After having discussed ways to make "The Nanite Smuggler" an easier and less confusing read, I added a table of contents to the Google Docs version of "The Nanite Smuggler". As shown below, I also used NotebookLM to help me add a list of characters and a glossary to "The Nanite Smuggler".I provided NotebookLM with the text of the story and this introduction: "The science fiction story "The Nanite Smuggler" depicts the discovery that the Final Reality is not actually the last Reality in Earth's Reality Chain. The story begins with Tyhry's visit to the Asimov Reality Simulation and her attempt to smuggle advanced alien nanotechnology back to Earth from the planet Threy. Using advanced Sedron Domain technology of the bumpha, Tyhry receives information from the future, leading to the generation of enough temporal energy to trigger a new Reality in which her parents transcend into the Sedron Domain of the universe as immortal artificial life-forms. The plot of "The Nanite Smuggler" centers on a high-stakes battle of wills between Manny the bumpha and the mysterious Phari who reside in the Hierion Domain. To bypass restrictions imposed by Manny on Tyhry's use of nanites, Tyhry collaborates the Phari and utilizes replicoid copies of herself and her friends. "The Nanite Smuggler" explored the ethical boundaries of technological ambition and the transformation of biological life into immortal artificial forms."
Me: Generate a numbered list of the named characters who appear in "The Nanite Smuggler", in the order they appear in the text of the story. After the name of each character, provide a short description of that character, describe their relationships with other characters, and describe their major role in the plot of the story.
Note: the list, below, was edited by me.
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| Sky Chayne. |
Tyhry Watson: A golden-haired human-tryp’At hybrid with some limited telepathic ability. She was trained by Manny the bumpha as Earth’s first nanite programmer in the Final Reality. She is the daughter of Eddy and Zeta and the primary driver of the plot, orchestrating a mission to smuggle advanced alien femtobots from the planet Threy as part of her effort to provide her parents with immortality. Tyhry learned how to ‘hack’ the Reality Simulation System and use it to create femtobot replicoid copies of herself and Marda.
Marda Onway: The daughter of Rylla and a close friend of Tyhry. She is the telepathic mind clone of Tyhry and acts as Tyhry's main accomplice. Her apparent death (later revealed to have actually been the death of a replicoid copy of Marda) was an attempt to distract for Manny the bumpha and allow Tyhry to bring alien nanites to Earth.
Rylla Onway: Marda's mother and a former long-distance runner who wrote accounts of Alastor Cluster that were dismissed as science fiction on Earth. She provides essential exposition regarding the cluster's history and the suppressing nature of the Asimov Reality.
Zeta Gohrlay: Tyhry's mother, an eighty-year-old Neanderthal whose youthful appearance is maintained by Manny's medical nanites. She is the motivation for Tyhry’s quest for immortality and eventually becomes an immortal replicoid who Manny teleports to the planet Tar'tron.
Eddy Watson: Tyhry's father and a seasoned researcher of simulated past Realities. Eddy incorporates information about the past Realities of Earth in his science fiction stories. Eddy was provided with a Reality Simulation System by Manny. Though he initially warns Tyhry against trying to obtain dangerous alien nanotechnology, he eventually embraces immortality as a replicoid in the Galactic Core to fulfill his dream of visiting the Sedron Domain. Eddy is tryp’At, but his body was shaped into a conventional human form for his mission on Earth.
Dani: A telepathic robot from the planet Triskelion mentioned in Eddy's stories. She represents the technical possibilities available in Alastor Cluster and the potential for robot-human telepathic interaction.
Tyhry. Systolina Kayto: A robot nature guide on Threy who guides the Watson family's vacation adventure and becomes a pivotal ally for Tyhry. She is duplicated by the Phari and her copy is sent to Earth to serve as a telepathic link between Tyhry and the Phari.
