Time's Last Gift - txt

by Farmer, Phillip Jose

  'Did he?' Rachel said.

  Von Billmann shrugged and said, 'I do not know. It was all so odd and so sudden. De Longnors disappears...'

  'We knew about that, of course,' Drummond said.

  'And after a while the executives announce that John Gribardsun has been chosen to take his place. Then, a week later, de Longnors is found wandering on the seventh level of Center Paris. He is incoherent and suffering from amnesia. He recovers somewhat in that he remembers everything except the period of his disappearance. That is a blank. By then, the vessel was scheduled for launch. De Longnors had missed too much of the necessary training. Besides, he might be mentally unstable. So he was left behind.'

  Rachel was 'furious but controlling herself. She said, 'Are you hinting that John might have had something to do with de Longnors' disappearance and his amnesia? That he was abducted and drugged?'

  'No, I'm not hinting that John had anything to do with it. As you must know by now, I have nothing but the greatest admiration for John Gribardsun. I'm glad that he, and not de Longnors, was picked. All I'm saying is that something strange was going on at the time. And that, a year before the vessel was launched, John Gribardsun had little chance of being on it.

  'It's a tremendously important thing to be chosen as one of the crew of the H. G. Wells,' von Billmann continued. 'This is a unique voyage. There will be other trips into time, but none this far back again. We are indeed fortunate. I've thanked whatever gods there are that I was one of the four chosen out of thousands who qualified. And that brings up another thing. John once told me that he started training for this trip over twenty years ago, when it was first proposed that the theory of time travel might be made a reality. He was already a cultural anthropologist; he had a Ph.D., though he had never taught. So he figured out what type of man would be needed on an expedition into the past, and he became an M.D., and then got a doctor's degree in archeology and botany and several master's degrees in related fields.

  'Now, a man that determined to get a berth on the time ship, one who sets out twenty years before it is established that there will be a ship - that man isn't going to let a kidnapping and a drugging get in his way.'

  'You make me furious!' Rachel said. 'First you tell us all these sinister bits of information. Then you say they're just guesses, and you worship Gribardsun, and then...'

  'I admire and respect him very much. I didn't say anything about worshipping him. You must understand. I don't want to think any ill of John. I like him too much for that. But I am a scientist, and I have to consider certain theories. Especially when certain facts start to build up a certain picture. But nothing is proved anyway. Or probably ever will be.'

  'Well, I wouldn't blame him if he had played a dirty trick on de Longnors,' Drummond said.

  Rachel looked surprised. Her husband said, 'Nor would I have blamed de Longnors if Gribardsun had been in his place and he was the one who did the abducting and drugging. The crew of the H. G. Wells I will be famous forever.'

  'I think that it won't be good to have this kept among us three,' von Billmann said. 'We should bring it out in the open; talk it over with Gribardsun. I don't want you to think I'm talking behind his back. Nor would I want him to think that. So why don't we tell him about this conversation?'

  'That would at least be honest,' Rachel said.

  'But not womanly,' Drummond said.

  'What do you mean by that?'

  'Just a thought,' Drummond said. 'It doesn't apply to you, of course, since you're so outspoken.'

  'I don't know,' she said. 'Perhaps we should reconsider. If he felt that we suspected him of underhandedness - of, in fact, criminal behavior - wouldn't that make things difficult? It's bad enough as it is, being forced into intimate contact for four years, never seeing any other human beings. Real human beings, I mean,' she said, as von Billmann opened his mouth to protest.

  Drummond laughed.

  'You know what I mean!' she said. 'Civilized men, then! People who think as we do! But, really, what good will it do? You don't expect him to admit anything dishonest, do you? And what if he did? Or didn't, for that matter? What then? What good would it do? I've changed my mind. I think we ought to keep such suspicions to ourselves.'

  'I don't,' von Billmann said. 'John isn't the kind who likes festering secrets. He'd rather bring them out in the open.'

  'I think it should be discussed,' Drummond said, looking strangely at Rachel.

  The funeral rites took most of one day. The dead men were placed side by side in a single shallow grave. They were placed on their right sides, knees drawn up against their bellies and arms down their sides, the fingers touching the ankles. They were clad in full skin suits, their necks hung with chains of perforated stones and pierced bear teeth and claws. Their stones and wooden weapons were placed beside them and pieces of mammoth and rhino meat were placed near the mouths. The bodies were then covered with bearskins and more bear teeth strewn over the skins. Dirt was piled over the skins while the widows and their children, along with Thrimk's parents, circled the grave widdershins. They wailed and wept and beat their breasts with their fists and sometimes called on Wota'aimgkrimq, the Great She-Bear. Later, Rachel would ask them what they thought about the afterlife. But they, like the civilized and savage people of the time-travelers own period, had only a vague and often contradictory concept of what happened after they died.

  The adult men and women then piled rocks on top of the dirt until there was enough to discourage bears and hyenas from digging them up. Glamug danced around shaking a baton and chanting from behind his bear mask. When the last rock was piled on, the tribe walked slowly back to the shelf under the overhang. And there they had a big feast.

