Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus: The Soul of the Robot, The Knights of the Limits, The Fall of Chronopolis

‘We wish him to examine the situation and to recognise the delicacy of our own position. Also, that the present course will destroy us both.’

‘Then I will not answer you, since the answer belongs to His Majesty.’

Minister Ortok Cray acknowledged this with an inclining of his head.

‘We would welcome a meeting between our respective representatives,’ he said. ‘Some arrangement tolerable to us both would be better than total war. If your side is willing to take part in talks, send a timeship broadcasting an appropriate message.’

‘I will convey your requirements.’ Haight’s tone was sardonic, almost sarcastic.

‘Then we thank you. Please let us know if you need anything to make your ship timeworthy. I think we can expect you to be on your way in, let us say, ten hours?’

Haight nodded. Ministers Ortok Cray and Wirith Freeling made some parting gesture that was strange to him, and swept sedately from the room.

When they had gone, Commander Haight stroked his chin for a few moments, then looked thoughtfully at Aton.

‘I can see allowing you to wear the emperor’s uniform has done the trick,’ he said slowly. ‘You are a veritable model of rationality.’

As Aton made no reply, Haight turned to Anamander. ‘Well, our enterprise has come to a surprising conclusion, eh, Colonel?’

Seating himself at the table, he carefully deactivated the Lamp of Faith’s emergency self-destruct.

SEVEN

‘It’s hard to say what it is, or what it’s like,’ Aton muttered. ‘There are really no words to describe it. All the words of our language refer to three-dimensional, orthogonal time.’

‘Are the experiences still in your memory? Are they vivid?’

‘Yes, but they tend to fade, to become … recast so as to resemble ordinary experiences. Such as what you might see on a strat screen.’

Commander Haight sighed deeply. ‘That figures. A strat screen interprets the substratum in terms of sensory criteria. One might well expect the brain’s memory banks to do the same.’

They were heading back towards Chronopolis, Node 1, accompanied by the Song of Might, and were already deep inside the empire’s historical territory. Haight had been kept busy, first attending to repairs to the Lamp of Faith and then negotiating a homeward course, the journey to the frontier being under escort by a squadron of Hegemonic Tower-class ships. But the moment he had been able to take a rest from his duties he had hurried to his quarters to question Aton closely on the nature of the strat.

‘Nothing has a single nature,’ Aton said. ‘Everything merges into everything else; there are a billion aspects to everything. Nothing exists as an object; all is flux and motion.’

‘Hmmm.’ Haight listened carefully to the words, fixing his gaze on Aton’s face. It was as if he was trying to find in Aton’s steady eyes some glimpse of what those eyes had seen.

He was somewhat disappointed by the results of his experiment. Aton’s descriptions had been fairly lucid but resembled technical descriptions such as one might find in textbooks. They did not convey the essence of the experience.

Aton’s return to normalcy was also something of a disappointment to him. He turned, stretched his weary limbs, then stepped to the cocktail bar and poured himself a stiff slug of gin. After brief hesitation he poured one for Aton too and pushed it across to him.

‘I have not had my money’s worth,’ he said with a grim smile. ‘Interfering with your hypnotic instructions should at least, I would have thought, have produced some interesting psychological disorder. But here you are as healthy as apple pie.’ He reflected before knocking back his gin. ‘Perhaps next time I should try an ordinary criminal type who will have no mental discipline.’

Aton had a question of his own. ‘Commander, do you think the representations the Hegemonics have made to us will influence policy in Chronopolis?’ His face wore a worried frown.

Haight looked at him in surprise. ‘Don’t be a fool, Captain. The emperor’s will is inviolable.’

‘But, sir –’

‘I would probably not even bother to deliver such pathetic pleas,’ Haight told him irritably, ‘had not the Hegemonics inadvertently given us such valuable information at the same time. My orders were to seize the distorter or to sacrifice the mission in the attempt. But that business about its origins is most peculiar, don’t you think? One can only think that there is high treason in the realm. The historical background to the Hegemony too, should prove most useful, though I should think the point about the advance of Node Seven is something the Historical Office is already alive to.’ He gave a loud, braying laugh. ‘See how invincible is the empire! No wonder the Hegemonics are in a panic. There’s no way they can win!’

‘In that case, would it not be advisable to hold back the armada, and gain our ends by subtler means?’