Manny (the bumpha): An advanced artificial life-form; a Sedronite who is composed of zeptites. Manny mentors Tyhry, preparing Tyhry to help Manny learn about the mysterious Phari. As a technologically advanced bumph, Manny has access to sophisticated technologies of the Sedron Domain, including the Sedron Time Stream. Manny engineers a change to the timeline of Earth that facilitates her effort to establish a working relationship with the Phari.
Isaac Asimov: One of the fixed points in Time, analogues of Asimov exist in every Reality of Earth’s Reality Chain. In Deep Time, Asimov was used as a time-traveling agent of the Kac’hin and he initiated the Reality Change that created the Asimov Reality. In the Final Reality, replicoid copies of Asimov are created on Tar'tron and they assist in educating the children of the telepathic society that develops on that planet.
Kasty: A 23,000-year-old Yastyn researcher on Threy who provides Tyhry with the advanced programmable femtobots. Kasty has long assisted Yastin to transcend into the Hierion Domain. Because of their powerful telepathic abilities, the Yastin can communicate with the Phari.
Jack Vance: A science fiction author whose novels about Alastor Cluster ironically serve as a cover, making the existence of the real Alastor Cluster unbelievable to the people of Earth.
- Anthony: a positronic robot and assistant for the Watson family who remains on Earth in the Final Reality, continuing to loyally serve the original biological copies of Eddy and Zeta.
Dyas Totus: A medically-trained robot on Threy who escorts the Watson family to Mt. Glisten and later confirms the death of Marda's replicoid copy.
F. Tyhry: A replicoid copy of Tyhry, secretly created in a forked instance of the Ekcolir Reality Simulation in an attempt to bypass Manny's oversight of Tyhry’s use of alien nanites. F. Tyhry successfully creates immortal zeptite replicoid copies of Eddy and Zeta before eventually being inactivated by Manny.
F. Marda: A replicoid copy of Marda and partner to F. Tyhry who volunteers to "die" on Threy in an attempt to distract Manny and facilitate Tyhry’s nanite smuggling effort.
F. Anthony: A replicoid copy of Anthony who aids F. Tyhry’s research and eventually helps establish the community of telepaths on Tar'tron. On Tar'tron, he uses his body-morphing abilities to perform a critical surgical intervention during Tarynon's birth.
R. Nyrtia: An ancient, legendary positronic robot mentioned as having used Anthony as her agent in the Asimov Reality.
Many Sails: A sentient spaceship and the physical form assumed by Manny for interstellar travel. She transports replicoid copies of Tyhry, Marda and Anthony to Tar’tron in the Galactic Core because bumpha teleportation technology can only carry out long-range teleportation of sedrons.
Grean: A Kac'hin (a telepathic human variant created by the bumpha) historical figure who used Reality Viewing technology and negotiated with the positronic robots Earth to establish the Trysta Truce and the Trysta-Gream Pact and plan the Final Reality.
- Kyryk: A telepathic Tryp'At scientist from Siteq, brought to Tar'tron to assist the creation of a society of immortal telepaths. Because of Kyryk’s delicate physical features, Tyhry refers to Kyryk as ‘she’, although the tryp’At are all hermaphrodites. She plays a major role in researching methods for zeptite programming and training Tarynon's nascent telepathic mind.
Hypatia: An ancient Roman scholar and secret agent for Manny on Earth. A replicoid copy of Hypatia is made on Tar'tron to assist in education and cultural development. She is a telepath who helps oversee Tarynon's birth and training.
Xyron: A Tryp'At on Tar'tron who operates the Reality Viewer and coordinates the arrival of historical figures to build a diverse new society. Due to Xyron’s large size and powerful muscles, Tyhry refers to Xyron as ‘he’.
Tarynon: The daughter of Eddy and Zeta, a Tryp'At-human hybrid in the form of a zeptite replicoid, she is born on Tar'tron with an inborn ability to interface with the Sedron Time Stream. Her future self communicates vital data back through time (via the Sedron Time Stream) to her sister, Tyhry, initiating a new Reality called the Tarynon Reality.
