“As you ask me questions,” said Vadeshex, “the flyer is passing along the questions and then I’m getting their answers. Why do you always see some kind of conspiracy or wrongdoing in everything I do?”
“Because he thinks you’re even more deceptive and evil than we are,” said a mouse perched on Rigg’s shoulder. “And that’s saying something.”
“I’d roll my eyes,” said Vadeshex, “except that Rigg gets testy when I do such human gestures.”
“I’m still going to go take that nap till they get here,” said Ram Odin. “And maybe I’ll sleep a little better knowing that the world has been saved.”
“Saved,” said Rigg, “but the computers have still been reprogrammed by the mice.”
“If we have to,” said Ram Odin, “somebody can go back and tell us not to have them do it.”
“Oh, that’s right,” said Rigg.
“See?” said the mouse on Rigg’s shoulder. “We are helpless before your superior powers.”
“Poor babies,” said Rigg. “You gave us those powers, so don’t blame us if we use them.”
“You mean you believed that story about how we altered you genetically?” said the mouse on his shoulder.
Rigg stopped cold.
“What did he say?” asked Ram Odin.
“Something that I halfway hope is true,” said Rigg. “But if it is, I’m not sure I want to know it. I’m sure Umbo doesn’t want to know it.”
“I’m lying,” said the mouse on his shoulder. “But it certainly startled you.”
“Were you lying then?” asked Rigg. “Or are you lying now, because you saw how it startled me?”
“What did he say?” asked Ram Odin.
Vadeshex answered. “He told Rigg that the mice didn’t really do any genetic alterations to promote his and Param’s abilities.”
“Well,” said Ram Odin, “is that true?”
“I have no way of knowing,” said Vadeshex. “We can’t monitor changes on a genetic level, not from a distance.”
“What about Umbo?” asked Rigg. “Was that brutal cobbler his father or not?”
“Bring me a genetic sample from Tegay and Enene, and one from Umbo, and I’ll test for paternity,” said Vadeshex. “Till you do that, I can only say that Umbo does not look like Tegay.”
“I could really come to hate these mice,” said Rigg. “If you didn’t really alter us genetically, why did you tell us that you did?”
“We did alter you,” said the mouse. “I was joking, and it’s getting funnier by the second.”
“I’m going to take a nap, too,” said Rigg.
“But now you won’t sleep half so well,” said the mouse.
“Get off my shoulder before I pick you off and crush your head,” said Rigg.
“Violence is such a human trait,” said the mouse.
“So is merciless goading and perpetual lying,” said Rigg. “When Mouse-Breeder made you, I wish he hadn’t added in those traits.”
“I’m going to get down,” said the mouse, “if you promise not to kill me.”
“I thought it didn’t matter if we stepped on a few of you now and then,” said Rigg.
“Well, in my case, it matters to me,” said the mouse.
“I won’t kill you as long as you don’t scurry under my boots.”
The mouse made a flying leap and landed on Vadeshex, whose hand flashed out, catching the mouse between his fingers. Vadeshex crushed its head and popped the mouse’s corpse into his mouth.
Rigg almost puked on the spot.
“I can process any animal or vegetable matter,” said Vadeshex, “and I didn’t want the corpse cluttering up the corridor.”
“Why did you kill it?” asked Rigg.
“Because he was causing problems with his lies,” said Vadeshex.
“Or else he was causing problems by telling me a truth I wasn’t supposed to know,” said Rigg.
“One of those,” said Vadeshex.
“Wake me when they get here,” said Ram Odin. “And don’t eat any more mice in front of Rigg. He’s more squeamish than you think.”
“I was raised by one of these machines,” said Rigg. “I still think of them as people, even though I know better.”
“Poor Rigg,” said Vadeshex. “Try to sleep.”
Rigg held back any kind of retort, mostly because he couldn’t decide on which of them he should use. He went into his cabin and stripped off his clothes, shaking out the mice. “All of you get out of this room and don’t come back in without an invitation.”
