Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (66 page)

"To help you understand, think of your life as walking down a path of time, and on this walk you can do a number of things, meet people, and so on. You come to a lot of crossroads, but each time you can only choose one path, and you can never reverse. At the end of your life, you will end up somewhere, and you will have met a number of people, perhaps married one, had children, and so on. Now, suppose someone appears at a crossroad, and directs you down a different path. Now you will never meet the same people or do the same things, and while you may still have children, they will be different children and the ones from the first path never exist."

"So what have these people from the future changed?"

"Those in the future analysed the defeat of Ulse, and decided that one being could change the outcome. Accordingly, we backed you."

"This still doesn't make sense," Gaius frowned. "If the Ulsians were all exterminated, in whose interest was it to change things?"

"That is the interesting part," the Queen said. "You may not believe this, but the survival of Ulse was not the object. It was offered to us as part of a deal. If we contributed our part to the solving of their problem, our civilisation would be saved. If I understand things correctly, your prophecy is not yet quite completed?"

"No, it isn't," Gaius agreed.

"You see, at least part of the reason lies in what you are yet to do."

"What makes you so sure of that?" Gaius asked.

"Your prophecy was given to you by an image," the Queen said. "Was the image that of a human or of an Ulsian?"

"Human. Why?"

"So was ours," the Queen said. "It is the future of your race that has embarked on this temporal interference. However, assuming we believe the message we received, since it saved Ulse I suppose we have to forgive them, and in any case, there really isn't much we can do about it."

"So what happens now?" Gaius asked.

"You complete your prophecy."

"What?" Gaius was stunned.

"You must, because it is somewhere in that that the critical event happens that was the purpose of this whole temporal interference."

"But . . ."

"In any case," the Queen said, "you wish to return home?"

"Yes, I do. But how?"

"Use your authority as a Space Marshall. What follows here is our battle, not yours."

"You'll let me go?" Gaius asked in surprise.

"Together with Lucilla, taking the
Actium
and the
Romulus
."

"You'll give me two battleships?" Gaius was now quite stunned.

"If you are wondering about what I am going to say now, Gemep has fed in additional information, and the following is synthesized because I do not know as yet what happened. However, according to Ambassador Gemep you are chasing over thirty-five," the Ulsian smiled, "so it's not exactly a gift. You should request more ships."

"But you wouldn't give them?"

"Correct. We wouldn't, although on your way you should program your ships to request help from the Krothians and the Ranhynn. Also there's a catch."

"There would be," Gaius muttered.

"Where do you think those thirty-five ships are going?"

"Presumably to Ranh," Gaius frowned.

"Yes, but what happens when they get there? There'll be a message from Plotk informing the Ranhynn that the M'starn lost, and by agreement, Ranh must now ally itself with Ulse."

"You think they'll destroy the M'starn?" Gaius asked.

"Possibly, but there's another outcome, which is largely why you're being permitted to go. If the M'starn know or guess that they'll be turned away from Ranh, they might well decide to try their luck at the nearest near-technology."

"And that's Earth?" Gaius asked slowly.

"I'm afraid so. And I'm afraid that while you've saved our civilization, we can't do the same for yours, other than give you these two ships. However," and here the Queen waved a claw, "if you think about this, you're likely to succeed."

"That doesn't follow," Gaius frowned.

"The people from your future know you can win."

"No," Gaius countered, "the people from my future believe I can solve their problem. But if Ulse were beaten, perhaps Earth always lost, and their problem is nothing to do with saving Earth."

"That is possible," the Queen agreed. "The problem is that by altering the timeline, your race has now sent the M'starn in their direction and that did not happen on your young lady's timeline. Anyway, you may now be able to work out why Ulse forbids such temporal activities. My advice to you is that you should always keep your word, but don't sacrifice yourself. You must realize that their problem has nothing to do with you, as far as we can tell. Their problem is for them, and for something that will happen when you return to Earth, or wherever. Your presence could not have been there on the original line that they interfered with, and they are hoping you will get them out of their mess. You must realize that your life will continue down this time line, irrespective of what you choose to do until for some reason you die. Die you will, for we all die, but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice yourself for them. Remember, you can always say no, and generate your own time line. They don’t know the future. They only know their past, and if your line does not include the future they want, that is tough on them.

"Now, there isn't much more I can do for you, except wish you luck. This sphere should be returned to the
Actium
. It contains a record of this conversation, and it will send instructions for the Krothians to send some ships to assist you, in case you need them. Don't count on their arriving fast enough to solve your problems immediately, but you can count on their arriving at some stage."

"So, what am I supposed to do now?"

"In the box is another object. Place it on the wall in a socket that should be made for it, press the green button, then go and sit in that chair without attempting to move it, and wait for your lady from the future."

"She may not be at the other end," Gaius frowned.

"As long as they are in your future, the message will wait until they arrive, and you won't know the difference because it is merely added to the time that is cut out in talking to you."

"You knew I was going to say that," Gaius muttered ruefully.

"It's not difficult to guess that you would see their not being at the other end as a problem," came the reply. "Now, as far as Ulse is concerned, you have complete freedom of action. So, with that, I shall leave you, and wish you good luck with whatever it is you have to do."

Gaius stared at the wall as the image had died. He collected the ball, replaced it in the box, then took out the other object and unwrapped it. On one side it was a small fraction of the area of a large sphere, with two holes that somehow reminded Gaius of eyes, and below these was a small green button. The back of the object showed that within it there were a number of wires, and across the back were two metal braces in the form of a cross, and where these met were two metal hooks, and an electrical plug. There, in the wall, were holes for the hooks, and an electrical socket. Gaius carefully fitted the object and pushed down for a good electrical connection, then he turned the adjacent switch on. As instructed, he returned to the chair and sat down.

