The sixteenth chapter of « 2206 : Window Onto A New World » features the scientific facilities of Veshtar, and revolves around Bernard Sturn.

At the end of an all-nighter, weary of responding to video emails, the famous space engineer takes a break to rest his eyes, and ponders the recent developments in the political arena.

« Over the years, the physicist had learned the hard way that there were transition phases, or at any rate that's how he referred to them. During these episodes, life required him to plough forward at all costs, no matter how exhausted he was, and no matter which obstacles he was facing, lest part of the efforts he had invested in the endeavour, if not all of them, would be cruelly wiped out overnight by circumstances ostensibly coming from beyond his sphere of influence. Strangely, he had come to associate them with the notion of electronic quantum leaps, inasmuch as only two possible outcomes were permitted, either all the way, or none at all. And if the lessons had been heart wrenching, at the very least he had profited immensely from developing the ability to recognize the exacting passages, even in the absence of obvious indicators, such as deadlines for instance. »

The pundit eventually reaches the software lab where Frank Evans, his assistant, joins him for an important discussion about the architecture of SAVIA.

Here's this week's instalment of the Threshold Bookcast, « The Solid Time Of Change. » Wishing you all a most pleasant reading !