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Gradually, Eternity expanded "upwhen" until it discovered in one Century, later altered, a matter duplicator that allowed it to re-create itself throughout upwhen. From 70,000 to 150,000 upwhen Eternity, for reasons it cannot discover, cannot enter Time. These are called the Hidden Centuries. After 150,000 Earth still has living creatures, but humanity has disappeared. Eternity cannot discover why this is so, nor can it do anything about the situation until it can enter the Hidden Centuries. |
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All this background is revealed gradually through the tightly controlled viewpoint of Andrew Harlan. After serving his ten-year stint as Cub and four years as Observer, Harlan became Senior Observer to Assistant Computer Hobbe Finge in the 482nd. They do not get along, but Harlan's reports are good and within three months he becomes a Technician, the personal Technician of Senior Computer Laban Twissell, an important member of the Allwhen Council. One of Harlan's first assignments is to teach a Cub, Brinsley Sheridan Cooper, about Primitive history, that period before the creation of Eternity. Primitive history is Harlan's hobby, and he has assembled a number of references, including a complete bound set of a news magazine of the 20th. Cooper is an unusual Cub: he was taken into Eternity at the age of twenty-three and after he already was married. |
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After two physioyears, Harlan once more is assigned to Finge at the 482nd and meets Finge's secretary Nos Lambent, who has been recruited from the permissive society of the 482nd to fill a minor position. Harlan suspects that she is involved in a sexual liaison with Finge and dislikes her. Thus, a bit later, he finds himself in a difficult situation when he is assigned to her estate to make some observations of her time. When they are alone, Nos gives him an intoxicating drink, whispers to him, and they make love. Harlan discovers that he not only enjoys the experience, but that he is in love with Nos. |
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On his return, however, Harlan is forced to reveal to Finge all that has happened. Finge taunts him with the information that aristocratic women of the 482nd believe that Eternals are immortal (which isn't true) and that intercourse with an Eternal will make them immortal. But Harlan persuades himself that it doesn't matter why Nos loves him. He searches until he finds a proposed Reality Change that is inexpertly computed; with this as blackmail, he persuades the Sociologist responsible and a Life-Plotter to perform a Life-Plot for Nos in the Reality Change planned for the 482nd. To his joy he discovers that Nos doesn't exist in the new Reality (and thus can be removed from the present one |
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