“From the Gate, I suppose, or is there another gray involved?”
“No black hats. The Gate advised me to use the magic word Houston in case my big mouth got me into trouble. She told me from the beginning that I would not be able to keep my identity hidden for too long. She was right.”
“When did you come here?”
“Fifteen years ago.” For the first time I received short answers without digressions.
“Are you in direct contact?”
“Not directly. I have no device from her, only some locations in caves where I can call her. We meet once in a while, usually after several months, or if an emergency arises.”
“You meet her!” I shouted. “Is everything okay?” Duras reluctantly reacted to my yell. Everything fine, I gestured to him, stay there. “When was the last meeting?” We asked in one voice. I can go home. What for? For my immortality.
“A long time ago, she has not appeared for some time now.” I cursed loudly, Batranu kicked a pebble, Duras glanced again but said nothing.
“Something wrong?” Arun reluctantly asked, not being able to understand our sudden discontent.
“Nothing.” My voice was a mere whisper, and he did not push further. “And she swore to us that she’d had no information from here in the last ten years,” I burst out again.
“You have to settle this with her, not with me,” Batranu answered softly. “If you have the chance...”
“Why are you here?”
“Pure luck. The train stopped in my station and I caught it.”
“Don’t play with us.” I stopped him; his big mouth recovered faster than expected.
“Okay, I was told that our trips were completely different but never knew in what way. I emigrated here with eight others. We made families, and this planet is now our home. I have two beautiful daughters, one boy, and a nice business. I am the vice-president, despite my big mouth and lack of political skills. On Earth, I mean. Here, I am considered a maverick. Without external influence on their minds, these people are the kindest I have ever met. Sometimes I am even ashamed.”
“But you can get over this easily, I assume.”
“The gain is mutual.” Something in his tone made me think that I had overstepped the mark. “I came with a lot of knowledge which is lost here or not yet discovered. Their second city, Sudava, is now a prosperous one, in part thanks to me and my colleagues, and you have had a glimpse of my activities in the Assembly.”
“Okay, at least that part is benign,” I conceded. It made no sense to infuriate him, and in the end, it was true. “When will you return?”
“To Sudava?”
“No, to Earth.”
“Earth?” he sneered. I glanced at Batranu and read the same: what the hell?
“It's your home.” I could not believe his statement. Later, when things had settled I understood him, in fact I understood at that very moment, only did not want to acknowledge it.
“THIS is ... my home.” His words came out slow, filled with strength, definite: no more questions on this. I sighed; another way out of here was blocked. Deep in my mind was hope, hope that he had a way to return, a train, to use his words; hope that I could catch that train.
“Are you not missing Earth?” I pushed again, the inertia of a blocked, cornered mind.
“What should I miss? My never-ending debts, starting from being a poor student? You have no idea how good I feel not paying back that debt. Have you ever imagined a world with free education for everybody? With real medical and social insurance? You can find it here. This post-medieval world is socially much more advanced than our capitalist one. Okay, I miss something: electricity, give me that and this would be paradise.” He is not missing... Learn from him; keep your anger away. He is your ally; it is not politically wise to strain our relationship. Should I sing him a song? Make a joke…
“Why did you not try wrestling on Earth? With your shape you would have been a superstar.” I finally produced a joke, a stupid one.
“Are you joking? I weighed fifty kilos on Earth. My new look was part of the transfer package. You have no idea how nice is to make everybody shut up with a simple ‘hmm’, after being ‘that small guy’ all your life.”
“I hope you don't mind if we make a visit to Houston together tomorrow,” I abruptly interrupted his speech. Batranu suddenly gazed at me, and I could not understand why.
“Not at all,” Arun answered swiftly, as though trying to soothe me. “What is wrong?” Everything is wrong, you small, big man. You should not be here. I hope that bloody Houston has a good explanation for all this.
“You will not go back tomorrow. We have to settle this with Houston.”
“We can't.” Batranu's voice was calm, but I sensed a hidden worry under that calm. What the hell is wrong with you?
“There is a cave close to this location, and the Munti will not be affected by this change.”
“We have lost contact with Houston.”
“I know we have lost contact with Houston. Why are you telling me this?” I was not sure what he really wanted.
“You just wanted to contact her in the next cave.”
“I never said such a thing. What in the hell is wrong with you?”
“Should we replace him?” Arun whispered to Batranu.
“We planned this for a long time, we cannot change anything. I am ...” The fury blocked my words. “Are you trying to sabotage my mission?” I did not want the mission but I did not like to be thrown out in such a way. I was like a child worried that his toy would be stolen, and I did not understand why they were lying. “I hope you were not in contact with any Traveler.”
“We could say the same about you.”
“You! Listen to me!” I hissed at them, my lungs were suddenly relieving the pressure inside. At that moment, a golden globe appeared in front of us.
“Come to the closest cave!” Houston's face was in that globe for a moment, and I suddenly recovered another memory of mine, living for mere seconds in that simulation, telling Batranu and Arun that we had to go to the cave and contact Houston.
