“As she saved mine by disappearing in the first place,” said Umbo. “And as you saved us both by signaling me to bring you back to the present. That was very generous of you. I hope it wasn’t too terrible, passing through the last part of the Wall without any help at all.”
Olivenko shuddered. “It was the worst thing in the world.”
“You passed through part of the Wall unaided in any way?” asked the expendable.
“The last fifty steps or so,” said Olivenko.
“And then they came back and got me,” said Rigg. “I fell and gave up, and they carried me through.”
“Having passed through the Wall,” the expendable asked Loaf and Olivenko, “you returned into it in order to retrieve this boy?”
Olivenko and Loaf answered simultaneously.
“We’re soldiers,” said Loaf.
“He’s our friend,” said Olivenko.
Then they glanced at each other and said, “What he said.” Then they laughed.
“Then all five of you are very remarkable humans, for you have all done, in your own way, what is not possible to do.”
“So you believe us?” asked Param. She sounded a little incredulous.
“While you spoke,” said the expendable, “I have been in communication with the active expendable in your former wallfold. He assures me that you are all capable of doing what you claim to have done.” The expendable pointed to Param. “You can make microleaps into the future.” To Umbo: “You can do the opposite, speeding up the experience of time so that the surrounding timeflow seems to slow down. And you have also apparently learned how to do a limited version of what he can do.”
The expendable pointed to Rigg. “He is the actual time traveler—all past times are present before him, and he can select the timeframe of any living creature and join him in his own time, returning to the ‘present’ time that he most recently occupied.”
Then, to everyone’s surprise, he pointed at Loaf and Olivenko. “Both of you possess, to varying degrees, a powerful natural resistance to the wallfield. Normal human beings cannot endure it. Their volition disappears within a few seconds, and they go mad and lie down and die. They can walk perhaps a dozen steps, but that is all.”
Olivenko and Loaf looked at each other and at the others. Olivenko said, “What are the odds of the two of us having the same—”
As Loaf said, “It must be a pretty common ability—”
“It is a rare ability, but the active expendable in your former wallfold tells me that your field sensitivity attracts you to those who can manipulate fields—like these three. It is not surprising when people with these abilities find each other. Or so says the active expendable in your former—”
“You mean my father,” said Rigg.
“Yes,” said the expendable. “He confirms that he is the expendable that you called Father.”
“But he died.”
“In wallfolds where the expendables continue to pass for human,” said the expendable, “it is necessary for them to pretend to die from time to time, lest people notice that they do not age.”
“Then what are you?” asked Umbo.
“A machine,” said the expendable.
Rigg found himself inexplicably filled with emotion. And to his own surprise it was not anger. It was something more like grief. He found himself convulsively sobbing. He did not understand why. Nor could he stop.
“I’m sorry, I—”
Umbo put a hand on his shoulder. “Your father isn’t dead,” said Umbo.
“A machine,” said Rigg to the expendable, getting his sobs under control. “I should have known. You have no path! Neither you nor Father.”
Param smiled at Rigg. “So you were also raised by a lying monster pretending to be human,” she said.
Rigg smiled as he wiped his eyes. “Just one more thing we have in common.”
“The expendable you called ‘Father’ is not a monster,” said the expendable. “He is a servant of the human race.”
“He lied to me every day of my life,” said Rigg.
“He lied to me and Param, too,” said Umbo.
“He trained you and prepared you,” said the expendable. “You are the first human beings ever to pass through the Wall.”
“Except Knosso Sissamik,” said Olivenko.
“Who?” asked the expendable.
“Their real father,” Olivenko replied, indicating Param and Rigg. “He had me drug him and he floated through the Wall in the Great Bay.”
The expendable shook his head. “The influence of the Wall is not blocked by drugs. When he reached the other side he would have lost all coherent mental function.” A momentary pause. “The active expendable in your former—”
“Call him the Golden Man,” said Param.
“The Golden Man assures me that this was the case. Policy was followed by the expendable in the wallfold he floated into, and he was euthanized immediately.”
“Euthanized?” asked Umbo.
“Killed,” said Olivenko. “Murdered.”
“The man Knosso no longer existed,” said the expendable. “At that point, the brain in that human body had only one desire, which was to die immediately.”
It was Olivenko’s turn to weep. Loaf rested a hand on Olivenko’s back as he bent over, his face buried in his hands.
Param was looking at the expendable. “Why should we believe anything you say to us?”
“Because you are the first humans to pass through the Wall,” he said.
“So what?” she demanded.
“So you are now in command.”
“Of what?” asked Rigg.
“Of me,” said the expendable.
“And what does that mean?” asked Umbo.
“It means that whatever you tell me to do, which it is within my power to do, I am required to do.”
“This is insane,” said Param. “He’s lying. Don’t any of you understand? He can’t obey all of us. What if we gave him contradictory orders?”
“She’s got a point,” said Loaf.
“I obey the first human to achieve the technology to pass through the Wall.”
