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Vacuum Diagrams is a collection of science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 short stories written by Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter is a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland hard science fiction author. He was born and raised Roman Catholic. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering....
. The collection connects the novels of the Xeelee Sequence
Xeelee Sequence

The Xeelee Sequence is a series of novels and short stories by United Kingdom science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The novels span several billions of years, describing the future expansion of Mankind, its war with its arch-nemesis , and the Xeelee's own war with dark matter entities called photino birds....
 and also shows the history of mankind in the Xeelee universe, and ultimately the universe. While each short story in the collection is self-contained, the stories are presented as being contained in the context of the first story, Eve, about a man who is forced to witness the events in the short stories by a god-like being.






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Vacuum Diagrams is a collection of science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 short stories written by Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter is a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland hard science fiction author. He was born and raised Roman Catholic. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering....
. The collection connects the novels of the Xeelee Sequence
Xeelee Sequence

The Xeelee Sequence is a series of novels and short stories by United Kingdom science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The novels span several billions of years, describing the future expansion of Mankind, its war with its arch-nemesis , and the Xeelee's own war with dark matter entities called photino birds....
 and also shows the history of mankind in the Xeelee universe, and ultimately the universe. While each short story in the collection is self-contained, the stories are presented as being contained in the context of the first story, Eve, about a man who is forced to witness the events in the short stories by a god-like being. Eve acts as a structure for the short stories, with an introduction at the beginning of Vacuum Diagrams, short scenes occurring between each "era" (with "Eve" character explaining and introducing the next section), and an ending that wraps up the plot for the Eve story itself.

At the end of the collection, a chronology of the Xeelee Sequence is provided. Every short story and book from the cycle (up to 1997) is noted, with notable events from each story plotted

Vacuum Diagrams contains the following stories (all previously published except for "Eve"):

Prologue: Eve

ERA: Expansion
  • "The Sun-People" (published 1993)
  • "The Logic Pool" (1994)
  • "Gossamer" (1995)
  • "Cilia-of-Gold" (1994)
  • "Lieserl
    Lieserl

    Lieserl is the title of the fifth story in Stephen Baxter's science fiction anthology Vacuum Diagrams. It was originally published in Interzone in 1993 and represents a small, but integral part of the novel, Ring ....
    " (1993)


ERA: Squeem Occupation
  • "Pilot
    Pilot (short story)

    "Pilot" is the title of a short story in science fiction author Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence. Sixth in the anthology Vacuum Diagrams, it is a revision of a story first published as a chapbook by Novacon in 1993....
    " (1993)
  • "The Xeelee Flower" (1987)
  • "More Than Time or Distance" (1988)
  • "The Switch" (1990)


ERA: Qax Occupation
  • "Blue Shift" (1989)
  • "The Quagma Datum" (1989)
  • "Planck Zero" (1992)


ERA: Assimilation
  • "The Gödel
    Kurt Gödel

    Kurt G?del was an Austrian-United States logician, mathematician and philosopher. One of the most significant logicians of all time, G?del made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when many, such as Bertrand Russell, A....
     Sunflowers" (1992)
  • "Vacuum Diagrams" (1990)


ERA: The War to End Wars
  • "Stowaway" (1991)
  • "The Tyranny of Heaven" (1990)
  • "Hero" (1995)


ERA: Flight
  • "Secret History" (1991)


ERA: Photino Victory
  • "Shell" (1987)
  • "The Eighth Room" (1989)
  • "The Baryonic Lords" (1991)


Epilogue: Eve Vacuum Diagrams is also the title of the fifteenth short story by Stephen Baxter in his anthology-science fiction novel of the same title. It was originally published in Interzone
Interzone (magazine)

Interzone is a United Kingdom fantasy fiction magazine and science fiction magazine, published since 1982. Both genres are covered in the critical articles, but the original stories are mainly science fiction....
 in 1990.

The title "Vacuum Diagrams" refers to the violation and reassertion of the uncertainty principle
Uncertainty principle

In quantum physics, the Werner Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that certain physical quantities, like the position and momentum, cannot both have precise values at the same time....
 in our universe. Set in A.D. 21124, the story concerns the main character's attempt and failure to terraform
Terraforming

Terraforming of a planet, natural satellite, or other body is the hypothesis process of deliberately modifying its Earth's atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it planetary habitability by humans....
 a colony due to its upset of the agenda of the galactic-scale builders known as the Xeelee.