Collision with Chronos

The twentieth floor lay in the precinct of the Bureau of Propaganda and the office he had been summoned to was the Archaeological Office – Bureprop (Arch.). He arrived in good time and was kept waiting only ten minutes by the pretty, coolly efficient secretary before being ushered in.

Titan-Major Brourne rose to greet him, smiling jovially.

“Good to see you, Citizen Heshke! Sit down, won’t you?”

Behind Brourne stood a younger man Heshke did not know: a pale, supercilious-looking captain with a deformed left eyelid – an unlikely defect to find in a Titan, and which gave him a disconcerting, quizzical expression. Heshke could only suppose that he made up for the deformity in other qualities, or he would never have been permitted to enter the ranks of the Titans.

“This is Titan-Captain Brask, Citizen,” Brourne said by way of introduction. “I’ve called him to our meeting for reasons which will become plain later.” He sat down and leaned back, placing his large hands squarely on the table. Brourne was a solid-looking man, somewhat too broad for his height, and his tub-like bulkiness was accentuated by the crossed black belts of his uniform. He had thinning brown hair that had once been thick and luxurious, brown eyes and a face that, having seen much and enjoyed much, was now beginning to soften under a new career of desk-work. Heshke preferred him brisk and businesslike rather than jovial, as now. His cordiality always was an introduction to something else.

Heshke’s gaze drifted to an archaeological chart that covered the wall behind the two men. It was a good professional piece of work, even if too much biased in favour of the particular interpretations the Titans put upon historical findings. It clearly showed the periodic rise and fall of civilisation, the persistent pattern of all human history. He was still staring at it when Titan-Major Brourne spoke again.

“Well, Citizen, and how is progress at the ruins?”

“I can’t speak of any new developments, if that’s what you mean.” Heshke fumbled uneasily with his briefcase.

The Titan-Major’s voice became heavy and unaccommodating. “What you’re trying to tell me is that there’s been no progress.”

“You can’t always depend on progress to follow a straight line,” Heshke answered defensively. “The first thing to learn about the alien interventionists is how complete their destruction was, how nearly all their traces were erased. In a sense we are lucky that sites like the Hathar Ruins exist at all.”

Brourne rose from his desk and paced to and fro, his face becoming serious. “Victory is ours, but it must be consolidated,” he intoned. “The history of the Fall and of the Dark Period must be fully researched and documented, if we are going to be able to give future generations a correct historical perspective.”

Titan-Captain Brask continued to gaze on the scene as if from some superior viewpoint while Brourne held forth. “We’ve beaten the deviant subspecies – but they were always the lesser threat. I don’t have to tell you what the greater threat is, or how crucial your own area of research is, Citizen Heshke. You know just what the nature of a future struggle would be; we must never again allow ourselves to become vulnerable to an attack from space.”

He stopped pacing and looked directly at Heshke once more. “Our present ignorance is unacceptable. It has been officially decreed that progress in the research into the alien interventionists is required.”

Heshke did not know how to answer him. He wished he was back at the alien ruins, quietly going about his work with his colleagues, not here in this office being browbeaten by Titan officers.

“In that case new sites will have to be unearthed,” he opined. “I would go so far as to say we’ve already got most of what we can from Hathar.” How much can they expect me to deduce, he thought, from empty stone ruins and a few nonhuman skeletons? It really was extraordinary how few artifacts had survived.

For the first time the younger Titan spoke. His voice was precise and condescending.

“We do not rely only on your efforts, Citizen. We have our own archaeological teams – and they, let me say, are producing better results than you are.”

Yes, they would, Heshke thought. Because the Titans already had an ideology, a creed. It was easy to dig up a few remains and recruit them in support of already constructed doctrines. But Heshke thought of himself as a scientist and a scholar, not as an ideologist, and he took facts simply as facts. As far as the alien interventionists went there was altogether too little information to form a complete picture.

Oh, the broad outlines were clear enough, all right. About eight hundred years ago the powerful and mature classical civilisation had suffered a total, cataclysmic collapse. The subsequent Dark Period had lasted nearly four centuries, and only since then had civilisation been built anew.