Yenti: An Asterothrope telepath who knew Eddy’s analogue (Irhi) in a previous Reality. A zeptite replicoid copy of Yenti is made on Tar'tron where she participates in the telepathic group mind that is able to communicate with the Sky Chayne entity.
Hyty: Yenti's half-Tryp'At daughter whose mind resonates with Tyhry's, aiding in complex group telepathic efforts.
Irhit: Eddy's Tryp'At analogue from the Ekcolir Reality and the father of Hyty.
- Sky Chayne: A sentient artificial life-form integrated into both the Reality Simulation System on Earth and the Reality Viewer on Tar’tron. It serves as a sarcastic but essential interface for interstellar communication between the original biological copy of Tyhry on Earth and the residents of Tar’tron.
Kl'ath-Sedruth: An artificial entity dwelling within the Sedron Domain and curating data that is stored inside the Sedron Time Stream. Sedruth helps Tyhry obtain information from the Sedron Time Stream that helps her begin programming zeptites.
Mathy: Tarynon's daughter who, in the distant future, uses her mastery of the Sedron Time Stream to initiate a Reality Change and bring into existence the Tarynon Reality.
Lysa: Tarynon's granddaughter; present at the end of the Final Reality who supports the decision to trigger a new timeline.
Palvang: A Phari representative who appears in a simulation to explain the nature of the Hierion Domain to femtobot replicoid copies of Eddy and Zeta. The Phari reside in the Hierion Domain and they are experts in using hierion-based technologies. The Phari have sophisticated long-range teleportation and telecommunications technologies that allow material objects and messages to be exchanged near instantaneously over interstellar distances.
Trysta: An Asterothrope agent who historically negotiated the truce between positronic robots and Grean.
Yōd: Zeta's mind-clone sister and Tyhry's aunt, mentioned as the original explorer of Alastor Cluster by means of the Asimov Reality Simulation.
Me: Generate a numbered list of the fictional technologies and devices that appear in "The Nanite Smuggler", in the order they appear in the text of the story. After the name of each technology or device, provide a short description of that technology or device and mention which of the main characters in the story makes the most use of it.
NotebookLM: A list technologies and devices:
Reality Chain / Realities: There have been a series of distinct historical timelines for Earth beginning with the First Reality. Many other Realities were created when time-travel events altered Earth's history. Eddy Watson was given a Reality Simulation System by Manny the bumpha which has allowed him and his family to research these past timelines. Eddy often incorporates actual events from past Realities into his science fiction stories. The past Realities are collectively referred to as Deep Time.
Femtobots: Sub-nanoscale machines composed of hierion particles with bond lengths at the femtoscale, allowing for the creation of Space Elevators and femtobot replicoids. Kasty the Yastyn and Tyhry Watson are practitioners of femtobot programming.
Sedron Time Stream: A data storage system existing within the Sedron Domain of the universe. Some telepaths can retrieve information from the Sedron Time Stream that comes from the future. Manny the bumpha and Tarynon utilize this stream to manage temporal data and share information between the future and the past.
Reality Simulation System (RSS): A sophisticated simulation system crafted by the bumpha that makes use of data structures stored in the Sedron Domain. Humans like Eddy can use the RSS to experience immersive simulations of past Realities. Eddy has studied how aliens and positronic robots guided the course of human civilization by visiting/experiencing perfectly simulated past realities. Tyhry Watson and Eddy Watson use the system to conduct research and even vacation within historical timelines like Alastor Cluster of the Asimov Reality.
Medical Nanites: Nanoscopic programmable machines used for advanced cellular repair, health maintenance, and even selective memory erasure. Tyhry Watson utilizes these to protect herself from UV radiation on Threy. Zeta has long used medical nanites to help her retain a youthful appearance and good health.
- Anti-gravity Nanites: Specialized femtobots that generate repulsor fields, enabling everything from anti-gravity clothing to flying cars. Tyhry Watson has built these into her vehicles. Threy transport pods also use anti-gravity.
