"No," said Hal. "They were only creatures of history, just as you and I are. It's everyone who lives now, crying out to be freed from the chains that always held them."
"There's no freedom for them," said Bleys, still in the remote voice. "There never was."
"There is, and always has been," said Hal. "Open the gate, come through and let me show you."
"There is no gate," said Bleys. "No trail, no tower—everything but this land about us here is illusion. Face that, and learn to make the best of what is."
Hal shook his head.
"You're a fool," said Bleys, sadly. "A fool who hopes."
"We're both fools," said Hal. "But I don't hope, I know."
And he rode on, leaving Bleys standing, still leaning against the other side of the locked gate, until a turn in the narrow trail lost him to sight.
… Hal was roused again, this time by the chiming of a call signal, and opened his eyes to the phone screen at his bedside glowing white. Groggily he pushed himself to full awareness; and with that, suddenly, he was fully alert. No one except a few people at the Final Encyclopedia, such as Amid, Simon, Ajela and Tam, knew that he was here—or even had any reason to think that the estate was occupied.
He flung out an arm and punched on the phone. The screen cleared to show Ajela's face, tight with an unusual tension.
"Hal," she said. "Are you awake? They've tried to assassinate Rukh!"
"Where? When?" He pushed himself up on one elbow and saw himself screen-lit, imaged in a mirror across the room, the dark hair tumbled forward over his forehead, the strong-boned features below it scowling away the last numbness of slumber. The hard-muscled, naked torso above the bed covers was the brutal upper body of a stranger.
"A little over forty minutes ago, standard time," said Ajela. "The word is she's only wounded."
"Where is she?" Hal swung his legs over the edge of the bed, throwing the bed-covers back. "Will you get Simon down here to the estate for me right away?"
He got up and stepped past the screen, reaching for his clothes, from long automatic habit laid close and ready. He began dressing.
"We can't get traffic clearance down there for a courier ship," Ajela's voice came from the screen, behind him. "Not even for you, under Earth's regulations. An aircar'll pick you up and take you to Salt Lake—a shuttle'll be held there for you. It'll bring you straight to the Encyclopedia."
"No." He was almost dressed now. "I'll go directly to Rukh."
"You can't—where are you now?" Ajela said—and he moved back to sit on the bed and face the screen. "Oh, there you are! You can't just go to her. Her own people with her rushed her off and hid her after it happened. We don't know yet where they've taken her."
"I'd still be better on the scene, helping to find her."
"Be sensible." The tone of Ajela's voice was hard. "The most your being there could mean would be finding her a few minutes earlier. Besides, you've been out of touch with us and Earth, except for messages, for almost a year. You're needed here, to catch up. No one grudged you a day to make the trip you're on; but if it gets down to hard choices, your duty's here, not with Rukh."
He took a short breath.
"You're right," he said. "I need to talk to you all as soon as I can. The aircar's on its way?"
"Be with you in fifteen minutes. It'll land on that small lake behind your house."
"I'll be out there waiting," he said.
"Good." Ajela's voice softened. "It's all right, Hal. I know she'll be all right."
"Yes," said Hal, hearing his voice as if it came from someone else. "Of course. I'll be outside waiting for the aircar when it comes."
"Good; and we'll all be waiting for you when you get here. Come right to Tam's quarters."
"I will."
The screen went dark. He rose, finished dressing and went out.
In the open air behind the house, frost held the grounds and mountain areas beyond. In a cloudless, icy sky, the stars were large and seemed to hang low overhead. A nearly full moon was bright. The cold struck in at him, and his breath plumed straight upwards from his lips in the moonlight as he stood by the dark water's edge at the house end of the lake. After a while a dark shape scudded across the sky, occulting the stars, and dropped vertically to land on the water at the center of the lake. It turned toward him and slid across the watery surface to where he stood. The passenger door opened.
"Hal Mayne?" called a male voice from the lighted interior.
