Kalypso Deed is a shotgun, riding the interface between the AI Ganesh and human scientists who solve problems through cyber-assisted Dreams. But she's young and a little careless; she'd rather mix drinks and play jazz. Azamat Marcsson is a colourless statistician: middle-aged, boring, and obsessed with micro-organisms. A first-class nonentity - until one of his Dreams implodes, taking Kalypso with it.

Now Ganesh is crashing, and nothing could be worse. For on the planet T'nane, it is the AI alone that keeps the colonists alive, eking out a grim existence in an environment inimical to human life. To save the colony, Kalypso must persuade Marcsson to finish the Dream that is destroying Ganesh. But Marcsson has gone mad, and T'nane itself has plans for them both that will alter their minds - and their world - for ever.

1999 Arthur C. Clarke Award
SF Masterworks #166