-long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lies Thistledown-the remnants of a human society versed in English, Russian, and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war, but the government and...