“The first two through the Wall were Param and Umbo,” said Rigg.
“It was Param who did that,” said Umbo. “I was along for the ride.”
“We were not the first,” said Param. “We saw you three go through the Wall before we jumped from the rock.”
“I think we’re going to have trouble with the definition of ‘before,’” said Umbo.
The expendable hesitated for a moment. Now Rigg understood these hesitations. He was talking, somehow, with Father.
“Which of you has the stones?” asked the expendable.
Rigg looked at Umbo, then remembered that Umbo had given him the stones before they began the passage through the Wall. He reached into his trousers and drew out the bag of jewels. “These?”
“Nineteen stones?” asked the expendable in reply.
“Eighteen,” said Rigg, laying the bag open in front of him.
The expendable leaned over, looking at them but not touching them. “Why is one missing? You have not placed it.”
“It was in the possession of the Revolutionary Council. Or maybe General Citizen’s minions,” said Rigg.
“We were working on trying to get it back,” said Umbo. “But then we had to get out of the city.”
The expendable nodded. “Eventually you will need it,” he said. “Fortunately, the one that’s missing is your own.”
“Aren’t they all mine?” asked Rigg. “Or . . . ours?”
“I mean the one that will let you shut off the Wall around your own wallfold, the one where you were born.”
“The jewels shut off the Walls?” demanded Loaf. “We’ve been carrying around—”
“You could not have shut off your own Wall until all the others were shut off,” said the expendable. “You would have had to use it last in any case. So when the other Walls are down, you will return
home, get the last jewel, and shut down the last Wall.”
“We will?” asked Param.
“Why else would you have passed through the Wall?” asked the expendable.
“To save our lives,” said Rigg. “There are people on the other side trying to kill us.”
Umbo leaned back so he could look through the Wall again at the place where Mother and General Citizen sat astride their horses. “You’d think they’d look over and notice that Param and I are already here,” said Umbo.
“It wouldn’t cross their minds,” said Param.
“You’re both on the other side of Loaf and Olivenko,” said Rigg. “They can’t see you unless you lean out to look.”
The expendable indicated for Rigg to put away the jewels. “So you are truly ignorant of what you’re here for,” he said.
Rigg gathered the jewels. “No,” he said. “We know exactly why we’re here. We just don’t know why you think we’re here, or why Father—the Golden Man—why he gave me the jewels and set us on this path.”
“We choose our own purposes now,” said Param.
“We’ll see how that works out for you,” said the expendable. He stood up and started to walk away.
“Wait!” called Loaf.
The expendable kept walking.
“You say it,” said Loaf. “You make him wait, Rigg.”
“Wait,” said Rigg. “Come back.”
The expendable came back. “I hate this,” murmured Rigg as the expendable approached. “I don’t want to command anybody.”
“If it’s any consolation,” said Umbo, “you don’t have any authority at all over us.”
“We need your help just to survive here,” said Rigg. “We don’t speak the languages.”
“Yes you do,” said the expendable.
“We didn’t understand a word you were saying before,” said Rigg.
“Nevertheless, all the languages ever spoken in the world are contained within the Wall. If it were not so, it could not speak to you.”
“So the Wall knows the languages,” said Rigg.
“And having passed through the Wall, so do you,” said the expendable. “It may take time for any particular language to recognize itself and waken in your memory, but it will be there.”
“I’m hungry,” said Loaf. “I’ve had enough talk.”
“Let’s get out of sight of General Citizen and his clowns,” said Olivenko. “I’m done with them.”
“For now,” said Param. “Till we go back.”
“And why would we go back?” asked Loaf.
“To get the last jewel,” said Param. “To shut off this last Wall.”
“So you think we should do what these expendables intend for us to do?” asked Rigg.
“I think they’ll give us no peace until we do,” said Param. “I think his supposed obedience is a fraud, and they’re going to keep controlling us the way they’ve been doing all along.”
“In case anyone’s forgotten,” said Olivenko, “not all the people in other wallfolds are nice. Not even the people in our wallfold are nice. What would General Citizen do, if this Wall disappeared right now?”
“Come over here and kill us all,” said Umbo.
“Not if I killed him first,” said Loaf.
“Wars of conquest,” said Olivenko. “Until now, the great achievement of the Sessamoto was to unite the entire wallfold under a single government. But if the walls disappear, how long before we try to conquer the world? Or the people of some other wallfold try to conquer us? Humans are humans, I assume, in every wallfold.” He turned to the expendable. “Or has human nature changed in any of them? Is there a version of the human race that has abandoned predation and territoriality?”
“I wouldn’t know,” said the expendable. “We pretty much stick to learning about our own wallfold.”
Rigg said, “Then ask the others. Find out. If you want us to take down the Walls, we have to know the consequences.”
“I think that’s something that you’ll need to discover for yourselves,” said the expendable.
“So much for obedience,” said Param.
