Orson Card - Ruins

“Fatally,” said Umbo.

“I’m afraid our rodent companions have the odd notion that because they created us, after a fashion, they can do with us whatever they want,” said Rigg.

The mice sat rigid, regarding him steadily.

“It’s the mistake a lot of parents make about their children,” Olivenko added.

“I give an order that must survive my death. No mice will be allowed to pass through the Wall, ever.”

“Understood,” said the ship’s voice.

“And agreed to?” asked Rigg.

“Your commands cannot survive your death,” said the ship’s voice. “But we agree with the desirability of this command and we will continue to respect it.”

“The jewels confer authority only on persons of human shape,” said Rigg. “Is that rule agreed to?”

“Yes,” said the ship’s computer.

“They think you’re a bigot,” said Loaf.

“I think they’ve proven themselves to regard the killing of humans as one of their rights,” said Rigg. “That puts them in a different category.”

“They’re saying all kinds of soothing things,” said Loaf. “But I don’t believe them, and so it’s hardly worth telling you what they’re saying.”

The mice all turned as one to face Loaf.

“I think you just pissed them off,” said Umbo.

“Do you want the flyer to proceed to the landing place the mice selected?” asked the ship’s voice.

“Yes,” said Rigg. “I’m assuming that many thousands of mice are already waiting there, expecting to cross into Larfold. We might as well have a conversation with this squad of would-be colonists as a whole.”

“They don’t have to listen to you,” said Loaf. “That’s what they just said to me.”

“And we don’t have to listen to them,” said Rigg. “We also don’t have to take any of them with us into the past.”

“They think they know how to attach to your timefield as you shift,” said Loaf. “They tried it out when you went back to get Param.”

“I wonder if that’s true,” said Rigg.

“They’re practically screaming that it’s very, very true,” said Loaf.

“Just what they’d do if it were a lie,” said Olivenko.

“Suppose one mouse always lies, and one always tells the truth,” said Loaf.

“Ask one if he’s a liar, and then ask the other one if the first one told the truth,” said Param. “That’s an old one.”

“The trouble is,” said Rigg, “they might both be liars. In fact, I’m pretty sure that we can’t believe anything they say.”

“I think there are too many of them,” said Olivenko. “They have a lot of redundancy. I think a little mouse-stomping would thin the herd.”

Mice skittered away from him.

“It’s our one advantage,” said Olivenko. “We can break their little skulls under our feet.”

“Or between our fingers,” said Umbo. “Much less elaborate than sliding a slab of metal into Param’s throat while she’s time-slicing.”

“I don’t think we need to declare war quite yet,” said Rigg. “Besides, from the paths I’m seeing, there are several dozen who are not out in the open here. They’re all deep inside the machinery of the flyer. I think that regardless of who actually commands the flyer, this vehicle will crash if the mice feel threatened.”

“Good guess, they say,” said Loaf.

“And we can’t jump back in time,” pointed out Umbo, “since we’d materialize in midair before the flyer got here, and plummet to the ground.”

“Thanks for pointing out our powerlessness,” said Param.

“They call it a stalemate,” said Loaf.

“Not really,” said Rigg. “Not while we might save the world, and they might not. We need each other. But let’s say that I’m open to discussion when we reach the Wall.”

“I’m not,” said Umbo. Rigg saw that Umbo immediately regretted his defiant tone. He held up his hands as if to erase what he had just said.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m going to do all the talking,” said Rigg with a grin.

“What are you going to say?” asked Param.

“Anything I say to you,” said Rigg, “they can hear.”

“I can hear whatever they say to each other,” said Loaf.

“Everything? Their click-and-tap-and-sigh language, too?”

“Now that I know it’s a language,” said Loaf.

“They have no level of communication too soft for you to hear, even with the facemask?” asked Rigg.

Loaf nodded at the question. “I have no way of knowing,” he admitted. “That may be what they wish me to believe.”

“Such a quandary,” said Rigg. “How to establish trust with a nation that has already attacked us and murdered some of us.”

“We’ve killed a few of them, too,” said Param.

“Only when they put themselves underfoot,” said Umbo.

“You call them a nation?” said Olivenko.

“That’s what they are, don’t you think?” asked Rigg. “A foreign country. An inscrutable culture. They regard us with such contempt that they don’t think they have any obligation to tell us the truth or keep their word to us.”

“They’re assuring me that they’ll keep their word, they don’t break promises,” said Loaf.

“How odd,” said Rigg. “And here I thought they were supposed to be human.”

“All right,” said Loaf, “now they’re saying that they can’t trust us, either.”

“Because we’ve killed so many of them, and broken our word to them, and lied to them constantly,” said Rigg.

“They say that the only reason you didn’t lie is that you didn’t take them seriously enough to think that they were worth deceiving.”

“A fair assessment,” said Rigg. “Also, they could overhear everything we said to each other, which makes lying harder for us than it is for them.” Then Rigg broke into the ancient language of the Stashik River plain, the one that had been spoken by the Empire of O, while the Sessamids were still dung-burning tent-dwellers.

Until this moment, Rigg had never known why Father thought it was so important for him to become fluent in a dead language. But now, having been through the Wall, the others understood him very quickly. But these mice, having never been through the Wall, and having never studied a dead language spoken only in another wallfold, understood not a word.

Father—no, Ramex—had known about the language enhancement that anyone who passed through the Wall with Rigg would receive. He gave me this language so I could use it under exactly these circumstances—needing to talk with those who had passed through the Wall, without being understood by those who hadn’t.

Once Rigg was sure that the others were up to speed in the language of O, he asked Loaf, “Are they understanding us?”

“If you ask obvious questions like that, complete with gestures,” said Loaf, “they’re sure to pick up this language very quickly. But so far, no.”

“But they’re paying very close attention,” said Umbo.

“That’s how they learn,” said Loaf. “And, again, you looked at them in a pointed way and used a hand gesture that allowed them to decode your meaning. I suggest we close our eyes so we won’t give so many visual cues.”

“And then they swarm all over us,” said Param.

“They can do that whether our eyes are closed or not,” said Loaf. “And Rigg can see their paths even with his eyes closed.”

It was true. Rigg did not need to answer. “No matter how dangerous and untrustworthy they are,” said Rigg, “these little hair-dwellers may well be the only hope the people of Garden have against the Visitors.”

“Then we’re the only hope the people of Earth have against these rodents,” said Olivenko.

“As Param said,” Rigg answered him, “if it’s us or them, won’t we all choose us as the survivors?”