Heirs of Earth
Page 37
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Verbs took on a whole new meaning. She followed the fovea as it jumped from place to place in the wake of lesser emissaries. Or were the emissaries—the cutters and the Tridents—following the fovea? It depended on where she stood, she guessed. Now that she saw it from the other side, swept up in the momentum of the fovea’s mission, she began to wonder if her memories were correct. Had the Starfish come last, or had they arrived first? Had the fovea been following her, or had she been following it? Was she leading it now, or was she trailing along for the ride? Had she finally convinced the Starfish to leave, or had she brought them and the entire causal singularity down on humanity? In the cloud chamber of her mind, there was only one certainty—only one thought streaked white and clear. I’m still here. It didn’t matter who she was or where she was going; nor did it matter that she had already been there and that “she” no longer existed in her former future. She still was, and that was all that mattered.
I
For the moment...
APPENDIX 1
The Adjusted Planck Standard International Unit
After several notable mission failures in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the United Near-Earth Stellar Survey Program (UNESSPRO) developed a single system of measurement to prevent conflict between data or software from nations contributing to joint space projects. The following charts summarize the results, as adopted by UNESSPRO in 2050, using Planck units and other physical constants as starting points.
1 new ampere = 2.972 old ampere
APPENDIX 2
Dramatis Personae
Human
Peter Alander (Geoffrey Marcy)
Peter Alander (Michel Mayor)
Peter Alander (Fred Rasio)
Peter Alander (Frank Tipler)
Francis Axford (996)
Francis Axford (1041)
Francis Axford (1313)
Francis Axford (1699)
Lucia Benck (Andre Linde)
Ali Genovese (Freeman Dyson)
Caryl Hatzis (Sol)
Caryl Hatzis (Roger Angel)
Caryl Hatzis (Debra Fischer)
Caryl Hatzis (Martin Heath)
Caryl Hatzis (Michio Kaku)
Caryl Hatzis (S. V. Krasnikov)
Caryl Hatzis (Tess Nelson)
Vince Mohler (James J. Funaro)
Owen Norsworthy (Freeman Dyson)
Kingsley Oborn (Marcus Chown)
Kingsley Oborn (Alice Quillen)
Cleo Samson (Marcus Chown)
Cleo Samson (Frank Drake)
Donald Schievenin (Frank Drake)
Rob Singh (Marcus Chown)
Rob Singh (Frank Drake)
Jayme Sivio (Freeman Dyson)
Yuhl/Goel
Ueh/Ellil (Conjugator)
Vrrel/Epan
Alien Races
A|kak|a/riil
The Asteroid
The “governors”
The “black ladybugs”
The Nexus
The Praxis
Pllix
The Spinners
The Starfish
APPENDIX 3
Mission Register
APPENDIX 4
Timetable
AFTERWORD
Our thanks go to many of the usual names. We hope they’re not getting blasé about this, because our indebtedness to them only increases, and this is the only way to repay them. (Sorry, guys.)
Hála vminek the wonderful Ginjer Buchanan for giving us space when we needed it. Tank to Richard Curtis, Stephanie Smith, and Shelly Shapiro for possessing between them all of the holy virtues. Grazie, Ralph Buttigieg at Infinitas and Justin Ackroyd of Slow Glass for rock-solid support on the front line. Asante to Erik Max Francis, Winchell Chung, and Claus Bornich for reasons spelled out in previous Afterwords. Oatlho, Marcus Chown (the real one, author of The Universe Next Door) for compiling so many wonderful ideas in such a slim volume. And a rousing cheer of “Obrigado!” for Nydia Dix, Vanessa Hobbs, Rob Hood, Kim Selling, and numerous other family members and friends who have inspired and put up with us for the last year.
It seems unlikely to an extreme that, given such support, we could possibly make any mistakes. But we do, and we ask that those named above not be held guilty by association. Merci.