Eversion

Abstract

Eversion is structured around three different tales, all of which follow Doctor Silas Coade. First, he is aboard a sailing ship, during the nineteenth century, as he is tasked with exploring Norwegians fjords so as to find a mysterious alien artifact known as the Edifice. Then, unexpectedly, readers next find Coade on an airship in the twentieth century, attempting a similar quest, and exploring an icy canyon in Antarctica. Finally, readers see Coade on a spaceship, in the far future, still seeking for the enigmatic artifact. Also, each of these expeditions go wrong, and all end up disastrously. Despite being accompanied by a crew on each excursion, only Coade seems to notice that he is in an endless loop, as some things remain the same, such as the crew or the name of the ship. It is ultimately revealed that Coade is actually an AI who ran a ship, and was tasked with retrieving the alien structure known as the Edifice, but the expedition went wrong. As such, he became trapped in a recursive loop as a result of data corruption and the trauma of failing the mission, permanently reliving the expedition through the construction of alternate realities.