unlimited parenthood license due to his incredible genius and resistance to disease and injury. His intelligence allowed him to solve the Sealeyham Limits Problem, and to design a new autodoc based on nanotechnology. Along with being a genius mathematician, he is also a playwright and composer. Wu is an easygoing and pleasant fellow, although he broods over feeling trapped by the ARM keeping constant track of his whereabouts and activities. He is reluctant to disclose his thoughts on the cause of ships disappearing near Sol system, even when the hyperdrive in Sigmund Ausfaller's ship, Hobo Kelly, completely disappears as they approach Earth. Carlos and Beowulf Sheaffer are returning to Earth: Bey in order to be with his love, Sharrol Janss, and their two children, Tanya and Louis (both of whom were fathered by Carlos). Carlos, perhaps having a resurgence of flatland phobia, has agreed to return there with Ausfaller. Carlos and Bey meet with Dr. Julian Forward and discover that he has found a quantum black hole and is using it to make ships in hyperdrive disappear. Forward takes them hostage and attempts to destroy the Hobo Kelly, but Ausfaller fires on his ships and Shaeffer manages to damage his equipment, causing Forward to temporarily lose control of the quantum black hole; sensing defeat, Forward allows himself to be drawn into it. Ausfaller rescues Bey and Carlos and they continue on to Earth where Bey rejoins Sharrol and their children and Carlos resumes his own life on Earth. Carlos and Sharrol Janss had a casual sexual relationship before Sharrol met Shaeffer, although Carlos may have been more interested in her than she in him, since he tried to convince her at one point to leave Earth with him because he felt smothered by the overprotective ARMs who were tasked with protecting his life. When Shaeffer and Janss decided to have children but Shaeffer was denied a parenthood license due to his albinism, they agreed that Carlos would father two children with Sharrol and she and Bey would raise them. Eventually Wu formed a relationship with Feather Filip, an ARM agent tasked to protect him, and he and she created a plan to secretly emigrate from Earth. To minimize the chance of being found out they planned to bring others along to disguise the size of their group (the ARM would presumably be looking for two people, not a larger group).