The mice scurried out the door. The facemask assured him that they were all gone. Rigg lay down on the cot. “I want to sleep,” he said aloud to the facemask.
The facemask always understood, whether Rigg framed the request in words or not. Moments after Rigg lay down, the facemask dropped him into unconsciousness.
It was the ship’s voice that woke him, not Vadeshex, which was fine with Rigg. The facemask had him alert in a moment, with no residual grogginess. Rigg pulled on his clothes and went down the now-empty corridors to the open area where everyone was gathering. Param, Ram Odin, Umbo, Loaf, Leaky, Square, Olivenko, Vadeshex, Ramex, and a few hundred mice.
“Are we waiting for anyone else?” asked Ram Odin.
“Just Noxon and Deborah Wheaton,” said Vadeshex. “And here they are.”
Noxon came into the room, accompanied by a girl who wore a thick band across her eyes. It was obvious by the way she moved that she wasn’t blind at all.
“Hi,” said Noxon. “We did it. Or, well, another copy of me did it, along with Ram Odin and her father, Professor Wheaton.”
“How?” asked Param. “What did they do?”
“Deborah and I saw them off in the starship. They left a couple of hundred thousand years before the aliens came, and when we hopped back to that time, the aliens didn’t come after all, so I assume they succeeded. I have no idea how.”
“She’s not really blind,” said Loaf.
“She has no eyes,” said Noxon.
Deborah tapped the band over her eyes. “It’s a machine,” she said. “Not as advanced as their visual units.” She indicated Vadeshex and Ramex.
“We waited until the Visitors came back from Garden,” said Rigg. “In the original version of history, the Destroyers had already wiped out human life on Earth before they got home. We sliced our way a few dozen years, just to be sure the Destroyers never came.”
“The expedition you call ‘the Visitors’ gave a very favorable report,” said Deborah. “They recommended that this world be left completely alone to go on developing without interference.”
“And the government made that official policy,” said Noxon. “Doesn’t mean it’ll stay the policy, but it’s a good sign. They stuck with it for a dozen years or so. Then we popped back, got on the Visitors’ outbound ship, and sliced our way through their whole voyage.”
“They never knew you were on the ship?” asked Umbo.
Noxon gave him a withering look. “Give me credit,” he said.
Umbo grinned. “We may call you Noxon, but you’re still Rigg.”
“I’m not sure how to take that,” said Rigg.
“It’s pure flattery to both of us,” said Noxon. “You should all know that I didn’t plan on coming back here. If I hadn’t accidently duplicated myself, I would have ended up with the backward Ram Odin out at the alien world. Presumably they’re colonizing the place now. But as long as this copy of me existed, I thought I might as well come home.”
“With a friend,” said Param.
“You can never have too many friends,” said Noxon.
But the way Deborah threaded an arm around his waist made it clear enough that this wasn’t an ordinary friendship.
“My job is over,” said Noxon, “but I realize you??
?re still caught up in the war against Haddamander and Hagia. I don’t want to distract you.”
“We no longer have such a tight deadline to work with,” said Olivenko. “Since the world isn’t ending a couple of years from now.”
“The ship told me that you already knew the Destroyers were aliens,” said Noxon. “Rigg and Param got bounced past the Destruction and had some kind of fight, yes? I’ve never actually seen one of them. Do you have it recorded?”
“Rigg makes us watch it twice a day,” said Ram Odin.
Rigg shook his head a little.
Noxon grinned. “Well, I want to see you whip them.”
“I only fought one, and it took more than twenty of me to bring him down,” said Rigg. “And it wasn’t actually me. The ones who did the fighting left the knife and the ship’s logs with Umbo, and he stopped us from getting into the fight. So all I know of it is what the ship’s log recorded.”
“Nice to know you had it in you though, isn’t it?” asked Noxon.
“You’re the one who saved the world.”
“Well, as I said, that wasn’t me, either. You and I are just copies of the heroes.”