  The scientists stood around at a respectful distance and filmed the entire ceremony.

  On the way home that evening, Rachel said, 'I wonder what happened to that burial site? I know that very spot was dug up sometime in 1980, and nothing was found there.'

  Drummond shrugged and said, 'I suppose very few graves survived. They were dug up eventually by animals or washed away. And many must have been removed during the building of houses and other constructions in the early days when people didn't pay much attention to such things. And, of course, there must be thousands of burial sites which just haven't been discovered yet because there was no apparent reason to dig. In any case nothing but the stone implements and beads would remain.'

  'When we get back, I'm going to look this spot over,' Rachel said. 'There might be something they overlooked, even if it's only a fossilized bear tooth or a flint spear head.'

  'A lot can happen in 14,000 years,' he said.

  Two more days passed. Rachel fretted until she got on Drummond's nerves. He told her to quit worrying, or at least keep it to herself. And he added that he doubted that she would worry as much if he were gone that long. This led to another quarrel, which they tried, unsuccessfully, to keep from von Billmann, who guessed its origin correctly. He said nothing to either of them; he did not care to get involved, especially in an affair which he disapproved of. They were scientists and so should have left their less worthy emotions behind them in A.D. 2070. He could understand why Rachel had fallen for Gribardsun, since he did in fact, despite his earlier protestation to her, come as close to worshipping the man as he would allow himself to. But she should repress her feelings and not permit them to interfere with their work.

  He did not tell them this, of course. But they knew him well; they could almost read his thoughts.

  On the fifth day, John Gribardsun walked into camp. With him he brought two strangers.

  At a distance, bis colleagues would have had trouble recognizing him if he had not still been clean-shaven.

  His two companions were almost as tall as Gribardsun and fully as broad-shouldered. One had reddish hair and the other yellow-brown. Their eyes were blue. Their bones were large, and their supraorbital ridges were prominent. Though they were Caucasian, they had slight epicanthic folds, indicating,
perhaps, some Mongolian genes.

  Gribardsun strode into camp as if he owned it which, in a sense, he did. The strangers hung back until he turned and gestured for them to join him. They put their spears and atlatls and boomerangs on the ground and climbed up to the ledge. Their wooden-handled flint knives were still in their sheaths, however.

  Gribardsun introduced them as Klhmnhach and Rhtinkhlhk. They smiled nervously and spoke in a strange whispering speech.

  Von Billmann, hearing them, smiled so broadly that his face threatened to split. Gribardsun laughed and said, 'Their language is a linguist's delight, Robert. Very few vowels and most of the consonants are unvoiced. And nothing like anything ever recorded in Europe.'

  The Bear People did not like the strangers at all. Thammash protested loudly while he made threatening gestures at the two. They moved closer together, but their faces remained expressionless and their fingers were widespread.

  There was a brief interruption when Laminak, Dubhab's pre-teenaged daughter, ran to Gribardsun and threw her arms around his waist and hugged him while she wept. The Englishman patted her head and murmured something about being happy to see her again. Then he gently pushed her away, and her mother took her hand and led her away while she scolded her.

  'You've made another conquest,' Rachel said. Her smile was hard.

  Gribardsun did not reply. He addressed the entire tribe, telling them that he had made peace with the strangers, the Wotagrub, whose name for themselves was Krhshmhnhik. This meant The People. The tribesmen were unable to pronounce the word anywhere near correctly, nor would they make much of an effort. For them, the Krhshmhnhik remained the Wotagrub.

  Gribardsun did not say how he had talked the Wotagrub into making peace. Nor did he say anything about taking revenge for their having killed so many Wota'shaimg. From now on there would be peace. The Wotagrub would move even farther away. The borders of the two tribes would be such and such, and he defined them as exactly as he could, using landmarks both tribes knew well. If one tribesman ventured into the territory of the other tribe, he must refrain from hunting there.

  The Wota'shaimg did not like anything he said. They wanted an eye for an eye. In fact, two eyes for an eye. And they could not understand why such a powerful magician and warrior as Gribardsun did not exact vengeance.

  The Englishman explained that he could have wiped out the whole tribe easily. But he saw no reason to do so. That was that.

  He later told his colleagues that it would have done no good to have gone into ethics or morality. The Wota'shaimg would not have understood his modern philosophy. The best thing to do was to issue an edict as if he were a god. They could understand that. If they did not understand rationality, they understood power. The great magician and wicked warrior - to them, wicked was a compliment - required such and such or would punish them. So they would do as he said, even if they did not like it.

  Gribardsun ordered a feast, and the two strangers squatted with the elders of the tribe and the scientists and ate with them. After that, they relaxed. The Wota'shaimg were not likely to murder them if they ate with them. The sharing of food implied safety for those who shared. There was no spoken law to this effect. It was just understood.

