Button in the Fabric of Time (14 page)

“Why did you need him?” Tena, a female
Council member, asked.

“
Our machines did everything for us. We
had no reason to use our bodies—so they slowly diminished until
they served no function. Since they served no function, we
discarded them. Without bodies, we had no vocal cords, so we
learned to read thoughts. Also, we did not hunger for anything, and
we felt no pain. Then, too late, we realized that we needed our
bodies in order to experience physical pleasure—we lost the ability
to love and care. We can’t even reproduce ourselves.

“
There are billions of planets in the
universe that are habitable, and life exists on most of them that
are capable of sustaining life, but most of them have nothing that
even resembles humans. You, the Earth people, have the most
perfectly developed bodies of any we have seen. We had hoped to use
Gus as an intermediary, to get your help in retrieving our
bodies.

“
We will travel back to a time when we had
bodies, then bring our bodies to you and, if you will help us, we
will develop perfect bodies of our own. We would then have both
perfect bodies and perfect minds. We mean you no harm. We need your
help, but we cannot allow you to harm us.”

Roc-2 thought, “Why don’t you read our minds
and develop your bodies?”

The voice in their minds spoke:
“We know
what you are thinking.”

Confused and a bit exasperated, Roc-2 asked,
“So, why don’t you do as I thought?”

“
We tried!”
the voice replied. “
We
can read your thoughts, but we cannot obtain your DNA without your
help. To read your minds, we must be in your presence. You wouldn’t
trust us long enough to allow us to get close. You always knew when
we approached, and we were afraid you would fire upon us with your
weapons.”

“Why didn’t you use the people in the
twenty-first century?” I asked.

“
You were too violent, too self-consumed,
and you were already destroying your bodies. Your children were fat
and lazy. Machines were doing most of the labor. Your children
played games with machines that required no exercise, or they
played childish games with balls of different sizes and shapes that
didn’t really challenge their minds. The children were bored, so
they ate too much, and used drugs to induce excitement.”

“Then why did you choose Gus?” Jan-3
asked.

“
We told you why
,
”
the voice
said a little impatiently
. “We chose him because he had a
curious mind, and he was open to new ideas. He had no preconceived
religious convictions. He proved that we were right in choosing him
when he volunteered to help us. That is why we gave him the button
and instructed him in how to use it.”

“We trust Gus, but we’re still uncertain
about your intentions,” Roc-2 said.

“
We have placed the knowledge of how the
travel device works in Gus’s mind. He can tell you how to build it,
and you can build your own. You know that Gus doesn’t have the
facilities or the materials to develop the button on his own. He
needs your help. That should show you that we have peaceful
intentions.”

Roc-2 turned to me. I nodded my head,
indicating that I had received the knowledge to build the travel
device. He looked at the robots, each of whom nodded slowly to
confirm that Ulto was telling the truth. Roc-2 then turned to his
Council, and each member nodded their approval. Then he asked Ulto,
“How can we help?”

“
Now, we’re getting somewhere. Our bodies
are badly deformed, so we need DNA from you to restore
them.”

“If you use our DNA, you will become
duplications of us. You would have to conform to our rules to
prevent confusion.”

“
We would conform to your methods, and we
would appreciate it if you would help us develop a society that
will enable us to live in harmony.”

“Then we must agree on how to proceed,” Roc-2
said. “If your bodies are diseased and deformed as you say, we
wouldn’t want them brought to planet Earth. We’ve worked for
centuries to eliminate diseases, and we wouldn’t want to introduce
new diseases into our atmosphere. We could purify your bodies with
our machines, but we would have to take our machines to where your
bodies are. Could you transport our purification chambers to planet
Ergo?”

Again the silent voice spoke:
“We could
transport the machines, but would it not be better to take you to
planet Ergo, so you could help the Ergons build purifying chambers
there?”

“That would be better,” Roc-2 agreed. “We
could train the Ergons to build and operate the machines, and they
could do the purification. Is planet Ergo still contaminated by
atomic radiation?”

“
Yes.”

“It will do no good to purify your bodies if
you don’t get rid of the radiation.”