The room darkened as the lights dimmed, then a glow appeared in front of the object, then a space seemed to form, as if it were a hole in the very fabric of everything. On the other side, there was the blonde-haired grey-eyed woman. Gaius was about to get up, when Marcellus said, "No, Gaius, do not attempt to go closer. It is not safe."

"So you are from my future, and you're messing with my life?" Gaius mused.

"Not any longer," Athene smiled enigmatically. "Thanks to temporal interference, I no longer exist, at least in the sense you do."

"Now I really don't understand," Gaius shook his head.

"I am in some sort of a limbo," Athene said, "where it is unclear whether I live or never exist. That I can still talk to you indicates I might still."

"So you want me to do something so you can live," Gaius mused.

"What happened is this. We have been experimenting in temporal viewing. We could look back in history, and across space, to see events that actually happened, and this was a useful adjunct to our history studies. There are profound limitations, and we can't transfer a physical object. However, it turned out that we discovered that under certain circumstances we could communicate. Unfortunately, one of our technicians did something that changed our past in a way that led the Ranhynn to exterminate life on Earth. We do not know what he did. He won't say, perhaps because he thinks there is still some chance of his benefitting, or perhaps he doesn't even know."

"So you want me to do something?"

"What we decided to do was to try to get someone else into a position to change the situation. Our first problem was that the event took place on Ranh, so we had to create someone who might be able to save our planet."

"Me?" Gaius nodded.

"We hope so," Athene smiled. "In the original history, when the Ranhynn exterminated human civilization before our temporal viewer was constructed, they created a paradox, and timelines that might resolve that paradox were revealed to us. So I had to goad you into working somewhat harder than the original did. We also had to get you into that ship, and we had to get one or two other things right.

"We tried nine times, and this is our last chance. Each time you were visited a few minutes earlier, with a revised goading message. Now we have got you to where you might do something. A human cannot succeed in doing anything on Ranh, but an Ulsian Space Marshall might."

"If you've tried that many times," an angry Gaius said, "you could have done more to save Vipsania."

"No, I couldn't," the voice said. "We cannot interfere, other than by having these conversations." She paused, then said "I really am sorry for you, but for what it's worth we have tried to save her several times, and each time it was a total failure. Also, if it makes you feel any better, on the first time you two didn't hit it off. Originally you did not rescue her from the Iazygians because you weren't there. She was abducted and killed. On the first interference, you did not drop stones, she took no notice of you, then she committed suicide rather than be bedded by Little Boots. Other times she was so bedded, she got pregnant, and committed suicide, she was also raped and killed by the Celts, other times she died in other ways so obviously fate did not intend her to become a grandmother."

"So you want me to go to Ranh?" Gaius asked, with his voice laden with bitterness. "I don't suppose it's occurred to you that my planet might be in a different form of trouble, due to the M'starn that are heading there, and presumably weren't originally?"

"No, they weren't, and unfortunately, the signals do not tell us what you did to get rid of them, but if it helps any, assume they are no more enthused about being there than you are. Now, you must go to Earth, which is what it's called now, and help it to get rid of the M'starn, who, I should inform you, will lose this war, and will soon reach a gracious peace with Ulse. You will find two Ranhynn in your system, studying Earth. You will set up a base near Rome on your old grounds, and there you will meet a woman who is the ugliest you have ever seen. When a crisis develops at that meeting, you must leave this woman to her own devices, so that she meets one of the Ranhynn alone. You will understand when the time comes.

"You will then help solve Earth's immediate problem, then you, Lucilla, the two Ranhynn, and your ugly woman, who, as an aside, need no longer be ugly, should travel to Ranh."

"And do what?"

"I don't know," Athene said, "other than to prevent Ranh from invading Earth and exterminating all human life. You are on a timeline that has not previously occurred, if that makes sense, and what you have to do has not yet happened, so I don't know any more than you do."

"But I haven't gone back to Earth either, so how do you know what is on part of the line, but not the rest? And, for that matter, how did you know how to predict my life once you changed it?"

"That is an extremely interesting question," the woman replied pensively. "What happened is this. After our last attempt was made, a document appeared in our limbo that outlined what I should tell you about your return to Earth. It is from these that we made our final predictions, and what is interesting is that it contained points we had not thought of up until then. Our only explanation is that we have had help from some entity in our future.

"Whatever the explanation, all I can say is this. You still make your own future, but if you wish humanity to avoid extermination, you will do what I have indicated."

"It would be easier if I knew what I had to do at the end, though," Gaius muttered.

"Not necessarily," the woman said. "If you behave naturally, and with honour, all will follow, whereas if you are told to do something, in trying to find a reason to do it you might do it so awkwardly, and at the wrong time, that it doesn't work."

"But you've given me specific instructions for this ugly woman, and it might be easier if you gave me her name."

"You will recognize her," the woman smiled, "but it's the way you do it that's important. And yes, I told you to leave her. That is important, because in the normal course of events, that is exactly what you would never do. You leave her in danger, and stay away until everything is resolved. That is in the document, and it is very important, and in due course you shall see why."

"It's all very confusing," Gaius muttered.

"It is, isn't it? So, what do you think? Am I forgiven for changing you from what was a forgotten Roman soldier to what you are now?"

"And, if I follow, giving me a longer life," Gaius mused.

"That too," Athene smiled.