From the Journals of Ocatavio Tinker

An extract from the pages in which he records the creation of the Continuascope.

I am working in the utmost fever. I have taken time off only for the most basic of biological needs, and to write this journal entry, since I am determined to maintain my discipline of recording every piece of the workings of my mind.

The demands of this new project are very considerable. I am required, for a start, to undertake an education in the intricacies and skills of manufacturing crystals. It is the only thing I have found that comes anywhere close to what is needed for the object I must myself now create. It will be extraordinary, this instrument of navigation – so precise in my plans! So close to perfect!

I am calling it an instrument to measure quantum fluctuation. For it must detect with the utmost specificity, certain tiny streams within a roaring flow that is, by comparison, as vast as a star cluster.

I have a marvelous proof for the practical workings of my instrument; however, as it will take me some considerable space to describe, I cannot note it here nor stop now to do so elsewhere. But I shall leave a record of it, in time.

© 2009 Tad Williams and Deborah Beale. All rights reserved.