“
We know that,”
Ulto said with a touch
of annoyance.
“With your help, we could get rid of the radiation
the same way you did. Some of the Ergons still have functioning
minds. Their minds are no longer creative, but they are capable of
learning and, with your help, they could get rid of the radiation
on planet Ergo, the same way you did on planet Earth. If you
trained them to build the machines, we could purify our bodies and,
with your DNA, mend our deformities.”

“That will work,” Roc-2 said, “but it took
Earth people seven hundred years to cleanse the earth of
radiation.”

“
We don’t want to wait that long!”
the
voice said.

A way to solve the problem occurred to me,
but I hesitated to voice my thoughts because I was in the presence
of people with far more knowledge than I. But Ulto read my thoughts
and said:

“
Gus, that idea will work!”

“What idea?” Jan-3 and Roc-2 asked me at the
same time.

Ulto explained:
“We will build the
purification station on planet Ergo, go back to a time when we had
bodies, take them to planet Ergo, and then purify them there. After
we purify them on Ergo, we will take them to planet Duos. Thank
you, Gus. We didn’t realize that people in your stage of
development had that much reasoning power.”

I was a little insulted by Ulto’s words and
said to myself, “Yeah, I can even tie my own shoes.” I had again
forgotten that Ulto could read my thoughts until the voice
said:

“
Sorry, Gus, I meant no offense.”

Oops! He read my thoughts again. I didn’t
even dare to think. Then I heard a chuckle in my head. And Ulto’s
voice, in a conciliatory tone, asked:
“Gus, will
you come
with us to planet Ergo, and help us build the purification
chambers?”

Roc-2 and Jan-3 heard the same silent voice,
and Roc-2 said, “Gus, our engineers will go with you and help train
the Ergons. We have suits to shield you from the radiation.”

Jan-3 said, “Gus, if you’re going, I’m going,
too.”

“I’d like to have you with me, Jan-3, but
living conditions on planet Ergo will be unpleasant, and it might
be dangerous.” Then I said to Ulto, “We can’t eat, sleep, or take a
bath in radiation suits. How will we live?”

Ulto answered: “
While we Antons were
living on planet Ergo, we built radiation-free structures, but you
will need to bring your own food and water.”

“You and everyone else from planet Earth who
goes with you will have to go through the purification chamber
again before you can re-enter Earth’s environment,” Roc-2 said.
“Gus, you need to go through the chamber again anyway. I’ll ask
some of the engineers to volunteer to go with you.”

When I was in the Army, I learned to never
volunteer, but it looked like I had been suckered into this
assignment. I was both concerned and pleased that Jan-3 wanted to
come along. “How long do you estimate that it will take to complete
the job?”

Roc-2 replied, “It depends upon the
availability of building material.”

“
Planet Ergo has an abundance of wood,
metal, and masonry.
But if you must use glass, we will have
to build smelters to melt and mold the silica,”
Ulto added.

“I know how to build with wood, metal, and
masonry,” I said. “Those materials are sufficient to make temporary
structures. Perhaps I can be useful in working with your
engineering staff. If the Ergons provide the labor, we should be
able to build the chambers in a few weeks. Can we take enough
supplies to last that long?”

“
We can move an unlimited amount of
material,”
Ulto answered.

The engineering staff had arrived, and Domer,
the head engineer, overheard the exchange. He said, “Let’s take
everything with us, and then all we’ll have to do is assemble it.
We can do that in a matter of days.”

* * * * *

Chapter 19

Ulto spoke:
“Days on planet Ergo are
longer than the days on Earth. Ergo is ten per cent larger than
Earth, and it orbits a red-dwarf sun once every six hundred Ergo
days. An Ergo day is thirty of your hours long.”

“Because of the difference in the size of the
planets, the gravity will be different,” Domer commented. “We’ll
have to take that into consideration when we build the purification
chambers.”

“We have robots trained to monitor the
purifications,” Jan-3 noted. “We can take them with us.”

“Then we can have the chambers ready in a
matter of days,” Roc-2 said. “We can depart for planet Ergo as soon
as we can assemble the supplies.”

