Aeon's Child

A spaceship built of wood and diamond arrives at the Great Ship, and its lone passenger begs for help. The Child is the oddest alien ever found. One captain risks his career and life to help this refugee, a thousand years of bliss pass, and then one day, another equally marvelous and dangerous creature arrives, seeking vengeance.

"Through the closest orifice, in one titanic push, came life, unformed and full of energies that bled out of it as light and screaming white noise. The electrified screens had shattered. Winged beasts sprang from the plastic goo, born in flight, driving for the Child’s center. And in reflex, fruits exploded, and living nets launched themselves, engulfing and slicing the enemy’s bodies. Then the armed griffins worked as a well-trained unit, bolts of plasma evaporating bodies and breaking molecules, leaving incandescent vapors that hung in the air, for a moment, before they were absorbed by a second wave of screaming wings and mouths."

Robert Reed is the author of many stories and novels, and his best-loved work is centered on the Great Ship -- a world-sized machine that is as old as the universe, and just as mysterious.