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dimension you move in. You could have practically stasis going one way, and
total discontinuity if you choose another a single quantum event being
magnified, maybe, and triggering a transition to an entirely different
reality. We have no idea how to model effects like that."
"To get where you want, you need a map. But you have to be there to draw one,"
ZORAC commented.
"Does this mean you're about to deliver one of your profound insights, ZORAC?"
Hunt asked it.
"No. Just my take on the situation."
"Thanks."
There was not a lot more to be said on that for now. The talk shifted to the
work of Garuth and his administration on Jevlen. The program was progressing
well, with the Jevlenese getting over their total dependency on JEVEX and
learning to mange their own affairs competently. Hunt had noticed from some of
the outside views showing on the Command Deck's display screens that the city
was looking cleaner and in better shape than the run-down, decaying condition
it had been in when he last saw it. He wondered what Garuth and his people
would do when their task here was complete. It seemed a question best not
brought up at a time like this. But the Shapieron was not decommissioned or
stood down from being launch capable in any way. It had played key roles in
the ruse that had brought down Broghuilios's Jevlenese regime in the
Pseudowar, and afterward, in defeating the mass mind-invasion of Jevlenese
that the mental transplants from the Entoverse had intended. Hunt got the
feeling that they would be hankering for an excuse to fly their ship again.
And then, after the usual promises to stay in touch more regularly that busy
people are always making but seldom keep, they exchanged farewells for the
time being. Moments later, Hunt was back in the recliner in the neurocoupler
next to the Multiporter at the Quelsang Institute. "Thanks for the ride,
VISAR," he said by way of signing off.
"We try to please."
Hunt stretched to take in a yawn, held the pose for a few seconds, and flexed
his limbs a few times before getting up and ambling out into the lab area.
"Who's still around?" he asked, reverted to avco mode now.
"Only Thurien techs," VISAR replied. "Eesyan left earlier. Josef Sonnebrandt
and Madam Xyen Chien have gone on ahead and will see you at dinner with the
rest of the Terran group."
"Ah, yes. How long do I have?"
"Little over an hour."
"Does that give me time to get back to the Waldorf to freshen up and change
first?"
"No problem. There are some available flyers on the terrace outside the
cafeteria area two levels below where you are. Take the door at the back and
turn right, follow the wall with the windows in it to the concourse, and step
onto the downgoing g-line."
CHAPTER TEN
The venue for dinner was a semi-garden setting of flowers and shrubs, glazed
on two sides to look out among the city's heights, which incorporated
high-level urban rivers and waterfalls shaped by invisible contours of force.
Only the seven Terrans were present, the Thuriens having withdrawn for the
evening to leave them some time to themselves. Since this was Thurien, the
fare was vegetarian but delicious. Meat-eating was unknown among Ganymeans,
since land carnivores had never evolved on early Minerva. Apparently there
were Jevlenese-run places in Thurios that catered to the tastes of visitors of
their own kind, but the group from Earth hadn't considered it an especially
important matter. The most talkative was Mildred, still enthralled by her
recent experiences.
"Do you have any idea how many light-years Christian and Victor and I traveled
today?" she said to the others at the table. "VISAR told me it took in a
sizeable part of our region of the Galaxy. Yet I feel as fresh as a spring
morning in the Alps. And nobody even had to pack a bag! it really is amazing.
Can you imagine what it would be like if this kind of thing was extended one
day to include the whole Multiverse you know, all these other realities that I
keep hearing about? We'd be able to travel around in history even all the ones
that never happened. . . . Well, they do happen, if I understand it all
correctly, but not where we are. Is that it? . . . Oh, you know what I mean."
"Connecting all the VISARs together," Duncan said in a slow voice. He stared
at her, obviously fascinated by the thought. It evidently hadn't occurred to
him before. As the junior element of the team, he and Sandy had been delegated
the chore of organizing the work space that the Terran group would be using.
Things there were going smoothly, which didn't leave much to report, and they
were happy to leave the talking to others. Sonnebrandt and Chien were
strangely quiet, and Hunt thought he detected some strain between them.
Danchekker was absorbed in investigating the Thurien organic preparations.
Hunt stared at Mildred, his mind boggling at what she had just said. It hadn't
occurred to him either.
She went on, "But the part about it that I don't buy, I'm afraid, is this
business about every one of these little jiggly . . . what do you call them?
The changes that can go one way or another."
"Quantum events?" Hunt supplied.
"Yes. I just can't accept that they lead to every reality that could possibly
exist. Every combination that all the atoms that make up the universe could
conceivably create. That's how you're saying it is, isn't it?"
"It's what the mathematics says," Hunt replied, treating it cautiously. He
didn't want to get in a situation of having to contradict.
"Well, I'm not a mathematician," Mildred declared. "So I don't have to believe
it,"
Danchekker eyed her curiously for a moment, seemingly thought better of
getting involved, and returned his attention to dissecting a bulbous curiosity
garnished with a yellow sauce, vaguely suggestive of a purple artichoke. Hunt
smiled. "Numbers that are totally beyond anything you can grasp are just
something you learn to live with after a while in this business," he told
Mildred.
She shook her head. "It's not the numbers. It's the believability. You're
telling me that every universe that could possibly physically happen does
happen somewhere. But I don't believe it. I don't believe that a universe
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