"Yes," Hal said, already inside the car. He dropped into a seat behind the driver as the door closed again and the vehicle leaped upward.
"We ought to make Salt Lake Pad in twenty minutes," said the driver, over his shoulder.
"Good," said Hal.
He sat back, letting his mind slip off into a calculation of the probabilities involved in Rukh's situation, using all of Donal's old abilities in that area. It was true enough, if she had not been killed outright and there was any decent sort of medical help available, she was almost sure to survive.
If.
He forced his mind to turn, coldly and dispassionately, to what it would mean to the confrontation with the Others if she had not lived; or had, but would no longer be able to lead Earth's people to an understanding of the cost of an Others' victory. The messages about her of which Ajela had just now spoken had, he knew, been painting a picture of strong successes, for Rukh and for those others she had recruited from Harmony and Association to speak elsewhere about Earth. He had been counting on those successes, taking them for granted.
If her help was now to be lost… it was true that he had fallen out of touch with the situation here on Earth, while he had been out scouting Bleys' military preparations on the Younger Worlds. What he had seen out there had not only confirmed his worst forebodings but driven the more immediate problem of controlling Earth from his mind. His losing touch with the Encyclopedia and Earth had, in a sense, been unavoidable—he could not be in two places at once—but its unavoidability did not alter the danger in which it had possibly put them all. The open contest with the Others here at humanity's birthplace was one in which lack of knowledge could guarantee defeat. Now that he knew what he knew, there was nothing for it but to move as swiftly as he could.
Ajela had been more right than she knew, in insisting he come back to the Encyclopedia just now. The breakpoint was upon them. How close upon them, he had not realized himself until the past evening. But the full implications of the realization was something to be explored later, when time was available. For now, even if Rukh had been no more than scratched, it was not. Every standard day now that he delayed in putting to work the information he had gained, more of its usefulness would leak away.
The shuttle, empty of passengers except himself, slid into the metal-noisy, bright-lit entry port of the Encyclopedia. Simon Graeme was waiting for him as he stepped out of the vehicle.
"I'm to take you to Tam Olyn's quarters," Simon said.
"I know."
They went quickly, bypassing the usual passage that led past the center of the Encyclopedia and stepping almost immediately through a side door into a quiet corridor that, by the internal magic of the Encyclopedia, led them only a dozen steps to Tam's entrance door.
Within, Tam's office-lounge was as Hal had remembered it, with the illusion of the little stream and the grove of trees. But both the temperature and humidity of the place were higher; and Tam, seated in one of the big chairs, looked further shrunken and stilled by the hard hand of age, into a final motionlessness in which there seemed to be no energy left for any movement or emotion.
Besides Tam, the office held Ajela and Jeamus Walters, the Engineering Chief of the Encyclopedia, standing facing Tam, one on either side of his chair. They turned together at the sound of the door-chimes; and both their faces lit up.
"Hal!" Ajela turned quickly to Tam. "You see? I told you. Here he is, now!"
She turned back to hug Hal as he reached her. But almost immediately she let him go
again and pushed him toward the chair with the old man in it.
"Hal!" said Tam. His voice rustled like dry paper; and the fingers he put out for Hal to grip were leathery and cold. "It's good to have you here. I can leave it to you and Ajela, now."
"Don't," said Hal, brusquely. "I'm going to need you, for some time yet."
"Need me?" Tam's darkened eyes found a spark of life and his papery voice strengthened.
"That's right," Hal said. "I've got something specific to talk to you about as soon as there's a minute to spare."
He turned to Ajela.
"No more word on Rukh?" He saw the answer in her face before she could speak. "All right. What's the situation here that I need to catch up on?"
"Amid, Rourke di Facino and Jason Rowe were to be signalled the minute you landed," she answered. "They'll be here in minutes. Then we can go over the full situation. Meanwhile, sit down—"
"If you don't mind." The interruption by the short, broad Chief Engineer was soft-voiced, but insistent. "While you've got a minute to give me, Hal, I've got something wonderful to tell you. You know this phase-shift-derived communication system of the Exotics? The one by which they've been able to transmit simple message via color-code across interplanetary distances with at least forty-per cent effectiveness—"
"Jeamus," said Ajela, "you can tell Hal about that later."