“Good enough for me,” said Umbo.
“Only now both of us are back here,” said Noxon. “So we still have to try to keep out of each other’s way.”
Rigg shook his head. “Square taught me how to get the facemask to give me a new face. Turns out we have a lot more control over our appearance than we knew.”
“That’s right,” said Noxon. “You look like me now. I mean, the way we were. Originally. I didn’t even realize it because that’s how I’m supposed to look. Can you get my mask to do that?”
“Why?” asked Rigg. “With you butt ugly like that, people can tell us apart really easily.”
“And who is Square?” asked Noxon.
Leaky sighed a little.
“All will be explained in due time,” said Ram Odin. “But I think it’s clear now that you’ve saved the world, we have a war to fight, and your—friend? Wife?—wants a facemask.”
“I want it even more now,” said Deborah. “I won’t have to be as ugly as Noxon after all.”
“You can be whatever you want,” said Square.
“If you can control the facemask,” said Param. “Not everybody can.”
Ram Odin once again tried to take control. “Please. We’ve all seen each other, we know pretty much what happened, and we can get the details in the days and weeks to come. Let’s let Noxon and Deborah do what they came here to do, and the rest of us should get back to our responsibilities.”
“How did it work out with the mice and the computers?” asked Umbo.
“As far as we know,” said Rigg, “the mice now rule the world.”
“I’m so relieved,” said Umbo. “You and Ram Odin were doing kind of a lousy job of it.”
“Well, now you get to be king,” said Rigg.
“Just a figurehead,” said Umbo.
Param took his hand. “He keeps saying that, but when I try to give him responsibilities he refuses.”
“I don’t want to be in charge of anything,” said Umbo. “I just want to be able to complain about it.”
“He works hard,” said Param, “and he does a good job.”
“But Square and his maskers do all the heavy fighting,” said Umbo. “We’re still trying to figure out how to end the war, now that it’s obvious their armies can’t stand against us and the people want to be rid of them.”
“You’ll think of something,” said Noxon.
“This is what power looks like?” said Deborah. “The people in charge of a war. You’re the Queen-in-the-Tent?”
Param smiled. “Pretty hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“No, you’re very royal,” said Deborah. “But you also look younger than me.”
“They’re children,” said Loaf. “Brats with way too much power. Now that the world isn’t going to end, we’re going to have to put up with a lot of nonsense till they grow up.”
“Come on,” said Noxon. “If we don’t go now and get your facemask, they’ll keep you here for hours with their blathering.”
Deborah grinned at them all and let Noxon lead her out of the room. Vadeshex followed immediately. The rest of them stood there looking at each other.
“I was in the middle of a nice nap,” said Rigg.
“Mine wasn’t all that nice,” said Ram Odin. “I kept seeing Vadeshex popping a bleeding mouse corpse into his mouth.”
“Thanks for putting that image in my mind,” said Param.
“Anything for the Queen-in-the-Tent,” said Ram Odin. He left the room.
“Want me to take you all back to Ramfold?” asked Ramex. “Or somewhere else?”
“The enclave will do,” said Loaf. “Leaky has to serve dinner and I’ve got trainees to supervise.”
“I thought they were all trained,” said Umbo.
“He means my people,” said Square. “We’ve got some new recruits who just got control of their masks.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Umbo. “Are we going to go ahead and just get rid of Hagia and Haddamander now?”
“We aren’t going to assassinate—” Param began.
“Wrong words,” said Umbo. “I mean, why don’t we just kidnap them and stash them back a few hundred years ago? In another wallfold where they aren’t royal and don’t have anybody who’ll obey them?”
Rigg laughed. “I can think of a few wallfolds they’d really enjoy.”
“I don’t want to torture them or even punish them,” said Param. “But yes, Umbo, that’s a good idea. Just put them in a place where they can’t do much harm and maybe they can make a life for each other.”