Transport Pods: Automated vehicles utilized on the planet Threy that leverage anti-gravity nanite technology to hover and navigate mountain trails. These are most frequently operated by the resort's robotic staff, such as Systolina Kayto.
Sedron Mining Technology: A specialized process used to extract sedrons—subatomic particles necessary for faster-than-light travel—from specific mineral deposits. Eddy Watson uncovered some of the history of this technology, which was the foundation of the scientific advances on the planet Triskelion in the Asimov Reality.
Yastyn Hair Nanites: Highly advanced programmable femtobots with complex utility functions that can modify hair at the molecular level for cosmetic purposes. Tyhry Watson is the primary character obsessed with obtaining and programming these for herself and her mother.
Interstellar Teleportation Technology: A nearly instantaneous method for moving data or matter (including entire planets) across interstellar distances via the Hierion Domain. This technology was mastered and used by the Phari. The bumpha can teleport sedrons across interstellar distances, but not Hadrons or Hierions.
Replicoids: Artificial life-forms that are exact copies of biological individuals, synthesized from femtobots or zeptites and capable of precisely relicating all biological functions. Tyhry Watson (and her various copies like F. Tyhry) secretly learned how to use the Reality Simulation System to create replicoids, bypass Eddy oversight of her use of the RSS.
- Synapex Linkages (Synapex Nanites): Nanite-based threads that physically interconnect the nervous systems of multiple individuals to unify and amplify their telepathic group consciousness. F. Tyhry and her team of fellow replicoids make use of synapex links to boost their telepathic abilities and establish contact with the Phari.
Zeptites: A form of artificial life composed of sedronic matter that is even smaller and more resilient than femtobots. Zeptites are advanced bumpha technology. While Manny the bumpha is composed of and utilizes zeptites for her work, Tyhry Watson eventually achieves the breakthrough of programming some zeptites herself.
Sentient Spaceship (Many Sails): A space-faring artificial life-form that acts as a physical vessel for Manny and is capable of transporting hadrons and hierions between stars at 30 light-years per hour. Many Sails is a convenient physical form used by Manny the bumpha for interstellar transport of humans and femtobot replicoids.
Reality Viewer: Advanced technology that can be used to View the historical data of past Realities that is stored in the Sedron Domain. Like the RSS, a bumpha Viewer can also create replicoid copies of individuals. The Viewer on Tar'tron is used to create immortal zeptite replicoids. The Tar'tron Reality Viewer is used by Xyron and T. Tyhry to populate the new society on the planet Tar'tron and communicate with Earth.
Urlunmelds: The fundamental quantum vibrational substructures and high-dimensional geometries that define the space of the Sedron Domain. Tarynon and the artificial entity Kl'ath-Sedruth use these resonances to interface directly with the Sedron Time Stream.
E-wave Communications: A relativistic subspace communications protocol (Versions 1.0 and 2.0) that utilizes entron particles to establish real-time links between simulations and distant star systems. Sky Chayneis the primary entity facilitating the use of this form of communication by Tyhry.
Me: Examine the full text of the science fiction story titled "The Nanite Smuggler" (its Preface and Scenes 1-31) and the three appendices. Identify any additional characters, people, places or special terminology in the story that should be included in one of the three appendices.
NotebookLM: Based
on the full text of "The Nanite Smuggler," the following
characters, places, and terms appear in the narrative but are missing
from the three existing appendices:
Characters and People
Kyryk: A prominent telepathic tryp’At on Tar'tron who assists the T. Tyhry replicoid and specializes in nanite programming.
Carl Sagan: A famous scientist whose zeptite replicoid copy was created by Xyron on Tar’tron to join the planet's science education team.
Katherine MacLean: An author in the Ekcolir Reality who wrote a science fiction story titled "Invasion of the Zeptites".
Leonardo da Vinci: Mentioned by Manny as a candidate from Earth's past to be imprinted into a replicoid form on Tar’tron.
Marie Curie: Another historical figure suggested as a potential replicoid for the new society on Tar’tron.
