Cassie as the Ambassador's wife

Charles Tallman · 17 Sep 2009, 01:30 · from 2009-September.txt.gz

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From: rocketsunner at gmail.com (Charles Tallman)
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:30:50 -0600
Subject: (urth) Cassie as the Ambassador's wife
Message-ID: <1bf4dd40909161830r5d20bacao479347b332225867 at mail.gmail.com>

Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> So Rian was born on Woldercan? This makes my head hurt.
>

Cassie was in her early-to-mid-thirties at the end of the book, despite
> looking like an old woman. She goes to Woldercan and arrives some years
> before Reis ever got there as Klauser's replacement? Then what? She looked
> like crap, and Gideon and Reis were still back on Earth. Gid wasn't there
> to
> fix her looks (if it was even possible), and Reis wasn't there to father
> Rian on her.
>

My reconstruction of the time travel would go more like this:
1) Cassie's original 20+ hop trip to Woldercan involved no time-travel. She
met with Gideon Chase, as planned, but learned there was no way to restore
her mojo. (She might shoot him at this point).
2) Using Woldercan resources (talking fish, Woldercan natives, etc.) she
finds out how to do time travel. She takes big hopper with lots of fuel and
uses it to go into the past, to Earth.
3) The time is before the appointment of Bill Reis as ambassador. She finds
a way to court and marry Bill. Tricky, but she knows a lot about him and
what he likes.
4) They travel to Woldercan together. She takes the picture (p. 301), which
explains why she isn't in it. Bill says the old amabassador was kind to him
and his wife (not family), so there is no son yet.
5) Rian is conceived. When the boy is born there are medical troubles.
Cassie knows they can only be resolved on Earth, so she leaves. She uses the
time-travel trick again. Rian will be the right age if she does this, and
that may be the purpose (time-looped history reconstruction). Her
time-travel will inspire Bill to learn to do the same trick.
6) She spends the next 18 or so years raising Rian. The boy is her life. If
she's Pavlatos, she also remarries and does some boating, etc.
7) This gets her to about ago 50. Rian is gone -- empty nest. Maybe he dies,
killed by Bill's enemies.
8) She broods again on the past and decides to try to shake it up as
Margaret. She gets the old ship back from where-ever she stashed it and does
one more trip deeper into the past.
9) She uses another ten years to establish herself as Margaret the dresser.
Now she's in her 60's.
10) Her attempt to change the past fails, so she ends up sad and alone. She
knows her younger self will repeat the cycle.
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