(urth) Cassie as the Ambassador's wife

[Roy C. Lackey]

Where the hell have you been, Dave? Or is it Charles? You were missed.

You wrote:
> Now that I think about it, it's not so impossible that Cassie could get
> her ship-board computer to figure out how to travel to the Woldercan of
> the past, so as to become the Mrs. Reis of that time. Through the
> miracles of time-travel she could even be the mother of Rian.

Reis had a wife when he first got to Woldercan as Ingstrup's ambassador
(301). Ingstrup served two terms, so Reis would have been on Woldercan for
eight years. He had been back on Earth for something over two years, since
that was how long ago he hired Gideon to fix some business deal (120). Rian
is sixteen, so he should have been born before Reis ever went to Woldercan.

Reis seems not to have had a wife when he got back to Earth, judging from
his comments about the South Seas in that other picture. So his Woldercan
wife must have left him while he was still on Woldercan. She may be Madame
Pavlatos, who is filthy rich.

> If so, the
> choice of the name "Rian" is time-looped (his mother named him, p. 277).
> It's also predictive, since it means "little prince" at a time when Bill
> was not yet a king. Cassie mourned for her children (p. 295) that she
> could have had with Bill. This way, she will have one.
>
> It then makes perfect sense that Cassie cannot meet Rian in person. He
> would recognize her. Rian is a "little too brave" (p. 26), and so is
> Cassie, sometimes. It would also make sense for him to have a birth
> defect only magic could cure, given the magic that has enhanced and
> un-enhanced Cassie's system.

To say nothing of exposure to radioactive gold, particularly for Reis.

Sharon said that Rian's mother "went to Chase, and her son's just fine." I
don't know how old Rian was when Gideon fixed his heart, but I would think
that in a matter so important to his mother, she and Gid would have met. If
so, he gives no hint that he recognized her.

> Could she be beautiful enough again to win Bill? I think so. She knows
> that beauticians can do a lot for her (p. 292). Not enough to be a
> mega-star, but enough to woo Bill. She can tell him some sort of story,
> not the truth. She's a good liar. So there need not be time paradoxes.
>
> She knows it will end in divorce, but she will have a son, a piece of a
> man she loved and lost (p. 26). This would be a fairly happy ending, and
> it doesn't exclude her going back again, later in life, to be Margaret
> Briggs as well.

After selling the diamonds, Cassie was the richest woman in the state.
Rian's mother was rich and still alive. Pavlatos was filthy rich, whether or
not she was also Rian's mother. Then there is poor Margaret. How did she
come to be the only version not rich? Depending on Pavlatos's status, that
makes three or four versions of the same woman running around on Earth at
the same time. That makes any attempts to go back in time for a do-over
problematic.

OTOH, the attempts might account for perceived differences among Reis,
Rosenquist and (maybe) Rusterman. Things get very messy.

-Roy