“It was not me telling you about the cave,” I whispered defensively.
“All the time Houston has been hiding something,” I said to Batranu after Arun left us.
“We are only a small part of the picture. Why should she overload our minds with all that stuff?” You always take her part...
“Information is important to our task.”
“I think she is giving us everything we need,” he said neutrally.
“We had no information about the secret society in the library.” What is she doing to you? You never contradict her, you don’t have different opinions. Are you her avatar? ‘I don’t like that planet name: Hell’ the old memory resurfaced. He confronted Houston, he can’t be her avatar. Maybe.
“There is no such society, or at least I have not been able to find one. Some Travelers passed the knowledge that they needed Munti blood to escape the degeneration of interbreeding. In the last two centuries, all the rulers have abided by this rule. The King’s grandfather was a Munti. The infusion lasts around three generations. They need a new one now, hence the preparation of the marriage between Altamira and Scharon. I suppose that they have something in mind for Airan too.” Altamira and Scharon, it came to me again like a blow. I was relieved that Houston was alive, or functional; I was still not sure what term to choose and this sudden certainty brought back my feelings toward Altamira. If Batranu felt something, he did not say, but he had the wit to go, leaving me alone in the long white night.
*
“Congratulations, you have discovered Earth's colony on this planet. Other things can wait,” she dismissed our many questions about her disappearance. “An Observer created that new string of memories with the imperative to come here. It was managed to look like a temporal incident from an inexperienced crawler, the short duplication,” she ignored us again. “It was the best way to send you information without being disco
vered. He also impersonated me. I still do not have a proper answer for the duplicate memory of your dream or about my sudden disappearance and inability to maintain contact with this planet; only some bits to be put together later. Time is short.”
“The ‘colony’ was missing from the local landscape you provided to us.” I reluctantly agreed with the course she was setting.
“You are part of different projects; I don’t see any need to mix them.”
“Everything is project-based.” Even our lives...
“It was from the first moment you enrolled. Why worry now?” Ah, what an innocent voice she could have when in need, half of my anger was gone after her first words.
“Working together makes things easier. This collaboration could have started earlier ... with better results.” I tried to find a way to receive more information; if properly asked she is willing to release more. Not that I could trick her, more like a reward for good inspiration or logic. This time something bothered Houston; she allowed us to see it on her artificial face. The next second Arun had disappeared from our sight.
“Arun has no part in your mission; there is no need for him to hear this. He is in fact no part of any mission, and has never had any training apart from an infusion of Baragan culture; he is only a person who left Earth to settle on this planet. All the help he provided was entirely by his own choice. I never asked him to do anything towards the success of your mission, and I never will. You are the ones I trained; you are aware of and assumed all the dangers arising from this project.”
“How many people are involved in this ‘project’? How many do we know?” I tried to check Arun’s information.
“You know two of them.” Another one … from Sudava, must be someone from the Assembly. I sensed her smile. Am I wrong? “Scorylo.” Don’t play with me. “As you see, you had more help than you ever hoped.”
“And he knew about our ‘project’.” She nodded. He said nothing. He enjoyed all my invented stories about Ardava, about the sea, the whales. He never saw a whale, like Talian, I had to describe them, how big they are, how... Bastard! “Talian?” I suddenly asked. I had to know.
“He was really impressed by your descriptive skills about whales. He loves them.” She was almost laughing. Bitch, you are really enjoying this, I opened my mouth to shout at her, she sensed my turmoil and changed her tune. “I am joking. I was never in contact with Talian’s mind.” I calmed down with a mute curse and a deep breath. Scorylo lied to me and I lied to him. Even game. No, he knew. She let me cool, then slapped me again. “I said you know only two people from the colony, Arun and Scorylo make two.” Her sarcasm made me think, they are too different, she wants me to ask something. What something? What could be so important? The difference?
“I don’t see Scorylo in the same boat as Arun. They are too different.”
“You are right; Scorylo received the same training as you, we needed a reserve … just in case.”
“Are you sure? He is better suited than me for this game.”
“Okay, he was our first choice, but he is too shrewd. We moved him to the smaller project.” This time she answered in a gentler tone, the maternal one she usually used when soothing me. What do you really want? “You lived in a safe world; your worst problem was losing your job. He lived in a country ravaged by war, his parents died when he was only fifteen, his mother died in his arms. He accumulated too many bad feelings. You fit better.” I fit better … easier to manipulate? She is an expert. Anyway ... I am here.
“I am a better puppet,” I could not stop my anger.
“Don’t pity yourself; we make many simulations before choosing.” I tried again to curse her. A sharp glance closed my mouth. “A Traveler came onto the planet and four communication channels were opened with some local people. This matches the number of elite representatives you found there.”
“Is he still on the planet?”
“No, he has gone. He stayed seven days, quite long for their standards.”
“We need contact devices. Things are accelerating.”
“That time is yet to come. He was not hiding, he had a belt; all Factions with an interest on this planet seem to work together now, and I was not informed. Your mission has not been cancelled yet...”
