Introduction: All empires rise and fall. They expand to survive, then collapse when they grow too large -- or when there's nothing left to take.After a century of expanding throughout the galaxy, humanity is overdue for a collapse.Some people fight it. Some people ignore it. Some people think a major change is for the best.But only a few people -- Marian, for example -- can really see the big picture. There is no happy ending to this story, but she hopes that she can delay the inevitable long enough to avoid personally living through the unpleasant end....