Ruins (Pathfinder Trilogy) (31 page)

“The most recent one.”

“And how will I know which one that is?” asked Odinex.

“I’ll try to make sure it never comes up.”

“That would be best.”

“Odinex, show me everything on this ship that is not included in the plans that I studied in the library near the Wall.”

“The plans are complete.”

“No they’re not,” said Umbo. “They don’t show, for instance, where the spare copies of you are stored.”

“Intact copies of me are not stored anywhere. If this module fails, then a new one is assembled from the parts in parts storage, which is clearly labeled in the plans.”

“What triggers the creation of a new expendable?” asked Umbo.

“A death signal,” said Odinex. “A request for duplication. Loss of higher functions in the present module. Failure to communicate at any level for ten hours.”

“Who can issue the request for duplication?”

“The existing module. The certified commander of the vessel and all superior officers.”

“Thank you,” said Umbo. “Are the duplicates bound to obey all orders previously given to the earlier copy?”

“Yes,” said Odinex. “We are memory-identical.”

“Am I human, Odinex?”

“You are.”

“Is that what you’ll report to the Visitors when they arrive from Earth?”

“They will get a full memory dump of these events, along with all others,” said Odinex.

“They’ll see me make copies of myself by time-jumping?”

“Yes.”

Umbo wanted to grin, but restrained himself. Let the Visitors chew on that.

Then his pleasure faded. Seeing Umbo time-shift might well be a death sentence for Garden. To see someone suddenly pop into existence behind himself, and then again, so three copies exist at once—that wouldn’t exactly reassure the humans from Earth.

Well, it’s not as if they weren’t going to destroy Garden anyway. They’ve done it nine times already, and until now without any provocation from time-shifters.

It’s hard to imagine that I’ve somehow made the destruction of Garden worse. Will they say bad words while they wipe out all life on Garden? Will they throw stones at the corpses?

“Odinex, the jewels of control are not mentioned in the plans of the ship, or the computer manuals.”

The expendable said nothing.

“Consider that to be a question, and answer me,” said Umbo.

“The jewels are thoroughly explained in the plans and manuals.”

Umbo thought for a moment. “Under what name are they explained?”

“‘Remote storage and transfer of the ship’s log.’”

Umbo held up the knife and looked at the hilt. “These jewels are the log of each of the nineteen ships?”

“Yes.”

Remembering what he had read, Umbo said, “So each jewel contains a complete record of all actions and observations made by all the computers aboard that particular ship.”

“Yes.”

“Including all the actions of the Remote Expendable Action Modules.”

“Yes.”

“How recent is the information on each jewel?”

“The jewel that holds this starship’s log was updated just now when you certified.”

“And the other jewels?”

“The jewels carried by Rigg Sessamekesh were updated when he certified himself as commander of all the vessels.”

“And the jewels on this knife?”

“They were updated when you passed through the Wall.”

The Wall was certainly a lot more than a barrier between wallfolds. All human languages, and an update of all the ships’ logs. Umbo thought through what this might mean. “When a jewel updates, is it a destructive or a cumulative update?”

“Cumulative.”

“So if I were to time-shift and enter a Wall in an earlier time, the information recorded from the later time I came from would not be erased by the update that it subsequently gets in the earlier time.”

A momentary pause. “I have parsed your question and I can say, Yes, the information from a future time would
not
be erased by updating the ship’s log remote storage and transfer unit by passing into the Wall in an earlier era, as long as the time-shifter carried the log with him into the past.”

So the jewels would not suffer data loss by passing through the Wall and being updated in a back-shifted time. “If Rigg or I
take a copy of the ships’ logs through the Wall when the Wall has been made passable according to Rigg’s command, is the log still updated?”

“Turning off the barrier features of the Wall does not turn off the Wall. All other functions continue.”

Umbo could not help himself. He laughed in delight.

“You are amused,” said the expendable.

I can be amused if I want and when I want, for whatever reason I want, Umbo wanted to say. Instead he grinned at the expendable. “The Odinfolders know this, don’t they?”

“Yes. I have kept no secrets from them.”

