Chapter 16 : The Solid Time Of Change
The sixteenth chapter of « 2206 : Window Onto A New World » features the scientific facilities of Veshtar, and revolves around Bernard Sturn.
At the end of an all-nighter, weary of responding to video emails, the famous space engineer takes a break to rest his eyes, and ponders the recent developments in the political arena.
« Over the years, the physicist had learned the hard way that there were transition phases, or at any rate that's how he referred to them. During these episodes, life required him to plough forward at all costs, no matter how exhausted he was, and no matter which obstacles he was facing, lest part of the efforts he had invested in the endeavour, if not all of them, would be cruelly wiped out overnight by circumstances ostensibly coming from beyond his sphere of influence. Strangely, he had come to associate them with the notion of electronic quantum leaps, inasmuch as only two possible outcomes were permitted, either all the way, or none at all. And if the lessons had been heart wrenching, at the very least he had profited immensely from developing the ability to recognize the exacting passages, even in the absence of obvious indicators, such as deadlines for instance. »
The pundit eventually reaches the software lab where Frank Evans, his assistant, joins him for an important discussion about the architecture of SAVIA.
Here's this week's instalment of the Threshold Bookcast, « The Solid Time Of Change. » Wishing you all a most pleasant reading !
On a background of environmental and financial crises, and religious influences intertwining with political manoeuvres to determine the fate of an overpopulated planet, The Threshold Series chronicles the saga of the Ovelian civilization, a society very similar to our own, as it heads towards one of the most dramatic chain of events of its history.
The first book, « 2206 : Window Onto A New World, » focuses on the end of the year 2206, which culminates on an important federal election that will be impacted by the discovery of an anomaly in the nearby outer space.
Each episode of The Threshold Bookcast consists in a complete chapter of the series, made available for free online reading.
For more details about the series and the bookcast, please see the introduction.
The previous chapters are available here :
- Chapter 1 : Homeworld
- Chapter 2 : Going For The One
- Chapter 3 : Togetherness
- Chapter 4 : Machine Messiah
- Chapter 5 : Space Oddity
- Chapter 6 : It Can Happen
- Chapter 7 : Giants Under The Sun
- Chapter 8 : Nous Sommes Du Soleil
- Chapter 9 : Careful With That Axe, Eugene
- Chapter 10 : South Side Of The Sky
- Chapter 11 : The Preacher The Teacher
- Chapter 12 : No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
- Chapter 13 : Keys To Ascension
- Chapter 14 : Silent Talking
- Chapter 15 : Tempus Fugit
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