The diamond floated in its containment field like a captured star—ten thousand atoms of proof that imposition worked. Jennifer had watched them create it, had felt the chronicle respond through her neural link as matter organized itself according to template. A crystal written into existence.
Now they were going to write something far more complex.
"The avatar won't be alive," ARCHIE said. "No metabolism, no cellular processes, no independent existence. Think of it as a channel—a form through which the Cethren can perceive and communicate without requiring full embodiment."
"A telephone," Jennifer said. "Made of matter."
"Imperfect, but useful. The field will organize atmospheric particles into a stable geometric form. The Cethren's observer-patterns, accessed through the mirror protocol, will perceive through that form. Two-way contact becomes possible."
Jennifer looked at the field generator Amara had built. The geodesic sphere. The femtosecond laser assembly. The Rhynie artifact at the center, its deep internal forms shifting almost imperceptibly—responding to the field like a mood ring attending to thought.
"Jennifer." Starseed's voice, gentle as always when he needed her attention. "Anchor position."
She moved to her station beside him without thinking. Fifteen centuries ago, Forcu had done this for Drust—held the thread to baseline reality while the walker went deep. Now she did it for Starseed, and for all of them.
"Ready," she …