  The time travelers examined the boomerangs of the strangers. These were carved with flint and consisted of a heavy close-grained wood which they could not identify as yet. The wood did not grow in this area. Gribardsun said he could speak only a few words - word-sentences, rather - of the strangers. But through sign language he had learned that their origin was far to the south, and that they had brought these boomerangs from their native territory. That was probably either in southern Iberia or possibly North Africa. The two would be connected with a land bridge, of course, since the Mediterranean Sea was much smaller and lower now. The Wotagrub had once had many boomerangs, but they had been in this country so long that they had lost most of them. And there was no wood appropriate for making new ones.

  'I believe that a trip southward, say about the time fall is due, would be consistent with our purpose,' Gribardsun said. He chewed on a piece of rare-cooked ibex steak for a moment and then said, 'We could travel swiftly to get away from the effects of winter here. Winter farther south won't be so severe that we can't travel. And I think we should take a look at the land bridge and at North Africa.'

  'Isn't that rather dangerous, putting ourselves so far away from our vessel?' Drummond said. 'I admit the scientific desirability of studying the southern area. But we must weigh the possible results against the chances of killing ourselves off and so ruining the entire expedition. After all, the power spent on getting us here and back, the fact that this is absolutely the only chance we'll get for a personal look into the Magdalenian period - well, I don't think we should get too far away from our base of operations. Here we have the situation well in hand. But if we wander around, just four of us, we're subject to attack, to accident, to many things. We might be cut off. We might...'

  'Anything that could happen south could happen here,' Gribardsun said. 'Let's think about it. We have a month before autumn comes. We'll consider the feasibility of austral explorations then.'

  'Meanwhile,' von Billmann said, 'I'd like to record the language of the Wotagrub. Do you think it would be all right if I returned with these two?'

  'Why not?' Gribardsun said. 'But I'd like you to collect some animal specimens, too, including entomological specimens, if you could. And get samples of the blood of the Wotagrub if you can. Don't push too hard at first about that, though.'

  The German was delighted. He stood up and said, I'll get my tent and recorder and other equipment and leave as soon as possible.'

  'Sometime tomorrow,' Gribardsun said, smiling. 'We have some things to thresh out, a policy to determine regarding the Wotagrub. It's necessary that everybody understand exactly where we stand. And that won't be easy, since we have to communicate with the Wotagrub through signs.'

  It was late when the fires were allowed to dim and the time travelers, the elders, and the two strangers went to bed. But Gribardsun was satisfied that everybody understood, in general, what the relationship of the two tribes was to be.

  The following afternoon, von Billmann, carrying a large pack on the duraluminum rack on his back, walked off with the two strangers. They also carried packs, the German's equipment and supplies. Von Billmann was exhilarated, and he joked with his two companions. They could not understand a word he said, of course, but they understood his joy, and they smiled back at him.

  Rachel, watching him march off between them, said, 'Do you really think that it's wise to let him go off alone, John?'

  He did not answer. He had a habit, annoying to her, of not answering questions if he thought they didn't deserve an answer.

  Rachel bit her lip and looked at Drummond. He shrugged and moved away. He knew that she wanted him to give her moral support when she questioned Gribardsun about his past. But von Billmann had left them so suddenly that they felt weakened. It had been easy to talk about the questions they would ask Gribardsun when he returned. But now that he was here, he seemed formidable. He would doubtless resent their questions and refuse to answer them. And even if he did, then what? The fact was, they were all here together and they must all work together. In any case, Rachel did not credit a word of their absurd suspicions that Gribardsun had somehow got on the expedition through foul play.

  Drummond had asked her how she knew. Did she really know the Englishman that well?

  Rachel had admitted that she did not, certainly not in any sense that Drummond may have implied. But her feminine intuition, her perceptivity, irrational perhaps but nevertheless valid, told her that Gribardsun was not a felon or a maniac. She knew he was a decent human being, just as a moth knows that certain flying objects are not bats. But her antennae were invisible.

  Drummond had laughed at that and asked her how in the world she had ever gotten her doctorate in zoology. Angrily, she had replied that perhaps he was right about her i
ntuitions. They had told her that Drummond was a strong man, a good husband, and that he was in love with her. But she had been mistaken. So perhaps her intuitions about Gribardsun were also wrong.

  Drummond had then become angry in turn, and they had quarreled again.

  Four

  The summer passed swiftly, the short autumn of the glacial age was upon them. Gribardsun had by then apparently given up the idea, at least temporarily, of traveling to the south. There was so much to be done in this little area that it would have seemed shirking their duties to travel elsewhere.

  Gribardsun's study of the Wota'shaimg language had so far revealed a vocabulary of more 'words' than he would have expected. He was convinced that there were at least that many more. Although it was a poor language for communicating intellectual ideas, it was surprisingly versatile in words for emotions, sensations, and impressions. And, it had a highly technical language for those things most important to the Wota'shaimg: hunting, fishing, various types of animals and stones, shades of light, kinds of snow and ice.