L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

I was not prepared. What disaster threatens you?

How were they supposed to answer that? Eltyn glanced to Faelyna, who did not show any expression. Finally, he offered, The Ruche government has been overthrown, and we took refugein the canal station where we were doing research. The usurpers tried to destroy the station witha nickel-iron meteorite.

Eltyn looked to Faelyna.

She added, The fall of Hururia and the Ruche to barbarism…and the sand and heat, itwould appear. After a moment, she went on. Who are you, and why are you responding to ourattempts to gain control of the functions of the canal?

I am the keeper of the Bridge…the canal.

Why have you never appeared before?

I am not in what…you would call…your time.

What we would call time? Is not time…time? asked Eltyn.

"Time" does not exist. Intelligences perceive the continuity of interactions within theirevent-points as time…

Eltyn didn?t know what to say.

We experience time, Faelyna replied, and there is a temporal component to the controlsof the doors and windows of the station.

The controls that govern the Bridge are in levels, linked to degrees of event-pointcontinuity.

Time by any other name, Faelyna insisted, following her words with an equation.

In response came an equation, and then another.

Eltyn and Faelyna exchanged glances. He didn?t understand the second equation, but it was clear that Faelyna did.

What's happened outside the canal? interjected Rhyana.

An object from beyond the atmosphere struck the western end of the Bridge. The energywas transferred to the water and the seafloor. Nothing living remains within…a kay(?) of thisterminus of the Bridge.

Can you help us? Besides keeping us alive inside the canal? asked Faelyna.

The woman in scarlet was silent for a time, and she looked back at the shadowy silver figure. Then she seemed to sigh. Tell me more.

The riffies took over and The Twenty overthrew The Fifty… began Rhyana.

The world warming threatens the Ruche… Eltyn stopped.

The keeper laughed softly. One at a time, please…

Maertyn and Maarlyna sat the Laarnian chairs in the chamber he had once come to think of as the study. Before she?d begun to explain what she had learned from the second group she?d

"visited," he?d turned his chair so that it faced hers more directly. That way, he could almost ignore the light-sheathed ghost consoles that haunted the room…except that when he looked at Maarlyna and listened, the silver-gilded light extended itself around her, emphasizing her, like some ancient monarch, and her eyes and hair held a strange luminescence. Or was that just the interpretation of his own senses? Would he ever know?

"The Ruche people…they sound like they live in almost a hive culture," he finally said.

"They all look alike-"

"The ones I saw did. They all might not, but I think you may be right," replied Maarlyna.

"They don?t have even the weapons we do, from what you?ve said, and almost all the people just went along like sheep with the new tyrants."

"Do most people in the Unity really care if Tauzn becomes the next EA?"

Maertyn paused. Her voice was calm, almost gentle, but…He decided to go on. "They?ll support Tauzn because they believe that D?Onfrio isn?t getting results, and they?re frightened…even when they?re the ones who?ve elected people who are cautious."

"What if The Twenty are just like Tauzn? What if they gained power because those in control weren?t solving the problem?"

Maertyn paused before replying. "From what you said, their problem is worse than ours. We?re fighting the ice, and they?re fighting warming so great that where our fertile lands are they have desert, and where we have ice, they have forests and cropland. And because whatever this Fifty is or was couldn?t stop the desertification, there was a coup, and some sort of tyranny took over. At least, we don?t have the Earth burning up on us." He paused. "Are they in the future, too?"

"Yes. Not so far as the Vanir."

"How far are the Vanir, then?"

"I can?t tell. I don?t see things that way…but it?s far. They?re different, physically, especially the women. They?re bigger than the men, and their hair actually changes color, almost as if each strand has tiny lights in it, and they can consciously focus their eyes, I think. Well…the Bridge systems made that observation."

Maertyn found himself fingering his stubbly chin. "With all those changes…did they come from the Ruche people or from us? Could it be that Tauzn gained control and forced both genetic changes and geo-engineering…?"

"And when the solar cycles changed, the Ruche ended up facing a runaway green house effect?"

He shook his head. "I don?t know. It takes time for a society that rigid to evolve from the ruins of another, and anthropogenic warming builds faster than that. Then again, it might not, if there were significant depopulation." He paused. "These three want you to help them?"

Maarlyna nodded. "They were part of a team that was trying to learn more about the canal station. Whatever the political change was, the results make Tauzn look moderate. This Twenty group either kills people or alters their brains, and they do it on the scale of thousands of people."

"Do you think they?re telling the truth?"

"The systems help. I can tell that they believe they?re telling the truth, and there is a large and very recent crater in the seabed northwest of the station-in their event-point locale. The water was still boiling."

"That?s very recent." Maertyn winced. "I thought Tauzn was cold-blooded."

"In a hive culture, only the hive as a whole truly matters. Only survival…" Her voice caught for a moment, and she stopped. "Then…it could be that all human societies have more of the hive in them than we?d like to admit."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have to help the hive people and the Vanir. Both of them were well on the way to deciphering some of the station controls. Can you imagine what would happen if this Twenty gained control? Or Tauzn? Or those Aesyr?"

Unfortunately, Maertyn could, but her question raised several others. "Could you help them to operate the station…the Bridge…in their time?"

"From what the Bridge has gathered about the equipment they used, it would take years."

"Does time really matter?"

"There?s elapsed time. That means it would take years of my time. They also don?t have the right equipment, and I don?t know how effective I would be in trying to explain, even with the help of the systems. There?s also the resonance problem."

"Resonance problem?" Every time Maertyn thought he understood a bit more, something else came up.

"All the event-points in a universe are linked, some more strongly and directly than others. When similar events occur they resonate across the whole. If I can resolve our problems, those of the Ruche people, and those of the Vanir, while they are still linked, the end result will be better. If it takes more of my elapsed time…then it gets harder, and the Vanir solution won?t have the same effect. Because I?m nearest the one event-point that has the least impact on the resonance, I have more leeway in elapsed time here. If I can help the Ruche people first, before the Vanir…that would be better."

Maertyn had the feeling that Maarlyna wasn?t telling him everything. "What are you leaving out?"

A brief rueful smile was her first reply. "It?s harder that way, but if I can make it work, things will be easier for you…us."

"A great deal harder?"

She shrugged, not totally convincingly. "I don?t know how much harder."

He wasn?t going to get a better answer. From experience, Maertyn knew that. So he asked the other question that had nagged at him. "Why was the station left open? The one at the other end was locked. Is it like this one?"