Soa como "A Sedução Suave" por Marc Stiegler , que foi identificado como a resposta para essa velha pergunta e este outro ; essas descrições soam familiares? Você pode ler a história gratuitamente no site do autor .
Resumo: Uma mulher avessa à tecnologia vive no Monte. Mais chuvoso no estado de Washington. Seu marido morre, seu cachorro morre. Aos 82 anos, ela toma sua primeira pílula nanotecnológica, para as dores nas costas. Uma coisa leva a outra e, eventualmente:
But in addition, the nanomachines in that system would continue to build. They would build machines and living flesh well suited to the conditions of the planet. And then the nanomachines would come back together into a single structure—not a needle now, but a communication bubble. Through the bubble and its instantaneous communication she could live across space. She could dwell at home near Jupiter yet roam among the stars.
She was often one of the first humans Called to newly opened planets. Her wisdom from earth, her expertise from Jupiter, these made her invaluable as an explorer and a guide. As she had swum within the methane oceans, so now she swam in carbon dioxide atmospheres, or flew through liquid mercury. She imprinted herself upon organic synapses and silicon circuits light years from home, and lived in many places.
Mentally she was bigger now than she had been at 25. The meaning of complexity had changed for her; she understood the laws of physics with the same simple clarity that she understood the rules of checkers. She could build a starship as easily as she could pitch a tent.
Ela paga uma visita ao leito de morte em sua antiga montanha:
The day came to say goodby to her oldest friend. With her wonderful old earth-born body, she returned to Earth to hike Rainier one last time: Rainier, whose surface lay so cold and eternal, was boiling within. With dawn, she knew, the boiling fury would break through, in the greatest volcanic event in earthly centuries. She stood at the summit the day before the end and surveyed the horizon. Her feeling of appreciation grew till she thought she would burst. This was home in a sense few others could now understand.