"No," said Hal, watching the serious, round face under the thinning, blond hair, "if you can tell me in just a few words, go ahead, Jeamus."
"We didn't know about their method, here," said Jeamus; "because they were so good at keeping it secret; and they didn't appreciate the fact that here on the Encyclopedia we know more about collateral uses for the phase-shift than anyone else, including them. Also, they didn't have experience or the capacity to do the running calculations necessary to maintain a steady contact over light-years of distance; which is why they'd never succeeded in using it across interstellar space. After all, the problems involved were like trying to make a spaceship hop the distance from here to any one of the Younger Worlds in a single shift—"
"Jeamus," said Ajela, gently, "Hal said—'a few words.' "
"Yes. Well," Jeamus went on. "The point is, we took what they already had; and in seven months here, we've come up with a system by which I can link with an echo transmitter on one of the Younger Worlds and give you this-moment, standard time, sight and sound of what the echo-transmitter's viewing. Do you understand, Hal? It's still got some problems, of course; but still—you can actually see and hear what's going on there with no time lag at all!"
"Good!" said Hal. "That's going to be a life-saver, Jeamus. It's something that'll be useful—"
"Useful?" Jeamus took an indignant step toward Hal. "It'll be a miracle! It's the greatest step forward since we put the shield wall around the Encyclopedia, itself. This is doing the impossible! I don't think you appreciate quite what—"
"I do appreciate it," Hal said. "And I realize what you and your people've done, Jeamus. But right now we're under emergency conditions when other things have priority. We'll talk abut this communication system in a little while. Now, what progress have you made on setting up that planet-sized shield-wall I asked you to work up?"
"Oh, that," said Jeamus. "It's all done. There's nothing to doing something like that, as I told you, except to make the necessary adjustments for the difference in size between the Encyclopedia and a planet. But this phase-shift communication—"
"Done?" said Hal. "In what sense done?"
"Well," there was an edge in Jeamus' voice, "I mean done—it's ready to go. I've even got the support ships equipped for it and their crews trained, ready to take station. It turned out we needed fifteen spaceships for a wall the size you wanted; and they've been set up. They'll take position around whatever world you want… and then it's done. Once the wall's up, they'll act as inner control stations to open irises, just as the Encyclopedia does—only of course larger and more of them—to the star around which the planet is orbiting, for energy input. They're parked now in close proximity orbit, staffed and ready to go, as soon as you tell them where. Not that they haven't got a pretty good idea where. They had to practice taking station, and everyone knows there's only one world larger than Earth that fits the specifications you gave me—"
The door to Tam's quarters chimed and opened. Nonne came in, moving swiftly in a dark brown robe that swirled about her feet as she strode forward. Her face was thinner and older-looking; and she was followed by both Jason Rowe and Rourke di Facino. Jason was wearing a thin, blue shirt and the sort of light-gray work slacks common in the unchanging, indoor climate of the Encyclopedia; clothes which had obviously never been fabricated on either Harmony or Association. In them, rather than his Harmony checked bush shirt and trousers, he looked, by contrast with Nonne, even smaller and younger than Hal remembered him. Rourke, however, was unchanged—still in his Dorsai wardrobe; as dapper, as crisp of manner and as unchanged as ever.
"Good," said Hal, turning from Jeamus. "I'm sorry to have been gone so long. Sit down and we'll talk. Jeamus, I'll catch up with you a little later."
Jeamus nodded dourly, and went out.
Ajela had pulled up one of the antique, overstuffed chairs. Nonne took the only other such one, turning it so that she faced Hal, as he pulled in a float from behind him and sat down next to Tam. Jason took another float, a little back from Nonne's and alongside it. He smiled at Hal and sat back in the float. Only Rourke continued to stand, behind and between Nonne and Jason. He folded his arms and looked keenly at Hal.
