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"What are you doing up?" he said, voice rough froht with possibilities

"I think I have it," she said, and he sat down beside her on the couch, liking how his weight slid her into him

But she shifted back, the exciteot fro through the glare "Everything indicates that you’re right, that we’re not going back in ti a temporary secondary existence for those within our reach, sort of like a closed oxbow of time"

"Yeah?" He was too tired to think, and he reached for the tablet Suether so they could both hold it The thin fabric of her nightgoas almost not there, and he forced his attention back "I could use so his theory was only half the battle He had to prove it

"Look here," she said, sliraph on the screen "The gravity sink parallels an individual drafter’s physical reach, and the Doppler shift is a direct correlation with the span of time we impact You couldn’t see it until there was a double-draft There wouldn’t be a gravity sink that large unless ere going sideways, creating a new reality that we drag back with us using the Doppler shift resonance echoes as a guide And if you aredraft and change so beyond a drafter’s natural reach Time is an artifact of distance moved, not the other way around This proves it, Silas You did it!"

Su as he lurched to keep his tablet froes everything," she said, positively glowing "You’ll have all the clout you need to do whatever you want Professor Milo can eat your silicon dust," she said "Silas," she exclai!"

A slow smile spread across his face, and he stared at the data, torn between studying it and holding her "We only have this one data pool," he said "I’ll needat the idea of fighting Professor Milo for every scrap of coony the drafters and anchors would have to endure to even gather the data Years in which Suan her work as a drafter "I can’t say a long draft is possible with just one twenty-second double-draft I need ainst her cheeks, which were pale froht now"

"Su sideways to take her hands "Knowing I’ht have to hold uncountable timent them The human mind is not a circuit"

"The human mind is the most flexible system ever created," she said, flushed "Isn’t that what you tell your students? Are you saying you don’t believe it?"

"Well, no"

"Your theory is sound," she said as she pulled away, her excite to wait," she said, cutting off his next protest "I’no back andMake it better"

"Make it better?" he whispered, not believing his levelheaded, careful Su forfor the to face her evenher defiance "There’s too much we don’t know"

"Then I’ll find out," she said, and he gasped as vertigo swalowed black rose like fireflies, blocking his vision His grip on Su for her mind as she threw theravity sink of the double-draft pulling her And she drafted

Silas spasmed as hot lances pierced his skull He fastened on the thu iht they failed their test She won’t survive, he thought, ignoring Professor Milo’s demand as he bolted out of the back rooled to comprehend Behind him the security room was stable--no choices to be made there--but before himthe bar was red-tinted shadows of alternate ties fluttered before his vision, and he tried to co upon the dance floor

The pain of the universe being born shook hi for a favorite recipe She was the only thing clear as red-smeared shadows played out alternate tiry, Doppler-tainted shout, the bouncer grew distinct as possibilities circled and steadied around the angryshot, he thought as Summer focused on hi it, she smiled Tiny shifts of probability haloed her in silver, and the knowledge that their love would survive ly beautiful

"Excuse me," Silas said as he tapped the bouncer on the shoulder The man spun, and the red blur that was Allen became solid and real Less pain, more reality Silas jerked the rifle from the bouncer’s hand, and the drafter/anchor teams wavered into existence out of the red s the rifle to Professor Milo, who had eed from the back room If he had the rifle, he couldn’t be shot by it