Shadows of Eternity
Contents ( 99)
- Publisher’s Notice
- PART 1 THE PREFECT
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- PART 2 THE HYDROGEN WALL
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- PART 3 THE MILKY WAY’S LIBRARY
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- PART 4 FOOD TO THE SOUL
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- PART 5 YTHRI
- 1.
- 2.
- PART 6 SHADOWS OF ETERNITY
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- PART 7 BLOODPRIDE
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- FRAQ
- PART 8 ORBITFALL
- 1.
- 2.
- FRAQ
- PART 9 ASCENDING EVEREST
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- FRAQ
- PART 10 BLACK SMOKER
- 1.
- PART 11 THE LATHE OF EVOLUTION
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- PART 12 THE GRACE OF TRAGEDY
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- FRAQ
- PART 13 A WORM IN THE WELL
- 1.
- 2
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- PART 14 THE WORM TURNS
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- FRAQ
- RACHEL
- AFTERWORD
- ORBITFALL? REALLY?
- TOROIDAL WORMHOLES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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When on some gilded cloud or flower
My gazing soul would dwell an houre,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity.
—Henry Vaughan, “The Retreate,” 1650
PART 1
THE PREFECT
Hidden wisdom and hidden treasure—of what use is either?
—ECCLESIASTICUS 20:30
1.
The woman who had gone in only three minutes before came back out.
“What?!” Rachel Cohen let her surprise escape.
The tall Asian woman shrugged, scowled, eyes rolling. “He just pointed to the door and frowned.”
“What did you say?”
“Well, he asked what tasks I wanted to work on. I said I could do just about anything. He asked for specifics. I didn’t really have any. So I trotted out some of the major problems I had heard of. I couldn’t say much, but some. Then he pointed to the door.” She fingered the plastic square in her hand, her shoulders slumped, and she sighed. She left on uncertain strides.
Next up for the position of Trainee Librarian was a slim man, tall and self-assured. He got a beep on his sidekick, straightened his formal Eartherstyle toga, and went in eagerly, fixed smile. All the candidates were just up from Earthside and getting used to the low grav, but this man managed a confident step and a mere bit of a bounce as he went in. And came out in five minutes. Better than the tall Asian woman, at least.
“Did he—”
“The Prefect handed me this and nodded good-bye.” The man held out the same slim plastic square, good for passage back to Earth. “He said they, the Earthside filters, had wasted both his time and mine. That I was too certain of myself to have the right frame of mind for this work.”
At least I won’t have that problem, Rachel thought. Nobody ever accused me of overconfidence.