Hunt thought for a second, then grinned. "Well, there has to be, doesn't there?" he replied. "They got the relay working in that other universe. But you and I aren't about to solve that here and now. Come on. I think it's time we took this to the others."

It turned out that just about everyone else had been thinking something similar. But as with Hunt and Chien, the conclusion had seemed so extraordinary that they had all been sounding each other out privately to seek some kind of moral support before risking any general statement of the fact. When Hunt prevailed upon Eesyan to call all of the team together in the tower and presented the argument that he and Chien had talked about, there was little surprise or dissent-even from Danchekker. The general reception was one of relief that someone had brought it into the open at last, since they had all either arrived at some similar suspicion themselves or had one bounced off them by others.

Several groups of Thuriens, independently and unknown to each other, were working with VISAR to try and lay down the basis of a mathematical treatment in the same way as Hunt. Duncan and Sonnebrandt had conceived the idea of an equivalent "M-field mass," causing a curvature Multiverse space in an analogous way to that in which physical mass curves Einsteinian spacetime. Danchekker and Sandy had been wondering if the effect was a result of the Multiporter altering quantum probabilities in the kind of way that Danchekker maintained living organisms were able to do. All of them were using VISAR to test and help develop their theories, but VISAR had said nothing to alert any to the work of the others. Its operating directives precluded informing on the activities of individuals without being asked to.

But now that the debate was general, VISAR was able to construct a graphical depiction of the consensus, showing the event sequences that must have merged. Astoundingly, it followed inescapably that the reality all of them were now sharing and living in had to included individuals who were from at least four different past universes.

In universe "A" that Duncan remembered, he had collected Ko's autograph book from Sandy the night before. If the electrical and chemical patterns in his head were not sufficient evidence of its reality, there could be no denying the book itself, which came with him. But there was also another universe, "B," in which he had neglected to collect the book and so Sandy had given it to Danchekker instead the following morning, along with her notes for Eesyan. Danchekker had apparently met Hunt sometime after arriving at the Institute and gone with him to the Multiporter building. It wasn't possible to check with that particular Danchekker because he didn't seem to be around anymore, but both Eesyan and Chien in Universe "B" had seen them arrive together. The Danchekker who existed in the present reality had diverged into Universe "C" by forgetting to pick up the notes, and then remembered them when on his way to Quelsang and turned back. Since Sandy attested to this, she had to be from Universe "C" also. Finally, a Universe "D" variant of the Danchekker who forgot the notes hadn't remembered them until after he arrived at Quelsang, and had left to go back to the Waldorf. This was the sequence that Hunt remembered, and so it followed that Hunt was from Universe "D" also. The lines that terminated represented continuations into other realities.

As if all this wasn't discombobulating enough, there was a further aspect of it that Hunt found even more eerie. If the operation of the machine was inducing a local convergence of time lines, it made sense that Danchekker "C" and Sandy "C" should agree, since neither of them had been anywhere near it that morning. Hence, the present universe they were in was "really" Universe "C," and everything that conflicted with it was an intrusion from someplace else. That apparently included Hunt himself, who originated from "D." Like the extraneous copies of the autograph book that didn't "belong," he had arrived here from some different reality with its own unique history that had shaped him to be what he was. He wasn't a product of this reality in which he now found himself. Yet there was no sense of any discontinuity to mark the progression of his recollections. And why should here be, he asked himself, any more than he was aware of the divergences where a minutely different version of himself branched off to experience a different future? The only clue would be to find some detail of his situation or environment that clashed with the imprint that he carried in his memories. He searched hard for such contradictions but was unable to find any.

The restriction of the machine's influence to events in its immediate proximity meant that for the most part the convergences involved trivial differences that had arisen comparatively recently. The past of any substance, along with the life that he remembered and the history he had been raised on, remained solidly immutable. As the others on the project gradually absorbed the same message, the main question came to be, how were they to advance things further? For how could the machine and anything in its vicinity be trusted to work safely and reliably if such a state of affairs were to continue? Finding a way to eliminate or at least contain the effect became the most pressing priority. The original appearance back at Earth of the relay from Hunt's alter ego had demonstrated that it was possible.

Frenua Showm's home and its setting could conceivably have provided the inspiration for a Wagnerian crescendo of full orchestra and chorus ringing out terror and magnificence in a minor key. It was not a single structure sitting on one level in the way that most Terrans would have thought of as a "house," but consisted of a number of interconnected units distributed across a prominence of rocky crags looking out over a breathtaking Thurien scene of plummeting gorges and near-vertical precipices rising toward distant bastions of jagged peaks. "Villa" might have been a better term to describe it. Although no two parts were at the same height, moving from one to another was speedy and effortless, thanks to the inbuilt system of g-lines that came as part of most Thurien structures. The spaces between provided harmonizing chords of rocky watergardens filled with Thurien flora and greenery, and included a pool held by natural rock forms, warmed to producing a hint of vapors at its surface and fed by a cascading waterfall.

Mildred didn't yet know if it was a general Thurien trait, but it seemed that Showm kept the different aspects of her life separate and apart, as if each functioned in its own exclusive compartment of her awareness, where it could enjoy the full focus of her attention for whatever time she was disposed to allot to it. When she was engaged in tasks connected with her ambassadorial role in Calazar's administration, she worked tirelessly and single mindedly, permitting no distraction. When she turned to the interests that she pursued to express her creative instincts, which ranged from writing a revision of Earth's history in the light of the now-revealed Jevlenese deceptions to creating neurally composed thought music that acted on the emotions directly as lucidly as sound upon the senses, Calazar and politics would be as far away from her thoughts as the star systems that most of such affairs pertained to. And when her mind sought the times of quiet and contemplation that all Thuriens looked upon as essential to a meaningful existence, if not the very point of it, she withdrew totally into herself and it was as if none of the rest existed. Her abode separated itself out to reflect those same functions. It was in a way, Mildred found herself thinking, a symbolic rendering in program-grown organics, metal-ceramic composites, and opto-active crystal, of Frenua's life.