BooksBarbecue
Back Worlds Enough and Time
Chapters (90)
  1. Title Page
  2. Enter the SF Gateway …
  3. Contents
  4. Author Note
  5. PROLOGUE: TRANSCRIPT
  6. IDENTITIES
  7. YEAR 0.005
  8. EARTHWATCH
  9. A CHANCE TO DREAM
  10. MEETING OF MINDS
  11. GENESIS AND REVELATION
  12. GRAVE IMAGE
  13. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
  14. MANEUVERING
  15. BIG SISTER
  16. THE POWER TO SOOTHE
  17. YEAR 1.00
  18. ABOUT TIME
  19. HAPPY NEW YEAR
  20. TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS
  21. FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS INCLINATIONS
  22. IN THE DEAD VAST AND MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
  23. OPTIONS
  24. DRIFTING
  25. DIVIDE AND MULTIPLY
  26. DIONYSUS MEETS GODZILLA
  27. 10
  28. DIDN’T SHE RAMBLE?
  29. YEAR 1.33
  30. LONG-RANGE PLANS
  31. NEW BEGINNINGS
  32. UNTIMELY PLUCKED
  33. BLUES
  34. YEAR 1.88
  35. LABOR-SAVING DEVICE
  36. FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE TO THE CRADLE
  37. A MODEST PROPOSAL
  38. ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN
  39. ONE PART HARMONY
  40. TWO PARTS DISCORD
  41. YEAR 3.21
  42. LEAVINGS
  43. REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
  44. TRANSLATING
  45. YEAR 5.71
  46. WATERSHED, BLOODSHED
  47. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
  48. A WOMAN OF DISCRIMINATION
  49. THAT TIME OF YEAR THOU MAYE5T IN ME BEHOLD
  50. CATEGORIES
  51. YEAR 6.26
  52. AULD ACQUAINTANCE
  53. SOWING, REAPING
  54. TEMPERAMENT
  55. BAD SEED
  56. YEAR 8.36
  57. HUSBANDRY
  58. POPULATION EXPLOSION
  59. YEAR 9.88
  60. HOMECOMING
  61. THE BURDENS OF FAITH
  62. YEAR 11.07
  63. GROWING PAINS
  64. LONG-DISTANCE CALL
  65. FOUR NOVELS
  66. AGE 55
  67. IN DREAMS AWAKE
  68. UP TEMPO
  69. JUVENILIA
  70. POOL PARTY
  71. INTERIM REPORT
  72. CHANCES
  73. BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
  74. FINAL APPROACH
  75. AGE 56
  76. DAY ZERO
  77. FIRST CONTACT
  78. LETTER ‘HOME
  79. HOUSEKEEPING
  80. AGE 57
  81. SETTLING, UNSETTLING
  82. THE HUNT
  83. FINAL EXAM
  84. AGE 100
  85. Website
  86. Also by Joe Haldeman
  87. Dedication
  88. EPILOGUE
  89. Author Bio
  90. Copyright
O’HARA: Something new every day.
PURCELL: Vacuum seal. Security. They just turned it on yesterday.
O’HARA: Oh. That’s why I had to leave my ring.
PURCELL: Not that metal detectors would stop some of the engineers. I understand they can make a recorder that only has a few micrograms of metal in it.
You left yours behind?
O’HARA: The recorder? Yes … and I erased our earlier conversation. After listening to it a couple of times.
PURCELL: Good. Then I take it you are willing to embrace our, shall we say, institutionalized tradition of duplicity?
O’HARA: Not embrace it. I will keep your secret, of course. Whether I can become part of it, I’m not sure.
PURCELL: How could you not? That’s like reaching puberty and deciding against it. You can’t go back.
O’HARA: I can go sideways.
PURCELL: Get out of politics?
O’HARA: There are a few other things I can do.
PURCELL: That would surprise me. Surprise the Evaluation Board, too.
O’HARA: The Board makes mistakes. The one in New New did, and they had ten times as many people to choose from.
PURCELL: Granted.
Is there anything I can clear up for you, then? Anything to put your mind at ease about this … unpleasant reality?
O’HARA: You could satisfy my curiosity about some things.

Purcell nods almost imperceptibly. O’Hara sits down across from him, stiff.

O’HARA: Does everyone in the Cabinet know about your little … tradition?
PURCELL: Not yet. As you just said, we’ve had to draw candidates from a limited pool. Some are still being evaluated.
O’HARA: But my husbands do know.
PURCELL: And have for some time, of course. Both of them have argued your case since well before Launch. I, among others, wanted to see how well you handled that particular stress, first.
O’HARA: It’s far from being the most stressful thing that’s ever happened to me.
PURCELL: Granted. But I wasn’t there for the others.

O’Hara leans back a few degrees, which makes her look even less relaxed. She can’t hide the anger in her voice.