“When did you announce our arrival here to my Faction?”
“Half an hour ago. Interesting timing, isn’t it? And for them, Batranu does not exist.” I glanced at him; unimportant thing, he shrugged. Yeah, the black crows will hunt only me. “You are here to stay ... for a while. Do not assume they will play all their cards together, this is a game with many ends and you fit well in it. There was a new visit two weeks ago; only three of the previous people were called, I cannot tell which.”
“That's right before we had the Council meeting about the banks. They want banks to take over Baragan society; does this mean they’ve opted for a long-term strategy?” Why did they use mass hypnosis then? Let Houston speak...
“That is up to you to find out.” Of course, you order and we execute. “And we have a new player; in the Munti Kingdom this time. It happened yesterday. You have to move faster.”
“Give me a plane,” I scolded her, but she did not react, “and proper information. What’s the colony’s role? They are here, and they will remain here. In a war there is no such thing as neutrality.”
“The experiment is about helping the Baragan population to grow again. Basically, it’s an emigration program, around two hundred people, most of them coming from Earth.”
“That’s a kind of nothing. Why not more?” Why are you asking this now? You should have thought of this before, emigration can enhance the genetic pool, can bring knowledge, can solve many things...
“Earth is much more advanced and too shrewd politically. A massive emigration from there, and all the top political or scientific Baragan positions would be filled by them. Look at Arun, he is the perfect example of what I mean.” And what kind of example am I? I wanted to ask. I did not, I was afraid of the answer I would get.
“Why not from other medieval planets?”
“Human evolution was somehow stopped – there are no new civilizations, and we don’t know yet why – and it's difficult to convince people to emigrate here. They like who they are, where they are, and we don't want to impose our will.”
“Like the black hats here?” I suddenly felt tired of all these noble ideas with no real correspondence in the field.
“That is an exception.”
“Earth is an exception, this is an exception,” I mocked her.
“Yes, what is happening here is also an exception, a big one, and in due time you will find out why. We have generally found that the ones willing to change planets are the adventurous types, looking for opportunities. A new Pizarro or Cortez is the last thing we need here. The only planet where we can easily find recruits for emigration is Earth. I am talking about normal people; you are the unhappiest planet in the whole galaxy.” My mocking smile disappeared.
“When did you leave Earth?” I asked Arun after we left the cave, he was not aware of the parallel timeline with Houston.
“In 2009, just after the crisis: I was a ‘dreamer’, like you, I suppose. They captured my dreams and asked if I didn’t want an improvement. Hell, I wanted it. I was long-term sick, my insurance got too expensive and the insurer kicked me out. Other insurers rejected me from the start. I never looked like a source of profit to them. Did I miss something? Is the crisis finished?” I had the impression of looking in a mirror, a bewitched, mocking mirror showing a huge me having the same problems.
“If you read the statistics, we are doing better than ever.” I wiped out the inner mirror.
“Oh yes, lies, damned lies and statistics, I know the feeling. You have empty pockets and they are reporting that you are a source of gold. You only need to borrow more money.” He stopped for a while, as if undecided. “Is Europe any different?” He passed the ball; deep in his heart, he still considered himself Ameri
can, only in his thoughts he was dreaming of a different country, one matching the civilization he found here.
“The same game, our western civilization is dying; the disease you see coming here is killing the host there.” I do not remember how that idea came into my mind, but I was just beginning to realize the main cause of our western civilization’s self-destroying path, a path leading to no more than a forgotten page in a Chinese book of history.
That evening I destroyed all the wine bottles I carried with me to blind my mind in the long nights. I no longer needed them; my internal balance switched back to normal, and a new confidence gained hold. We had survived the worst period of our journey and things were brighter now, or at least that was my thinking; a happy thought pushing the memories of SAT-mines into the dark. Unfortunately, the reality was much more complex than I could foresee.
*
“We did not ask you to come, yet I am ready to listen,” Siena, the Munti queen, abruptly opened the hostilities; Duras was the only witness, a quiet one. “A village was destroyed, people died, women and children were killed.” She was as tall as me, her eyes at the same level, blue cold eyes wanting answers for burning questions. A pang of disquiet came over me. “Words of your fairness in fighting arrived here long before you yourself. There is much to this story and we have had only glimpses of it. What is the reason behind all this? Do you want war? Tell me and you will have it!” And I complained about Houston being harsh. She is no longer the young queen from your simulations.
“We are now at a crossroads. The attack on your village is not of the Baragans’ making, even though some of their people were involved; they were no longer themselves. Much treachery has been brought to us by Travelers from outside this world; as they plan to destroy both nations to make room for another.” I decided to tell the full truth, hoping that as with the rulers of Dava, no takeover by the black hats’ hypnosis had subverted the Queen.
“Why should I believe that the Travelers are suddenly trying to destroy what they helped to raise?” You play the same game as Duras... It doesn’t work twice.
Io Deceneus: Journal of a Time Traveler (The Living Universe) Page 30