Alternate Continuities

Sometimes I indulge myself and imagine an alternate continuity where Valeri Gridenko meets Fyodor Alkaev, the whiz kid from Omsk, and things really are as they seem. Fyedya is completely human. His nervousness comes from being surrounded by scientific minds he sees as being so much more brilliant than himself, not from being terrified of not being able to keep his imaginary history in order. In this world, Valya can mentor Fyedya, and tease him as his boyish good looks fade (and they do fade, because he ages, and won't be twenty-six forever), and they are witnesses to history together as mankind advances into space. Their friendship is the kind of deep connection that you only find in scientists who recognize a likeminded thirst for knowledge in each other, and it lasts their entire lives.

But that's not the story I wrote, and it is far less interesting than the story I wrote, so it will only merit one paragraph while the story I wrote is 83 pages.