Further: Beyond the Threshold Read Online Free PDF Page A

history, ranked with that of the Polynesian mariners or of James Cook or Yuri Gagarin. That you didn’t reach your mission’s destination does not detract from the attempt itself.”
    I turned my head, looking directly into the smooth eyes of the metal bird. “Except I have reached my destination now, haven’t I?”
    The escort nodded slowly, and I fancied I saw something like amusement in its metal expression.
    “A journey of light-years, no more difficult than moving an alter from one world to another.”
    “Sir?”
    “Never mind.”
    I turned and stepped back through the threshold.
    My hand didn’t make the inventory control gesture, but only because I consciously suppressed the reflex. Still, I said aloud, “I hope I didn’t leave anything behind I’ll need,” patting the sides of my robe, feeling naked and exposed.
    “You needn’t worry, sir. The only things that can’t be transported through a threshold are cosmic string fragments themselves. The negative energy of the fragments collapses the wormhole so that thresholds have to be dragged into place at sublight speeds.”
    “Well,” I said, and then stopped, again at a loss for words. “I suppose I’ll keep that in mind.”
    “Shall we go to the quarters prepared for you, sir? There may be more suitable attire for you there.”
    “Why not?” I said, and honestly couldn’t think of anything else I might do.
    It took a few moments to thread our way through the concentric circles of thresholds, toward the nearest wall and an exit to the outside. The exit was a more traditional door, meters tall and immense, but with panels that slid open and closed. As we approached the opening doors, a small crowd gathered, most of them seeming to be normal varieties of human, but with an odd mixture of man, machine, and animal scattered here and there. My head was so full of wormholes that I scarcely noticed them, and I absently assumed them to be some sort of commuters, but I noticed after a moment that many had begun pointing in my direction, staring and whispering quietly to one another in strange languages.
    Finally, we passed through the open doors and into the bright daylight beyond. And I almost collapsed onto the ground, struck by an overwhelming disorientation.
    Overhead, past a sky of startling blue, I saw the indistinct image of curving farmland and cities, and high over the horizon were towering mountains topped with snow, pointing in my direction like accusing fingers. I was not standing on a planet’s surface, but seemed instead to be on the inside of a hollow sphere, looking up at the opposite interior.
    “ Madar chowd ,” I swore.
    “Well, sir,” the escort chimed in my ear, “after all, I did say that Earth isn’t quite the world you remember.”

EIGHT

    In 2145 CE, right around the time I was joining the Bharat Scouts, the movie Destroyer was released to theaters. It was a slightly fictionalized account of the Impact, which killed millions, destroyed entire cities, toppled at least one nation, and sent dozens of others into decades-long economic depressions, and ravaged Earth’s environment for a century or more.
    In the movie’s opening scenes, computer-generated models of old and long-dead Hollywood and Bollywood stars portrayed the three scientists at the NASA-funded University of Hawaii Asteroid Survey from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona who, on June 19, 2004, were the first to learn of the asteroid’s existence. An avatar of Raoul Bova was cast as Fabrizio Bernardi, a young Roy Scheider was selected to portray David J. Thoel, and the recently departed Joos Diamond Fortunate assayed the role of Roy A. Tucker. In a dramatic moment, having just looked up from the data scrolling across their monitors, the three scientists name the newly discovered asteroid after a mythology figure depicted in an illustrated encyclopedia lying open on a nearby desk.
    It’s all terrifically portentous and “important,” but sadly, it’s