The twin propellers of a Beechcraft Baron E55, diving though the air above Amarillo, Texas. The left prop describes a broken circle, while the right is a spiral jetty stretching out some twenty three years into the future: Interstate 25 near the Air Force Academy in Colorado, a Jeep Cherokee is rolling after a collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s the realisation that you will never fulfil your goals,” Seymour explains. “History is full of these what-ifs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert shrugs. “And what did you leave incomplete.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A vastly expensive paperweight. For fifteen minutes it would have been the fastest processor in the world, or rather the fastest massive array: 1024 chickens rather than two strong oxen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“On the geological scale we’re all quite irrelevant. My ramp would have eroded in a matter of maybe centuries. The long perspectives are beyond the bounds of resolution.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The broken circle to the left is a wormhole. Forty years before Seymour’s collision, an Oldsmobile lies smashed beside a lonely stretch of road near East Hampton, Long Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n