The expendable turned to her. “The Walls have never been shut off before, or crossed, until the five of you. We don’t know how the human beings of each wallfold will react. I cannot tell you what I do not know. I told you that I would obey any command that I had the power to obey.”
“So the responsibility for the whole world is in our hands,” said Rigg.
“Your hands,” said Umbo. “You have the jewels.”
“Come on,” said Rigg. “We’re in this together. Please.”
Umbo laughed. “Lighten up, Rigg. What else have we got to pass the time, if not taking down all the Walls in the world?”
“And finding out what they’re not telling us,” said Param. “Count on it, they’re still lying to us. You notice he’s not even denying it.”
The expendable regarded her calmly. “I’m not agreeing, either.”
“Which is just another form of lying,” said Param.
“You cannot lie,” said the expendable, “if you do not know the truth. You can only be wrong, or silent. I prefer silence to error, and since I do not know when I am in error, silence is the best choice unless I am forced to speak.”
“Not just a liar,” said Param, “but a philosopher.”
“Tell us the truth when we ask you questions,” said Rigg, “or whatever you believe to be the truth based on current information. And answer everybody’s questions, not just mine.”
“All right,” said the expendable.
“What is your name?” Rigg asked the expendable.
“I don’t have a name,” said the expendable.
“But I need a name for you. And a name for the one I called Father.”
“The active expendable is referred to by the name of the wallfold in which he serves,” said the expendable.
“So what is the name of that wallfold? The one we were born in? The one we just left?”
“We call it Ramfold,” said the expendable. “So we call your active expendable ‘Ram.’”
“And this wallfold?” asked Umbo. “And your name?”
“Vadesh,” said the expendable. “This is Vadeshfold, and I am called Vadesh.”
“Did you notice that he actually answered somebody who wasn’t me?” said Rigg. “That’s progress.”
“Is there fresh water around here?” asked Loaf. “Drinkable water? Clean water? Safe water? In quantities we can use to refill our water bags—do I need to be more specific?”
“I’ll lead you to water,” said Vadesh. “But I can’t make you drink.”
Rigg looked at the others, puzzled, then turned back to Vadesh. “Why would you say that? Why would you need to make us drink?”
“It’s an old saying,” said Vadesh. “On Earth, the world where the human race was born. In one of the languages of Earth. It is twelve thousand years old. ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’”
“Thank you for the history lesson,” said Olivenko.
“And the lesson in equine behavior,” said Param.
Rigg chuckled at their ironic humor as Vadesh led them away from the Wall, toward a not-so-distant line of trees. But he noticed that Vadesh made no comment on their jests, and a thought occurred to him. “Vadesh,” he said, “your references to the world where humans came from, and teaching us a saying from twelve thousand years ago. Is there some reason why we might need to know about Earth?”
“Yes,” said Vadesh.
“And what is that reason?” asked Rigg.
Vadesh said nothing.
“Does your silence mean that you don’t know?” asked Rigg. “Or that you just don’t want to tell us?”
“I cannot predict the answer to your question with anything approaching accuracy or certainty. But you will need to know many things about Earth, and you will need to know them soon.”
“Why?” asked Rigg.
“
Why what?”
“Why will we need to know many things about Earth, and why will we need to know them soon?”
“Because they are coming,” said Vadesh.
“Who is coming?” asked Param.
“People from Earth.”
“When?” demanded Loaf.
“I don’t know,” said Vadesh.
“What will they do when they get here?” asked Umbo.
“I don’t know,” said Vadesh.
“Well, what can they do?” asked Rigg.
Vadesh paused. “There are billions of correct answers to that question,” said Vadesh. “In the interests of time, I will prioritize them.”
“Good,” said Rigg. “What is the most important thing they can do?”
“They can blast this world into oblivion, killing every living thing upon it.”
“Why would they want to do that?” asked Olivenko. “What have we ever done to them?”
“I was asked what they can do, not what they will do. And before you ask, I do not know what they will do. There are billions of answers to the first question, but there is no answer at all to the second. That is the future, and it’s a place where even the five of you can’t go, except slowly, a day at a time, like everyone else.”
“Here’s the water,” said Rigg. “It looks good. Let’s fill up the water bags, and drink.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Neil F. Comins didn’t know he was helping me with this novel when he wrote What If the Earth Had Two Moons?: And Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations on the Solar System, but I thank him anyway. His book is the reason why the planet Garden has a ring instead of a moon, and why I had the nineteen ships strike the planet the way they do. He is not responsible, however, for the things I made up that are not possible within the limits of known science.
The games with time travel that I play in this book are in deliberate defiance of the consensus rules of science fictional time travel. I decided that I was not going to avoid paradox, I was going to embrace it, adopting a rule set in which it is causality that controls reality, regardless of where it occurs on the timeline. After all, if we can postulate folding space in order to jump from one location to another instantaneously, why not fold time? And if we can retrace a path through space, why not retrace it through time?
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