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Atoms
No Time — Truespace “The fabric of the surface of space is profoundly stiff. Because of this, the knots that form in 3-space have constraining effects on the random motions of surrounding space. These constraining effects are felt by other ‘particles’ even at great distances.” The view on the vast display zooms out and continues.…
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At the Foundations
No Time — Truespace He is in a room whose distant walls are made of light, and whose ceiling, if it exists at all, is lost high above in glowing mist. “You have chosen,” a great voice says, “to join the Society of the Work. Before beginning the Work, you must learn. This is your…
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The Interview
No Time — Truespace “We do not get many princes here,” the voice said from the immense glowing rectangle on the wall. The room was so vast that he could not tell with certainty whether it was a room at all. To left and right there was only darkness, and before him nothing but the…
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The Ends of the World
No Time — Truespace The prince was injured by his fall but survived it. He was eventually discovered by his nearest neighbors. The dragon had departed as abruptly as it arrived, and was not seen again. The prince’s neighbors, when they arrived, had come accompanied by their most fearsome mobile weapons: devices that had not…
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The Dragon
No Time — Truespace It was in that time in the days after the party that the dragon came. It is especially difficult to describe the dragon. Maybe I should call it a swarm of replicating disorder, or a torrent of corrupting cold fire, or a living storm of annihilating chaos. All of those descriptions…
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The Party
No Time — Truespace “But what do we really do?” the prince asks his friends and neighbors. “Oh ho!” Bright Star laughs. “Must we endure your existential doubts again? We live! We manage our realms. We create beauty. Is it not enough? Has it not always been?” The prince nods and smiles, sips his drink,…
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Before the Party
No Time — Truespace One day, on a day when a party of special magnificence had been planned for the evening, the princess went to call upon her prince to consult with him on some detail of the evening’s entertainments and was surprised to find him as yet unprepared: not wearing his party finery nor…
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The Prince and the Princess
No Time — Truespace If I could tell this story properly, you would not be able to hear it. If I could project images of it, your eyes would not be able to see them. If I could represent it accurately in thoughts, your mind would not be able to encompass them. What I can…
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The Star Drive
Wednesday, 5 March, 1947 — Chicago, Illinois “Oh, excuse me!” the French girl says. “Could we please stop here?” The taxi driver looks into his rearview mirror and smiles at his fare. He can’t help smiling, this is the best-looking fare he has seen in a long time. She looks very small on the Marathon’s…
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Robbie
Thursday, 14 July, 1898 — Worcester, Massachusetts “Excuse me,” a woman says behind her. Arias finishes shelving a book and turns to see a well-dressed woman in her mid-thirties, intelligent, open, and inquisitive. “If I may ask, are you making a new collection here? I do not recognize the genre.” Arias, in her guise as…
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De la Terre a la Lune
Tuesday, 16 October, 1888 — Minneapolis, Minnesota In the moment that he turns the brass knob and begins to swing open the heavy door to his room, Tennen knows that someone is waiting for him inside. He begins to compose his mind for battle—as unlikely as that seems in a house that is even now…
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Prospect Hill
Sunday, 7 July, 1839 — near Manchester, Michigan Mount Tisé rises four thousand feet above the plains of western Tibet. Three quarters of that distance above the plain, on a sheer face of black rock five hundred feet high, windows and balconies are carefully concealed in permanently shadowed fissures in the rock. Behind them the…