“Really?” said Umbo. “Have you told them about the deaths of all but one of the other Ram Odins?”

“I answer all their questions as fully as permitted.”

For a moment, Umbo took that as an answer to his question. Then he realized that it was not. “Has anyone ever asked that question?”

“You are the first.”

Umbo chuckled again. He not only knew information now that the Odinfolders had wanted to keep from him, he even knew information that they didn’t know. All in all, this was turning out to be a successful expedition.

“Odinex, please arrange for the ship to make me a good noon meal. Then bring it to me wherever I am in the ship.”

Odinex left the control room.

Umbo sat down in Ram Odin’s chair. This is where Rigg also sat in the ship in Vadeshfold. We’ve both sat in Ram Odin’s seat. Does that make us brothers in some sense?

I died twice today, he thought. He was glad that he had no memory of it. But the log had the memory of killing him. When the Visitors came, they would see it and know of all the murders committed by the expendables.

Maybe the destruction of Garden was as much to wipe out the expendables as to wipe out the people.

CHAPTER 15

Sibling Rivalry

Rigg had forgotten Umbo was gone, when Swims-in-the-Air came to him, looking agitated.

“I’m not sure what to make of this,” she said, “but our monitoring of the starship’s computer tells us that someone has activated the jewel of control and taken control of the ship.”

“Someone?” asked Rigg.

“Umbo,” said Swims-in-the-Air.

“Thank you for telling me.”

“What are you going to do?”

Rigg smiled at her. “Think about it for a while.”

“I’ve already summoned the flyer so you can go to the ship.”

“How thoughtful of you,” said Rigg. “I’ll decide whether to use it in a little while. Thank you. Please don’t bother the others with this story.”

“It’s not just a story,” she said, bristling.

“I should have said, Please don’t bother the others with this information.”

She lingered a bit longer, until Rigg returned to the book he had been reading. She breathed rapidly for a few moments more, then left the room, moving briskly.

Brisk movement was unusual for the Odinfolders. They were always so sedate, so calm. Clearly whatever Umbo had done had the Odinfolders in a dither. Since Rigg didn’t think for a moment that they would get this agitated over some kind of revolt within the Ramfolders’ ranks—which was clearly what she meant him to think was happening—Umbo must have done something that seriously disturbed the Odinfolders.

Rigg couldn’t help but be amused even as he worried. Umbo had gone to the ship alone, and the Odinfolders didn’t like what he was doing. That didn’t have to be a bad thing at all. But it might be. Rigg really should go and find out from Umbo directly what was going on, before the Odinfolders managed to create a rift.

Well, not create a rift so much as widen the rift that had long been there between Rigg and Umbo.

And perhaps the Odinfolders weren’t trying to do something so trivial as to sow contention among the Ramfolders. Perhaps there was something that really worried them about Umbo’s presence on the starship.

Rigg was about to go directly to the flyer and head for the starship when he thought again: This is what they want me to do.

So he got up and went in search of the others. He found Loaf and Olivenko practicing swordplay in one of the rooms of the library.

“Did you know you can set these holographic images to varying degrees of solidity?” asked Olivenko. “They have the weight of good steel swords, and clang together nicely, but they won’t penetrate skin.”

Only then did Rigg realize that the swords were mere sculptures of swords, mere images. But solid now. Interesting information to be filed away. It might have something to do with the Odinfolders’ ability to transport items back and forth, not just in time, but in space as well. Were there real swords somewhere which were being semi-copied to this location? Did the projection of the image mean that the original swords were somehow less substantial while the image was being projected?

It would make sense. After all, Umbo had projected images of himself into the past to give warnings, long before he mastered the ability to actually transport himself completely into the past, leaving nothing of himself behind.

But that was not the business at hand. “I wondered if either of you would like to come with me to the starship,” said Rigg. “Swims-in-the-Air was quite anxious for me to go stop Umbo from doing whatever he’s doing.”

They regarded Rigg curiously.

“Are you taking orders from them now?” asked Olivenko.

