Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

that
represents the coalescing of all the universe’s particles into a
single point. There are many more grains representing chaos -
darkness - a random, structureless shuffling of the atoms.
    ’Configuration space contains all the arrangements of matter there
could ever be. It is an image of eternity.’ He waved a fingertip
through the air. ’But if I trace out a path from point to point -
’
    ’You are tracing out a history,’ said Hama. ’A sequence of
configurations, the universe evolving from point to point.’
    ’Yes. But we know that time is an illusion. In configuration
space, all the moments that comprise our history exist
simultaneously. And all the other configurations that are logically
possible also exist, whether they lie along the track of that history
or not.’
    Hama frowned. ’And the Callisto bugs - ’
    Reth smiled. ’I believe that, constrained in this space and time,
the Callisto lifeforms have started to explore the wider realms of
configuration space. Seeking a place to play. Life will find a
way.’
     
    Nomi toiled up the gentle slope of the ridge that loomed above the
settlement. This was one of the great ring walls of the Valhalla
system, curving away from this place for thousands of kilometres,
rising nearly a kilometre above the surrounding plains.
    The land around her was silver and black, a midnight sculpture of
ridges and craters. There were no mountains here, none at all; any
created by primordial geology or the impacts since Callisto’s birth
had long since subsided, slumping into formlessness. There was a thin
smearing of black dust over the dirty white of the underlying ice;
the dust was loose and fine-grained, and she disturbed it as she
passed, leaving bright footprints.
    ’… Do you understand what you’re looking at?’
    The sudden voice startled her; she looked up.
    It was Sarfi. She was dressed, as Nomi was, in a translucent
protective suit, another nod to the laws of consistency that seemed
to bind her Virtual existence. But she left no footprints, nor even
cast a shadow.
    Sarfi kicked at the black dust, not disturbing a single grain.
’The ice sublimes - did you know that? It shrivels away, a metre
every ten million years - but it leaves the dust behind. That’s why
the human settlements were established on the north side of the
Valhalla ridges. There it is just a shade colder, and some of the
sublimed ice condenses out. So there is a layer of purer ice, right
at the surface. The humans lived off ten-million-year frost… You’re
surprised I know so much. Nomi Ferrer, I was dead before you were
born. Now I’m a ghost imprisoned in my mother’s head. But I’m
conscious. And I am still curious.’
    Nothing in Nomi’s life had prepared her for this conversation. ’Do
you love your mother, Sarfi?’
    Sarfi glared at her. ’She preserved me. She gave up part of
herself for me. It was a great sacrifice.’
    Nomi thought, You resent her. You resent this cloying, possessive
love. And all this resentment bubbles inside you, seeking release.
’There was nothing else she could have done for you.’
    ’But I died anyway. I’m not me. I’m a download. I don’t exist for
me, but for her. I’m a walking, talking construct of her guilt.’ She
stalked away, climbing the slumped ice ridge.
     
    Gemo started to argue detail with her brother. How was it possible
for isolated bacteria-like creatures to form any kind of
sophisticated sensorium? - but Reth believed there were slow pathways
of chemical and electrical communication, etched into the ice and
rock, tracks for great slow thoughts that pulsed through the
substance of Callisto. Very well, but what of quantum mechanics? The
universe was not made up of neat little particles, but was a mesh of
quantum probability waves. - Ah, but Reth imagined quantum
probability lying like a mist over his reality dust, constrained by
two things: the geometry of configuration space, as acoustic echoes
are determined by the geometry of a room; and something called a
’static universal wave function’, a mist of probability that governed
the likelihood of a given Now sharing configuration space with a
given other…
    Hama closed his eyes, his mind whirling. Blocky pixels flickered
across his vision, within his closed eyes.
    Startled, he looked up. Sarfi was kneeling before him; she had
brushed her Virtual fingertips through his skull, his eyes. He hadn’t
even known she had come here.
    ’I know it’s hard to accept,’ she