Herries heard his own breath harsh in his throat. «Who are these people?»
The papery half-seen countenance did not look at him, but into the pit-like reaches of the shed. «You have committed a common error,» said Symonds, as if to a student. «You have assumed that because men are constrained by circumstances to act in certain ways, they must be evil or stupid. I assure you, Senator Wien and the few others responsible for this are neither. They must keep the truth even from those officials within the project whose reaction would be rage or panic instead of a sober attempt at salvage. Nor do they have unlimited powers. Therefore, rather than indulge in tantrums about the existing situation, they use it. The very compartmentalization of effort and knowledge enforced by Security helps conceal their purposes and mislead those who must be given some information.»
Symonds paused. A little frown crossed his forehead, and he tapped an impatient fingernail on a flashlight casing. «Do not misunderstand,» he went on. «Senator Wien and his associates have not forgotten their oaths of office, nor are they trying to play God. Their primary effort goes, as it must, to a straightforward dealing with the problems of the twentieth century. It is not they who are withholding the one significant datum—a datum which, incidentally, any informed person could reason out for himself if he cared to. It is properly constituted authority, using powers legally granted to stamp certain reports Top Secret. Of course, the Senator has used his considerable influence to bring about the present eventuality, but that is normal politics.»
Herries growled: «Get to the point, damn you! What are you talking about?»
Symonds shook his thin gray head. «You are afraid to know, are you not?» he asked quietly.
«I—» Herries turned about, faced the crate and beat it with his fist. The parched voice in the night continued to punish him:
«You know that a time-projector can go into the future about a hundred years at a jump, but can only go pastward in jumps of approximately one hundred megayears. You have spoken of a simple way to explore certain sections of the historical past, in spite of this handicap, by making enough century hops forward before the one long hop backward. But can you tell me how to predict the historical future? Say, a century hence? Come, come, you are an intelligent man. Answer me.»
«Yeah,» said Herries. «I get the idea. Leave me alone.»
«Team A, a group of well-equipped volunteers, went into the twenty-first century,» pursued Symonds. «They recorded what they observed and placed the data in a chemically inert box within a large block of reinforced concrete erected at an agreed-on location: one which a previous expedition to circa 100,000,000 A.D. had confirmed would remain stable. I presume they also mixed radioactive materials of long half-life into the concrete, to aid in finding the site. Of course, the bracketing of time jumps is such that they cannot now get back to the twentieth century. But Team B went a full hundred-megayear jump into the future, excavated the data, and returned home.»
Herries squared his body and faced back to the small man. He was drained, so weary that it was all he could do to keep on his feet. «What did they find?» he asked. There was no tone in his voice or in him.
«There have actually been several expeditions to 100,000,000,» said Symonds. «Energy requirements for a visit to 200,000,000—A.D. or B.C.—were considered prohibitive. But in 100,000,000 life is re-evolving on Earth. However, as yet the plants have not liberated enough oxygen for the atmosphere to be breathable. You see, oxygen reacts with exposed rock, so that if no biological processes exist to replace it continuously—But you have a better technical education than I.»
«Okay,» said Herries, flat and hard. «Earth was sterile for a long time in the future. Including the twenty-first century?»
«Yes. The radioactivity had died down enough so that Team A reported no danger to itself, but some of the longer-lived isotopes were still measurably present. By making differential measurements of abundance, Team A was able to estimate rather closely when the bombs had gone off.»
«And?»
«Approximately one year from the twentieth-century base date we are presently using.»
«One year… from now.» Herries stared upward. Blackness met him. He heard the Jurassic rain on the iron roof, like drums.
«Possibly less,» Symonds told him. «There is a factor of uncertainty. This project must be completed well within the safety margin before the war comes.»
«The war comes,» Herries repeated… «Does it have to come? Fixed time line or not, does it have to come? Couldn’t the enemy leaders be shown the facts—couldn’t our side, even, capitulate—»
«Every effort is being made,» said Symonds like a machine. «Quite apart from the theory of rigid time, it seems unlikely that they will succeed. The situation is too unstable. One man, losing his head and pressing the wrong button, can write the end; and there are so many buttons. The very revelation of the truth, to a few chosen leaders or to the world public, would make some of them panicky. Who can tell what a man in panic will do? That is what I meant when I said that Senator Wien and his coworkers have not forgotten their oaths of office. They have no thought of taking refuge, they know they are old men. To the end, they will try to save the twentieth century. But they do not expect it; so they are also trying to save the human race.»
Herries pushed up from the crate he had been leaning against. «Those five hundred who’re coming,» he whispered. «Women?»
«Yes. If there is still time to rescue a few more, after the ones you are preparing for have gone through, it will be done. But there will be at least a thousand young, healthy adults here, in the Jurassic. You face a difficult time, when the truth must be told them; you can see why the secret must be kept until then. It is quite possible that someone here will lose his head. That is why no heavy weapons have been sent: a single deranged person must not be able to destroy everyone. But you will recover. You must.»
Herries jerked the door open and stared out into the roaring darkness. «But there are no traces of us… in the future,» he said, hearing his voice high and hurt like a child’s.
«How much trace do you expect would remain after geological eras?» answered Symonds. He was still the reproving schoolmaster; but he sat on the barrel and faced the great moving shadows in a corner. «It is assumed that you will remain here for several generations, until your numbers and resources have been expanded sufficiently. The Team A I spoke of will join you a century hence. It is also, I might add, composed of young men and women in equal numbers. But this planet in this age is not a good home. We trust that your descendants will perfect the spaceships we know to be possible, and take possession of the stars instead.»
Herries leaned in the doorway, sagging with tiredness and the monstrous duty to survive. A gust of wind threw rain into his eyes. He heard dragons calling in the night.
«And you?» he said, for no good reason.
«I shall convey any final messages you may wish to send home,» said the dried-out voice.
Neat little footsteps clicked across the floor until the clerk paused beside the engineer. There was silence, except for the rain.
«Surely I will deserve to go home,» said Symonds.
And suddenly the breath whistled inward between teeth which had snapped together. He raised his hands, claw-fingered and screamed aloud: «You can let me go home then!»
He began running toward the supervisors’ barge. The sound of him was soon lost. Herries stood for a time yet in the door.
CLAUSIUS’ CHAOS
Entropy, Shmentropy,