"I guess you did ask," she allows. But the offer of a return story gets her attention. "Oh man, what was that like? I feel like everyone imagines clones are like meeting alternate universe versions of yourself, but it really isn't, it's like ... twins, but there's a ton more of you and you didn't even have the same parents. Like, Alison," who he could have "met" in the Fade, in theory, giving this a particular slant, "and I have the same DNA but we aren't the same person in any way. Alternates are something else again."

She's the farthest thing from a physicist, but you don't spend as long as she has in an actual other world without getting curious about the possibility of a multiverse, at least not with Cosima's background.