"I'm honored to see you all again," Hal said, looking about at them, "and my apologies for being out of touch with everyone this length of time. There wasn't any other way to do it; but I appreciate what it's been like for the rest of you. Why don't we go around the circle; and each of you tell me what you most want to talk to me about?"
Silence gave assent.
"Tam?"
"Ajela can tell you," said Tam hoarsely.
"Ajela?"
"The Final Encyclopedia's as ready as we're ever going to be, for whatever you've got in mind," said Ajela. "Earth's another matter. Rukh and her people have been working miracles I honestly didn't expect, myself. They've already raised a powerful wave of popular opinion all over the world that's ready to back us. But there's still a majority down there who're of a few thousand other sets of minds, or who're blithely ignoring the whole situation on the basis that whatever happens, Earth always comes out all right—by which I mean they simply assume there won't be changes in their backyards."
"What's your opinion of what's going to happen, now that Rukh's been at least hurt and maybe killed?" Hal said.
"Now…" Ajela hesitated and took a deep breath. "Now, until we can find out about her, and until word of how she is reaches the general Earth populace, it's anyone's guess."
She stopped speaking. Hal waited for a moment.
"Anything more?"
"No," said Ajela. "That's it. If you want anything more, you ask the questions."
Hal turned to Nonne.
"Nonne?"
"Both Mara and Kultis are prepared," she said gravely. Her hands smoothed the gown over her knees. "We've turned over to the Dorsai, the Encyclopedia here and to those Friendlies who oppose the Others, anything they said they needed and we had to give, as you told us to do. Those on both our worlds now are waiting for the next step—ready and waiting. It's up to you now to tell us what's next. Beyond that, as Ajela said, if you want details you've only to ask me."
Hal nodded; and was about to move his gaze to Jason when she spoke again.
"That doesn't mean there aren't a multitude of things I've got to discuss with you."
"I know," said Hal softly. "I'll get to that with all of you, in time. Jason?"
Jason shrugged.
"Those who oppose us still hold the cities and much of the countryside, on both Harmony and Association," he said. "But you don't need to be told that the Children of the Lord are
n't ever going to stop fighting. There's little we can do for you, Hal, but go on fighting. I can tell you what we hold and where our strengths are; and if you can give me specific targets to aim at, we'll aim at them. As everybody else here says, beyond that you'll have to ask me questions—or let me ask you some."
Hal nodded again and looked finally at Rourke di Facino. But the spare, dandified little man answered before Hal could speak his name.
"We're ready to move," he said.
His arms were still folded. He stood, unaltered, as if the four words he had just brought forth were the sum total of anything that he could contribute to the conference.
"Thank you," answered Hal.
He looked at the others.
"Thank you all," he said. "To give you my own information in capsule form, Bleys has going what'll amount to an unending capability to attack us. He's got more than enough bases, more than enough materiel, more than enough people to arm and throw at all our capabilities for resistance. It's only a matter of a standard year or less; then he can begin that attack any time he wants; and, if pushed, he could begin it this moment. Being Bleys, I expect him to wait, until he's fully ready to move."
"I take it," said Nonne, "you want to force his hand, then?"
Hal looked soberly at her.
"We have to," he said.
"Then let me ask you a question," Nonne said. "I said there were a multitude of things I wanted to discuss with you. Let me ask you about one."
"Go ahead." Hal looked at her thoughtfully.
"We seem to be heading inevitably for the point," said Nonne, "where it's going to boil down to a personal duel between you and Bleys. For the sake of my people I have to ask you—do you really think you can win a duel like that? And if so, what makes you think so?"
"I'm not sure at all I can win," answered Hal. "There're no certainties in human history. As an Exotic, of all people, you should realize that—"
He checked himself. Ajela had just made a small sound in the back of her throat as if she had begun to speak and then changed her mind. He turned to her. She shook her head.