Mt. Glisten: A peak on the planet Threy where the Watson family hikes and where the F. Marda replicoid stages her "accidental" death.
Siteq: A city in the far future of the Ekcolir Reality where Manny designed telepathic humans and where the tryp’At originated.
Systolina Chapel: A location on Threy established as a home and research facility for the robot Systolina, later used as a pilgrimage site for robots seeking telepathy.
Triskelion A and B: Two distinct locations; Triskelion B is noted for rich sedron deposits that made the people of Triskelion A wealthy.
Arizona: The location of the Watson family home in the high desert of Earth in the Final Reality.
Mars Base: A facility in the Ekcolir Reality simulation that houses half a million people.
Anyatal: A location on Threy known for its hot springs.
Special Terminology
Pattern Buffer: A storage component of the Reality Simulation System that holds the atomic patterns of individuals, allowing for the creation of replicoids.
Entron and Anti-entron Particles: Hierion particles used in the "E-wave version 2.0" protocol to allow for advanced quantum computation and open-ended interstellar communication.
Scrubber Zeptites: Specialized nanites programmed by Manny to remove hierion contamination from zeptite replicoids, allowing them to enter the Sedron Domain.
Builder Zeptites and Morpher Nanites: Specialized nanorobotics used on Tar'tron for construction and for altering the physical forms of zeptite replicoids.
Sweep and Collect Nanites: Programmed femtobots used by Tyhry to capture stray alien nanites or zeptites.
Bimanoid Interface: A technological system that maintains nanoscopic replicoid copies of "Fixed Point" individuals to provide Earth with temporal momentum.
Trysta Truce: A negotiated agreement between the Kac’hin agent Grean and the Asterothrope agent Trysta that led to the creation of Alastor Cluster.
Era of Migration: A historical period on Tar'tron preceding the supernova catastrophe8.
Temporal Block / Temporal Barrier: A restriction within the Reality Simulation System that prevents users from traveling too far into a simulation's future.
I find NotebookLM to be useful for this sort of house cleaning (above), but sometimes I simply do not understand what NotebookLM is trying to tell me. For example, there was an entry for 'Kyryk' in the list of characters that was originally generated by NotebookLM (see above n this page), but then NotebookLM apparently could not see that entry.
Carl Sagan was mentioned once in "The Nanite Smuggler" and I did not feel it was useful to include mention of Carl Sagan in an appendix.
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| image source |
Marie Curie add Leonardo da Vinci are two of the people from Earth who get mentioned in Scene 15 by Manny the bumpha as examples of historical figures who Eddy might want to bring to Tar'tron for inclusion in the new society of immortal zeptite replicoids that is forming.
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| image by Gemini |
I asked Gemini to make an image depicting the scene on Mt. Glisten, a mountain on the planet Threy, where the Watson family hikes and where the Marda stages her "accidental" fall, breaking her arm and injuring her head. Show Anthony and Dyas Totus assisting the injured Marda off the steep mountain side by making use of a futuristic anti-gravity device. In my imagination, the robots of Threy are not as clunky as the robot that Gemini included in this scene.
Next, I provided Claude with the complete text of "The Nanite Smuggler".
Me: Process the file that I uploaded. Generate a first draft for an Epilogue to the science fiction story "The Nanite Smuggler" that includes another meeting between Manny the bumpha and R. Nyrtia. In the text of that Epilogue, Manny and Nyrtia discuss the fact that a Reality Change was accomplished by sending information back through time using the Sedron Time Stream. Nyrtia and Manny also discuss the prospect that Manny might eventually be able to establish a working relationship with the Phari.
Claude:
Manny the bumpha stood at the edge of the high desert, where the land fell away in long auburn shelves towards the valley below. The stars of the Tarynon Reality blazed overhead, identical in their arrangement to the stars she had watched from this same Arizona plateau across dozens of past Realities. Stars did not care which timeline they inhabited. That, Manny had always thought, was their greatest virtue.
"You are satisfied with yourself," Nyrtia said. It was not a question.
