Tom squints at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have speculated,\u201d says Amber, after a moment, \u201cthat the world is as it is because of the passing of some . . . sense-making figure, right? Some entity or entities that held all of time and space into a single coherent shape?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat fits,\u201d says Keith.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe crawl within the warped lens of our existence,\u201d says Amber. \u201cWe strive to reach things \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpace,\u201d says Cheryl.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeaning,\u201d says Harold.<\/p>\n
\u201cA happy ending,\u201d wryly observes Tom.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they are projections of our reason onto the space that is no longer accessible from here. It is like believing that we live in three dimensions, when we in fact dwell on the surface of a warped space-time frame \u2014 a sort of a sheet of cling-wrap stretched over the image of a world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s too bleak!\u201d Tom protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d says Amber. \u201cThe solution is obvious. It is staring us right in the face. To escape our boundaries, we must turn at right angles from our own thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink,\u201d says Tom, \u201cas we are not thinking. Act, as we are not acting. See, then move tangentially to ourselves?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly so,\u201d Amber says. \u201cThough, I do not know how it may be accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheryl is grinning. She is waiting.<\/p>\n
Tom pores over Cheryl\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t actually,\u201d he says, \u201cmake head or tail of these papers. Cheryl, there are two major problems with this amazing boot-based space station.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, first, it appears to me that your space elevator pulls itself, and the boot atop it, up into position.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a bootstrap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd second,\u201d he says, \u201cthe explanation for this is \u2018a miracle occurs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh!\u201d says Amber. \u201cThat makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, of course,\u201d says Amber. \u201cThe House of Saints is at a right angle to our thinking, and the House of Hunger is at a wrong one. We just have to model \u2018what would Peter do?\u2019 or \u2018what would Edmund do?\u2019 any time we want to exceed the scope of our ordinary thoughts!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll smush scissors!\u201d says Keith, who is very familiar with Peter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll complain about wolf dander?\u201d suggests Tom, who knows Edmund quite well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously?\u201d says Cheryl.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is<\/em> what Edmund would do,\u201d Tom says, soberly. \u201cAsk him to build a giant boot in space, and he\u2019ll be all, \u2018this one time, I went to put on my shoes, and they were completely full of loose Fenris fur. It was exceedingly squishy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGah,\u201d says Amber.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a pretty wrong turn,\u201d establishes Keith.<\/p>\n \u201cSo.<\/em> Squishy<\/em>,\u201d Tom emphasizes, in the fashion of Edmund Gulley, of Hunger\u2019s House. Then he shrugs. \u201cThen,\u201d he says. \u201cDo I take it we have access to miracles?\u201d<\/p>\n Cheryl grins. She looks at her watch. She counts seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, God,\u201d says Keith. \u201cThis is going to be showy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeven,\u201d mutters Cheryl. Then some other numbers, which you can probably extrapolate, like seventeen, eight, and five. \u201cTwo. One!\u201d<\/p>\n She thumps the door hard with her elbow. It dilates open. An eavesdropping boy stumbles in, backlit, and shining with the glory of a saint.<\/p>\n \u201cLo,\u201d says Cheryl, spreading a hand, as if she had created him from nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t skulking and listening,\u201d St. Peter clarifies. \u201cI was just trying to figure out whether you guys could get me into space.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaha!\u201d says Tom, understanding. \u201cHahahaha haha! I think that we very well can<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n After a while Harold wonders where they can possibly get a boot large enough to use as the core of their space battlestation, but he is quickly hushed; because, seriously, Harold, how blind do you have to be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tom squints at her. \u201cI have speculated,\u201d says Amber, after a moment, \u201cthat the world is as it is because of the passing of some . . . sense-making figure, right? Some entity or entities that held all of time and space into a single coherent shape?\u201d \u201cThat fits,\u201d says Keith. \u201cWe crawl within the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-5705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-8","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Hat_3a_nobg.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6040,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5705\/revisions\/6040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5705"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}