My question was for Ulto, but I spoke in a
voice that everyone could hear, “May I take my button with me?”

“I’m sorry, Gus,” Roc-2 said, “but your
button hasn’t been reassembled yet.”

“Ulto,” I asked, “can you give me another
button?”

“
Of course. We will provide the
transporters that you call buttons for each of you.”

Knowing that Ulto would read my true reason,
I said aloud, “Jan-3 and I have been traveling for a couple of
days, and we need rest. We’ll be ready to start our project on Ergo
tomorrow morning.”

A voice that I thought was for me only said:
“Oh, how I envy you. I look forward to resting in that same
manner. Your request is granted. We will wait.”

Roc-2 smiled but offered no comment except,
“I’ll assemble the robots and supplies while you rest. Everything
will be ready when you and Jan-3 get here tomorrow morning.”

I was hungry and wanted another steak dinner,
so Jan-3 and I went to the restaurant that had served specialty
food. When we were alone, I asked, “Why does Domer not have a
number following his name?”

“Domer, by your way of judging, is very old.
He’s an original, so he could rightfully be called Domer-1, but he
prefers to be referred to in the usual manner.”

“Have others copied him?” I asked.

“Domer is highly admired, and many have
copied him.”

Jan-3 was quieter than normal and I found
myself wishing I had Ulto’s ability to read thoughts. “Why are you
so pensive?” I asked.

“I don’t know why,” Jan-3 replied. “Call it
feminine intuition if you will, but I feel an impending danger. . .
. Do you trust Ulto?” she asked.

“I have no reason
not
to trust him,
and I think he stated his reason for wanting our help honestly. But
when we get to planet Ergo, we’ll be at his mercy. I don’t like
that. You’re important to me, and I can’t help being concerned for
your welfare—perhaps you should stay here.”

“I feel the same about you, so if you go, I
go.” Jan-3 stated with determination.

“If we have a button,” I reassured her, “we
can zap ourselves back here if things go wrong.”

Jan-3 reached across the table, placed her
hand on mine and said, “We’ve committed ourselves, so let’s enjoy
our night together.”

We each knew it would be our last time
completely alone, so we spent the time in sensual embrace. The
night was wonderful. My only disappointment was that it passed too
quickly. At dawn, we were at the pre-arranged meeting place. Roc-2
was waiting and, true to his promise, he had everything ready.

* * *

Domer had chosen four of his most talented
engineers to accompany him to planet Ergo. When he saw me, he
smiled a knowing smile, and said, “Well, Gus, are you ready? You’ve
traveled like this before, so you know what to expect, but for us,
it’s all new—and a bit unnerving.”

“There’s nothing to the traveling, but the
arriving in a new and unknown place can be a shock,” I explained,
“and I share your feeling about that being a bit unnerving.” For
the first time, I saw an expression of uncertainty on Jan-3’s face.
Her eyes were slightly squinted, and she had small lines of worry
on her brow. Not being completely honest about my own concern, I
squeezed her hand to reassure her.

Roc-2, who was to remain behind, smiled a
dour smile and nodded.

A voice spoke in our heads: “
Those of you,
who are going with us to Ergo, gather in a group where the supplies
are located, and if you are ready, let’s go!”

Ulto’s voice had a commanding tone. I checked
both mine and Jan-3’s survival gear, and we all put on our
radiation protection suits and walked to the place where the
supplies were gathered. The robots needed no protection.

* * *

Without further warning, and in less than the
blink of an eye, we were in another world. . . .The temperature was
pleasant; the oxygen level was more than adequate. Light from the
red-dwarf sun lit the surface of Ergo and radiated in the dense
atmosphere, casting a red hue on everything. It was beautiful, in a
strange way. Life forms on Ergo were carbon-based, the same as on
Earth. The chlorophyll in the plant leaves looked oddly brown. The
sky was not blue as it is on Earth; it was violet. My
radiation-detecting device indicated levels that could be safely
tolerated for a short period of time. The light from the blue
presence looked gray.