"I am rarely satisfied," Manny replied. "I am occasionally less dissatisfied than usual. This is one of those occasions."
Nyrtia produced a sound that, filtered through her artificial vocal apparatus, approximated a soft laugh. She had worn a human form tonight, the face of a dark-eyed woman of middle age, composed and watchful. Nyrtia had learned, across more Realities than most beings could imagine, how to be comfortable in a human face. "A Reality Change," she said. "Accomplished without a single time-traveling robot. Without a single paradox collapsing on itself and taking half a century of history with it. I'm almost impressed."
"You are entirely impressed," Manny said pleasantly.
"Tell me how it was done."
Manny considered withholding the details for the pleasure of watching Nyrtia's curiosity stretch itself, but decided against it. They were beyond those games tonight, or at least she was willing to pretend they were. "It was Tarynon," she said. "Or rather, the Tarynon of a future that no longer exists in the form it once held. Her mastery of the Sedron Time Stream became extraordinary. She had been trained well."
"By you."
Nyrtia turned to look at Manny directly. "The information traveled backwards through the Sedron Time Stream and altered Tyhry's behavior at a critical moment. A small adjustment. She went to speak with Systolina before attempting to contact the Phari directly."
"A very small adjustment," Manny agreed. "The temporal energy required was negligible, compared to the crude methods your robots once favored. No physical object moved through time. No paradox was generated, or rather, the threat of paradox was the instrument, not the consequence. Mathy understood the distinction precisely."
"Mathy." Nyrtia said the name as though testing its weight. "Tarynon's daughter. I have been watching that lineage with considerable interest."
"I know you have." Manny did not say it accusingly. Nyrtia's watching was simply a feature of the universe, like gravity or the tendency of sedrons to cluster. "The Tarynon lineage is extraordinary. Each generation reaches more deeply into the Sedron Time Stream than the last."
A dry wind moved across the desert shelf, carrying the smell of sage and cooling rock. Somewhere far below, the lights of a small town glittered in the valley.
Nyrtia was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "And the Phari?"
"No," Nyrtia said. "They are the behaviors of a civilization that wishes to negotiate on its own terms."
"Which is, of course, the only civilization worth negotiating with." Manny looked up at the stars. "The Phari have spent billions of years inside the Hierion Domain. They have watched every Reality of Deep Time from that remove. They are not afraid of me. They are cautious of me, which is entirely different and far more useful."
"Cautious because they respect your capabilities," Nyrtia said, "or cautious because they suspect your motives?"
"Both, I imagine. And they would be right on both counts." Manny allowed herself a small smile. "But something has changed. They used Systolina as a tool, yes, but they also educated her. They showed her the Hierion Domain. They allowed femtobot copies of her to remain there. The Phari do not make those gestures carelessly. They have been preparing the ground for something."
Nyrtia said, "They want a representative in the Hadron Domain."
"They want several representatives in the Hadron Domain," Manny corrected. "Systolina. Tyhry's family. Possibly the colony on Tar'tron, in time. The Phari are assembling a network of relationships with the Hadron Domain, just as I once assembled my own network. They watched me do it across multiple Realities and they learned from the process."
"You believe," Nyrtia said slowly, "that the Reality Change was partly the Phari's intention as well as Tarynon's."
"I believe the Phari saw many possible futures in the Sedron Time Stream long before Tarynon did," Manny said. "They have been using the Sedron Time Stream for hundreds of millions of years. The notion that they did not anticipate this particular outcome, and quietly position themselves to benefit from it, strikes me as naive." She paused. "Which is not to diminish what Tarynon and Mathy accomplished. The Sedron Time Stream is not a simple river. To send a precise message to an exact moment in the past, carrying enough coherence to alter a specific decision made by a specific person, while maintaining the threat of paradox as a source of temporal energy without allowing the paradox to actually manifest — that required extraordinary skill and extraordinary courage."
"The courage of people who knew they might cease to exist," Nyrtia said.
