So it was in the beginning, and shall be again.—A legend of Lost EarthTo Noah, it had all been like a strange dream, but he knew it had really happened. And, though he repeatedly tried to make the connection again with his image in Thinker’s torso, he found it impossible to accomplish. On other occasions he had traveled along the strands of the web to go wherever he wanted, but other times—such as now—it seemed to block him. The harder he tried to return to his friends, the more impossible it seemed to be.In his heart, he suspected that he needed to back off on the attempts. Then perhaps, the cosmic pathway would open for him again like the embrace of a lover.* * * * *As a robot, Thinker struggled to explain the strange event, but Subi offered an explanation right away. He theorized that there had been a computer malfunction that made Noah’s simulation seem to come alive.“I have no record of a malfunction,” Thinker said.“Therefore, you have a malfunction on top of a malfunction.”“Perhaps, but my probability programs point in an entirely different direction, to the cosmic structure they call Timeweb.
