I have emerged from my astronomical studies a much more educated man, a learned man, and yes—a frightened man. I am now a sage of the supernova. I'm still a big star. But people must realize that, since I am as big as eight conventional stars, the risk of me going supernova is that much greater. Not even electron degeneracy pressure is enough to stop a supernova when that happens to a star. I don't even know what that means, and I am the big astronomer, but it scares me. I have a future to think of. If I would have known being a star meant being a part of a system where gravity could collapse, causing my radiant celestial body to explode in an event 10 times brighter than an ordinary sun—or worse, dematerialize into a neutron star or possibly a black hole—I would have never agreed to this. I have been involved in many hotly contested battles in my life and have come out an even stronger warrior, but 100 billion Kelvins is a lot even for me. If I were still in my early 20s, maybe I could sustain a burst of energy more powerful than the sun could emit over a 10-billion-year time period. But everyone has to understand that I have a bad ankle.