Paul Preuss

doppel n.	1981 P. Preuss Re-Entry xvi. 87 ‘I wonder if we were the only ones?’ Claymore brushed auburn hair from her hazel eyes. ‘That hardly matters, Clarissa.’ One might still compare the heart-shaped face of this Claymore Doppelgänger to that of the Mona Lisa—for on the Earth she’d just come from Leonardo had painted a woman with auburn hair. ‘You’re right,’ the Sirich Doppel said. ‘The only reality that concerns us is the one where we are.’ [Ibid. xxxv. 201] [...] came an even more astounding thought—that it wouldn’t make any difference [...] unless she were willing to shoulder the intolerable burden of returning again and again to adjust each human error. How many Doppels would she lose on each fix-it trip? How many universes would eventually benefit from her efforts?