Importance of Ursula Francoeur

Ursula is a physicist married to Jerome Francoeur, but she engages in a longterm affair with Goettreider, her intellectual equal. In the original reality, she dies from radiation poisoning a few months after Goettreider first turns on his engine, while in the new reality she lives to old age after Jerome protects her from an energy blast from the engine, which burns off his arm. Ursula alludes that she may have left Jerome for Goettreider, but never could after Jerome lost his arm saving her.