“I’m dead. The real Harry Poole, that is. The original.” Harry’s eyes held Michael’s but his tone was level, matter-of-fact. “I’ve been dead thirty years, now, Michael. More, in fact.”
Michael, lost in quantum isolation, tried to make sense of this ghostly news. “How did you — he—”
“I reacted adversely to a stage of the AS treatment. Couldn’t accept it; my body couldn’t take any more. One in a thousand react like that, they tell me. I lived a few more years. I aged rapidly. I — ah — I stored this Virtual as soon as I understood what was going to happen. I didn’t have any specific purpose in mind for the Virtual. I didn’t plan to transmit it to you. I just thought, maybe, it might be of use to you one day. A comfort, even."
-Timelike Infinity, Ch. 15