Chapters 28-30 Summary

In Chapter 28, Maria continues to study the Lambertians, their theories and their methods of communication. Still upset with Durham for having awakened her copy, she insists on knowing exactly why he woke her. She imagines he wants her to convince the rest of the Elysians that they should make contact with the Lambertians now rather than wait. They would presumably listen to her as the "mother" of the planet.

Durham explains that this is not why he woke her. The real reason is that he needs access to Lambert through her private portion of the universe that was reserved for her. Each of the original residents of the universe were given their own private section to do with what they wanted, with Permutation City in the center as a common meeting place. Nobody can get into the private areas without the...