“And then we’ll find out whether we’re any more fit to rule than they were,” said Umbo.
“Well, if you’re not,” said Rigg, “we can always bring back the People’s Revolutionary Council.”
The meeting broke up then, and they all made their way to the Ramfold flyer. Rigg ended up bringing up the rear, and as he reached the bridge leading from the ship to the tunnels beyond, he found Umbo waiting for him.
“Hi,” said Umbo.
“I think everything’s worked out pretty well,” said Rigg.
“I told Ramex to tell Vadeshex to tell Noxon that I saved Kyokay’s life. He’ll want to know, right?”
“Too bad you won’t tell him yourself,” said Rigg. “It’s a pretty amazing story. You’re the only real hero among us now.”
“Except Square. And when I watch you fighting the Destroyer—”
“Wasn’t me,” said Rigg.
“Was too,” said Umbo. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I just—seeing Noxon with the girl. With Deborah.”
“It would have to be a blind girl to fall in love with that ugly face of his,” said Rigg.
“I’ve got Param, and you know that I’ve been in love with her all along. And Noxon looks really happy with her—she really seems to care about him.”
“Looks like,” said Rigg. “But look, Umbo, if you’re worried about me, don’t. I’ve seen a lot of wallfolds. I’m thinking of going back to one of them, maybe. I met some people. Some places where I might want to live.”
“Really?” said Umbo. “Because I was kind of hoping you’d find some nice girl and hang around with me and Param. We’ve made a pretty good team, when you think about it.”
“Had our ups and downs.”
“I don’t want to get sickening about this, but I was hoping you’d stay. You’re my best friend, Rigg, even though I was a real pain in the butt for a while.”
“But I’ll still be here even if I go,” said Rigg. “I mean, Noxon’s me, right?”
Umbo shook his head. “Yes. I know. You’ve seen most of Garden, he’s been to E
arth, and I’m just—”
“You’re just King-in-the-Tent, and married to my sister,” said Rigg. “You know that wherever I go to live, I’ll come back and visit whenever I want. I’ll be married and have kids and I’ll get up from dinner and say, ‘I’m going to take a walk,’ and then I’ll get in the flyer, come visit you for a week, and then get back home a few minutes after I left.”
“Sounds like a decent plan,” said Umbo. “I hope that’s all we ever have to do with our timeshaping, once the war is over. No more saving the world. No more changes to make.”
“That’s the best plan,” said Rigg. “It worries me, that these powers are loose in the world. We were clumsy enough, and dumb enough, but it all worked out pretty well. What if some of our descendants are, I don’t know, kind of awful. What if there’s somebody like Haddamander. Or Hagia. Or—or Tegay. You know what I mean.”
“Param and I have talked about that. We even debated about whether or not we should even have children. But here’s what we came up with. The mice brought us together, at the peak of our abilities, to save Garden and then, it turns out, to save Earth and everybody. But now our kids will marry people who aren’t timeshapers, and their kids will dilute the genes even more. Maybe when the human race doesn’t need saving, this ability will fade out, weaken, or become like our abilities were, before we put them together. You seeing paths. Me slowing people down, or speeding them up, or whatever. Just little things. Interesting but not scary. Not world-changing. That’s what we think.”
Rigg thought about that for a few moments. “I really like that idea,” he said. “I hope it’s true.”
“We can also try to raise our kids to be really decent people.”
“That’s a good idea, too, though children become whatever they want to be,” said Rigg.
“I know it’s crazy, Param and I both thought it was insane when I first suggested it, but now we think it might be true. I mean, I think it is true. That the human race was really determined not to be destroyed. And so it first got the Odinfolders to think up a machine that could send back the Future Books. And each time through history, humanity kept gathering its strength, and finally, between the Odinfolders and the mice and whatever genes were floating around in Ramfold, plus Ramex raising you and training me and Param—the human race needed us, and so it made us. And now it’s all worked out. So . . . it doesn’t need anybody to have our abilities anymore.”