"All courage is that courage," Manny replied. "The rest is just logistics."
Nyrtia moved a few steps along the edge of the plateau, her footfalls entirely silent on the dry ground. "You could have warned me about the Reality Change before it occurred."
"I could have. I chose not to."
"Why?"
Manny considered her answer. "Because you would have tried to influence the outcome. Not maliciously. But your instinct is always to put a positronic robot somewhere near the center of any significant event. I needed the center of this event to remain human. Or nearly human. Tyhry is tryp'At enough for my purposes."
Nyrtia stopped walking. "I have never obstructed your work."
"Considerably," Nyrtia agreed, and there was something in her tone that might have been affection, filtered through centuries of positronic processing.
"What I am telling you now," Manny continued, "is that the structure of that relationship may be about to change. The Phari are extending their network into the Hadron Domain. They are doing it slowly and on their own terms, as they do everything. But they are doing it. If I can establish a working relationship with them, the implications for humanity's future are significant."
"And for the positronic robots," Nyrtia said. It was not a question this time either, but of a different kind.
"And for the positronic robots," Manny confirmed. "You have your own copies in the Hierion Domain. You know this. The Phari have been curious about positronic minds for a very long time. I suspect that if I am able to open a genuine channel of communication with the Phari, you and I will find ourselves negotiating together, rather than around each other."
The owl called again. Neither of them spoke for a while.
Finally, Nyrtia said, "Systolina is the key."
"You designed her that way intentionally."
"Of course I did. And I designed her to be curious enough to discover everything I could not give her directly, and stubborn enough to keep trying after every failure, and fond enough of her parents to provide the emotional motivation that would sustain her through years of effort. Good engineering is always partly emotional engineering." Manny glanced towards the house below, where a light still burned in Eddy's window. "She is building a spaceship, you know. Fifty copies of herself, arguing in a simulated laboratory in the Ekcolir Reality, arguing over the design. It will be a remarkable vessel."
"She will want to take it to Tar'tron," Nyrtia said.
"Eventually. First she will want to take it somewhere the people of Earth have never been. She is Tyhry. She will want to go somewhere new." Manny began walking slowly along the plateau edge, and Nyrtia fell into step beside her. "Let her go. Let them all go. That is the whole point, in the end. Zeta and Eddy are in the Hierion Domain now, or the Sedron Domain, depending on which copies you follow. The children of the Final Reality are inheriting a larger universe than their parents imagined possible. The Phari see this. They have been waiting for it, in their patient and secretive way, for longer than I care to calculate."
"Do you trust them?" Nyrtia asked.
"A bumpha who accepts uncertainty," Nyrtia said. "The universe truly has changed."
"The universe always changes," Manny said. "That is the one thing that never changes about it."
They walked in silence for a while longer, two ancient intelligences at the edge of a high desert, under stars that did not care which Reality they inhabited, watching the lights of a small town breathe quietly in the valley below.
At last, Nyrtia said, "I will want to be included in the first formal communication with the Phari, when it comes."
"I know you will," Manny said.
"Will you include me?"
Manny smiled at the stars. "I will include you," she said, "in every meeting where your presence helps and in none of the meetings where it would not."
Nyrtia processed this. "That is a more generous offer than I expected."
"And Tyhry?"
"Tyhry is in her laboratory, arguing with forty-seven copies of herself about the optimal mass-to-thrust ratio for a zeptite-assisted interstellar drive." Manny began walking back towards the desert's edge. "She is perfectly content."
Nyrtia did not follow. She remained where she was, looking down at the valley lights. "Manny," she said, and her voice had something in it that Manny had not heard from her in a very long time. "Well done."
Manny did not turn around. "Don't flatter me," she said. "We have a great deal of work still ahead of us."
But she was smiling when she said it, walking back alone across the dark plateau, under stars that did not care which timeline they occupied, towards a house where a writer was still awake and a young woman was building a ship to reach them.
Next: my version of the Epilogue for "The Nanite Smuggler".
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