The Final Element

A Stradivarius violin has been stolen and illegally duplicated using a nanofactory. The thief has been caught, but there are two violins. Dennis Lombardo's job is to figure out which one is the original and which is the duplicate. But when something's been copied down to the atomic level, how can you tell the difference?

"The Final Element" is a short story that was originally published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, April 2009.

Eric James Stone is a Nebula Award nominee and a Writers of the Future Contest winner. He is the author of over two dozen stories that have been published in venues such as Year's Best SF, Analog, and Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show.