“Makes sense to me,” said Noxon. “But what about his other suggestion?”
“His?”
“Future me wrote this note,” said Noxon. “I didn’t. So it’s his suggestion, not mine.”
“I don’t remember my parents,” said Deborah to Professor Wheaton. “Not enough to want to trade them for you.”
“It’s not a trade,” said Noxon. “What he’s suggesting will copy us. You—the you of right now, eyeless and brilliant and semi-annoying—”
“Thanks for that ‘semi,’” said Deborah.
“You will still exist,” said Noxon. “But that other you, the baby with parents and eyes, that version of you will continue. And live a completely different life. She’ll never know you existed.”
“She’ll probably get hit by a bus at age twelve,” said Ram. “There are no guarantees.”
“Or her parents might get divorced. Or all kinds of bad things. But she’ll have that life, and whatever happens, she’ll see it happening with her own eyes,” said Noxon. “And meanwhile, the four of us will still exist because we’re the agents of change. And we’ll jump forward in time and go calling on the other version of Professor Wheaton, and he’ll take us in because he’s a generous guy.”
“I’ll be living in a garret somewhere,” said Wheaton. “Or a homeless shelter. Or I’ll be dead.”
“And if you are, then the four of us will find some other way to survive,” said Noxon. “It isn’t hard for me to make a killing on the stock market. We don’t need some version of Professor Wheaton’s pension. That’s just the simpler way.”
“Why are we even thinking of going back to save my parents?” asked Deborah. “That was never part of the plan.”
“It’s what future Noxon said,” Wheaton answered her. “We saw you dead. And we couldn’t help but think, as long as we’re saving her life, why not save her original life?”
“We don’t have to do that,” said Deborah. “We can prevent my death out on the savannah today—or a million and a half years ago, or whatever. And then we just go home and wait for the human race to monstrify ourselves.”
“That’s one choice,” said Ram Odin.
“But it’s the one I’m going to make,” said Noxon. “Because my friend Umbo—”
“The legendary Umbo,” said Ram quietly.
“Never forgot about his brother who died when we first started messing with time. And if I know Umbo, he’s probably already found some stupid elaborate way to save Kyokay’s life. Because he couldn’t go on unless he did.”
“But that hardly applies to you, Noxon,” said Wheaton.
“And it certainly doesn’t apply to me,” said Deborah, “because I think I turned out just fine.”
“Oh, you did,” said Ram. “You are superb. If Noxon proposes anything that might get rid of you, I’ll strangle him first.”
“We’ve already proven you aren’t quick enough to kill me,” said Noxon. “And any change I make, I’ll be sure to keep you around, eyeless and mean as ever.”
“I’m not mean,” said Deborah, sounding a little hurt.
“I meant it in the nicest possible way,” said Noxon.
“None of the possible ways to mean that are nice at all,” said Deborah.
“He means that he’s halfway to being in love with you,” said Ram. “And I agree, that isn’t a very nice thing to contemplate, what with that incredibly ugly face of his.”
“Enough,” said Noxon. “Let’s go watch a gnu get slaughtered and butchered by Erectids. And then go back and save a little girl from being a blind orphan for the rest of her life. And then we can figure out how to save a faraway planet from destruction. I’m not putting it to a vote, and any of you who wants to can opt out of any step along the way, and choose your own consequences. But those are the changes I’m going to make.”
“You do realize that the simplest choice would have been to leave me dead,” said Deborah. “Why did they even leave this note to warn us? You can still accomplish your mission whether I’m there or not.”
“Because Professor Wheaton couldn’t bear to live in a world in which you were dead,” said Noxon. “Future me explained it very clearly.”
“So it isn’t me, it’s Father who caused all this annoyance,” said Deborah.
“My fault,” said Wheaton. “I take full responsibility.”
“Are you coming with me, or not?” asked Noxon.
They followed him out the door of the hotel room. They arrived at the parking lot much later than before, and now two rangers tried to persuade them not to go. But they went, and saw the prey stunned by two expertly thrown cobblestones, and then killed with the jab of a wooden spear into the spine. They watched the Erectids flake small blades from their seedstones, and flay and section the body while the blood was still warm, then bind the haunches and slabs of meat with twine and start jogging back toward the camp, where the fires would be waiting, and the women and children and old men were hungry for the meat, which would mean the survival of the tribe for another few days.
CHAPTER 24
Motherless Boy
“Something doesn’t feel right to me,” said Square to Umbo.
Umbo looked at the young man but said nothing. It wasn’t Umbo’s job to draw him out. Square would say what he had to say, when he was ready to say it. If Umbo spoke now, it would become Umbo’s conversation, and since he had no idea what the conversation would be about, it didn’t seem likely to be productive.
“I’m trying to think through everything that everybody has taught me about what’s right and wrong,” said Square. “I know it doesn’t mean legal or illegal—it’s usually right to obey the law, because that’s how civilization works best, but not always. I mean, over in Ramfold, either you’re King-in-the-Tent because you’re married to Param Sessamin and her mother is Sessaminiak, the rightfully deposed queen, or you’re a traitor and a rebel because you and Param make that claim but Hagia is still Sessamin, and Haddamander is King-in-the-Tent and all his actions are right.”
“Is that what you’re trying to make up your mind about?”
“Oh, not at all,” said Square. “I was just showing my thinking about right and wrong versus legal and illegal.”
“I’m not Rigg, and he only demands that from you because that’s how he was raised, one long oral examination.”
“But it’s a good education. I know so much now that I finally understand how little I know.”
“Very wise. But I was born knowing that.”
“Having your supposed father tell you that you’re stupid every hour of the day is not the same thing,” said Square.
“He swore he was teaching me a lesson,” said Umbo. “I was defrauded.”
“The thing that doesn’t feel right,” said Square, “is having Rigg at the head of your army of traitorous rebels.”
“He isn’t, actually,” said Umbo. “Olivenko is the overall commander.”
“But it’s actually worse the way it is, having Rigg lead every raiding party. He hates fighting.”
“No,” said Umbo. “He hates killing.”
“You can’t keep this up forever. Having each of his raids take place before all the others, so each one becomes the first one. Always taking the enemy completely by surprise. Eventually you’re going to go back so far that nobody will want to join the rebellion because it’ll be before Haddamander and Hagia did anything bad. Back when the People’s Revolutionary Council ruled and nobody really hated them all that much, except the royalists.”
“Good grasp of history,” said Umbo.
“Well, it’s not really history, is it? Since at this moment, here in Vadeshfold, those events are still a few centuries ahead. You aren’t even born yet.”
“Nor are you,” said Umbo. “And on the timeline that exists now in Ramfold, you never will be.”