“I have laboriously documented every interaction. Every moment, every word, every subtle feeling that passed between us. It’s all here, in these diaries, cross-referenced and indexed.”

“It is a very impressive achievement. But why?”

“Are you familiar with the idea of breeding back an extinct animal?”

“That’s when you try to find all their descendants that mixed with other animals, right? And you try to bring out the traits of the extinct thing through breeding?”

“That’s right. But the original thing has been lost, forever; you are merely gathering up as many pieces as you can, in a vain attempt to simulate the whole.”

“I don’t follow.”

“She is gone. These are the pieces.”

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