The PanCephei Line starship had already dropped out of hyperspace when the emergency began.  External sensors were showing the passengers an image of the H-congruous world two thousand kilometers below.  White clouds tumbled high above dark blue oceans, sending out long streamers in forays across the surprisingly brown land.  Flight information was available to access, designating their vector as a purple line down through the atmosphere to Garamond's capital, the smooth resolution to another flawless everyday flight across three hundred light-years.

None of that registered with the increasingly frantic Delivery Man.  The Conservative Faction's intelligence division had automatically sent out a secure classified warning to all operatives as soon as the inversion core broke free of ANA's edifice.  He'd observed it with growing dismay as it eluded the navy ships.  Then the deterrence fleet arrived (though its nature wasn't revealed on any navy scans of the Sol system), and right after that the Swarm materialized.  Earth's defense agency declared a grade-one alert.

The Delivery Man called his wife, and to hell with protocol.  For whatever reason, her u-shadow didn't accept his first request for a link.  When he analyzed the basic data, he realized she was in the Dulwich Park school.  His hand thumped the nicely cushioned armrest of his seat in the first-class cubicle in frustration.

Lizzie teleported back home, and her u-shadow accepted the link.  He managed a few words of reassurance before his exovision symbols told him the unisphere was changing the routing on the link, which was weird.  His secure priority connection with the Conservative Faction intelligence division dropped out.  What the ####?  "Then I'll be with you the instant I reach an Earth station," he told her, trying to appear positive.

"Something's wrong," Lizzie said.

It was impossible, but he could feel her distress as though they were using the gaiafield.  "Lizzie, just hang on!  I will be there, I promise you.  Tell the girls Daddy is going to be home any minute."

His u-shadow reported the link with Lizzie had failed, as had the one to the Conservative Faction.  "No," he gasped out loud.  His exovision showed that every route to Earth had been severed.  No data were getting in or out of the Sol system; it was completely cut off from the unisphere.  "What the hell is happening?" he asked his u-shadow.

"Unknown," it replied.  "All wormholes to Sol have physically closed.  The navy and Commonwealth government retain several secure emergency TD links to Sol, but none are working."

"Did they nova it?" he asked fearfully.

"Unknown but unlikely.  Whatever happened, happened very quickly.  A nova shock wave would take several minutes to reach Earth."

"The planet itself, then - could they have destroyed it, dropped a quantumbuster through the defenses or something?  Maybe an M-sink?"

"Possibly.  But for every communication system in the solar system to be affected simultaneously, the destruction would have to be enormous and swift.  That suggests something which acts at hyperluminal velocity."

"Did they kill Earth?" he yelled out.

"Unknown."

"Oh, sweet Ozzie."  His whole body was shuddering as shock gripped him.  Biononics worked to calm the impulses.  "Find out," he instructed his u-shadow.  "Use every source you can access."

"Understood."

Judging by the raised voices muffled by the cubicle door, news of Earth's disappearance was spreading fast.  The Delivery Man couldn't think what to do.  It was the Conservative Faction that always provided him with the best data; now they were gone.  Without them, he was no better than anyone else.  He had no special ability, no influence, no one to call...