“I’m observing that they’re anxious for me to stop Umbo, which makes me very curious to find out what Umbo’s doing. They told me he had taken control of the starship from me. If that’s possible, we should know it; if he did it, we should ask why; if any part of this is a lie, we should find out the truth.”

“And you need us because . . .” said Olivenko.

“I’ll go,” said Loaf. He let go of his sword. Instead of falling, it simply vanished. Was that automatic, Rigg wondered, or had one of the mice in the room caused it to happen?

To Rigg’s surprise, Loaf reached down and scooped a couple of mice into his hand, then put them on his own shoulder.

Rigg almost asked him if he was bringing reading material along for the trip, but just as he was about to begin the jest, he caught Loaf’s expression: A warning. Don’t ask.

Or perhaps: Don’t speak.

“I’ll come, too,” said Olivenko.

“That leaves Param here in the library alone,” said Rigg.

“She’ll be all right,” said Olivenko.

“As far as we know,” said Rigg. “But you’re right, she won’t want to come. She never wants to come.” There had been a time when she would have come along just to be with Olivenko, but these months of study in Odinfold had made them all tired of each other, and whatever romances had been blooming—Umbo’s crush on Param, and Param’s fascination with Olivenko—had either died or gone dormant.

Nothing hopeful thrives here, thought Rigg. We live under the shadow of the Books of the Future, and death is always present.

Rigg continued to follow Loaf’s suggestion of silence during the voyage by talking about nothing—things he’d recently studied about total war. “The humans of Earth keep developing ways to limit the damage of war—pacts about what constitutes a war crime. Banning poison gas, for instance. The formal agreements only last until someone wants to break them, of course, but a surprising number of the agreements lasted for a while—just
because of intelligent self-interest. Mutually assured destruction. But eventually, they go back to total war because any other policy turns war into a game, and games only last as long as both sides play by the rules.”

“No rules in war,” said Olivenko knowingly.

“No rules in a war you want to win,” said Loaf. “As long as winning doesn’t matter, then you can have rules and make a game of it.”

“Why fight a war if you don’t intend to win it?”

“When armies benefit from being perceived as necessary, and war provides a means of gaining prestige and leverage over the government,” said Loaf. “Then victory ends a very profitable game. So you play the game of war only fervently enough to keep your military budget high. Nations can get used to a fairly high level of combat attrition without noticing or caring that nobody’s actually trying to win, and nothing but the lives of a few soldiers is at stake.”

“I didn’t know you were a philosopher,” said Rigg.

“Living on the edge of death, with the power to murder always in their hands, all soldiers are philosophers,” said Loaf. “Not necessarily smart ones.”

The flyer landed in the same place where Umbo had disembarked earlier—Rigg could see his path.

“Now is when we could use Param’s ability,” said Loaf. “We could go back in time and then watch what happens, unobserved.”

Rigg studied Umbo’s path as they got out of the flyer. “I think he was talking to somebody, from the way his path bends and
doubles back now and then. I assume that means that Odinex met him here. The expendables leave no paths.”

“How precisely can you take us back in time?” asked Loaf.

“This is only a few hours, and I have a clear, recent path,” said Rigg. “I can be as precise as you want. Do you have something in mind?”

“First tell me how many recent visits have been made here by Odinfolders.”

“What are you thinking?” asked Olivenko.

“I can’t talk about it now.”

“
You
brought the mice,” said Olivenko.

Loaf laughed and gestured at the grass and shrubbery all around them. “Where are there
not
mice?”

Good point. Which made Rigg all the more curious about why Loaf had brought two of them along from the library. Hostages? Ridiculous. They perched on Loaf’s shoulders, but they could scamper down his body at any moment.

Rigg led them along Umbo’s path. It followed the obvious course—through the increasingly finished-looking tunnel toward the ship. It was only when they reached the beginning of the bridge across the gap between the stone and the starship that Rigg saw something that he couldn’t explain.

“Umbo shifted time here,” he said. “On the bridge.” Rigg stepped out onto the bridge, walking Umbo’s route. “He turned toward the edge, and then suddenly jumped back and stepped here. Then he jumped back again and stepped there. But the paths also fork, as if—but they’re a little different, not quite Umbo, not—”