-
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
isolated populations.
But that means there would be two kinds of people in the world and . . . Con
paused in alarm. Rick!
Jane said
Homo sapiens are extinct!
Rick sighed. That s the pattern for our genus. When was the last time you
encountered a
Homo neanderthalensis or a
Homo erectus?
They used to share the world with us.
Jane talked about a discontinuity in the record, but I think it s more than
that. She doesn t seem to understand us at all.
People wouldn t have volunteered to become extinct.
So you think they destroyed everything? said Con, appalled by the very idea.
When the Spanish encountered the Indian civilizations, said Rick, they not
only destroyed them, they burned all their books as well.
Con shivered. What s going to happen to us?
I don t know, he said, but I have one hopeful theory. They asked me a lot
of questions about my plans after our trip. Did they do the same to you?
Yes. What do you think that means?
Joe said they ve discovered that actions downwhen alter the future. That s
why they banned time travel they re afraid of changing their own present. I
think they re in a touchy situation. They know what they do to us will affect
them.
How?
History will be different if we don t return to our own time, said Rick.
So they have to take us back. Then why haven t they?
Because history will be different if we return to our own time.
do
Now you re not making sense.
Their problem is figuring out which course of action their present is based
on.
I get it! said Con. That s why they asked all those questions about public
records.
I think Hitler and Stalin are off doing research, and Jane s minding the
cages.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
And she let the animals out, said Con with bitter humor.
Jane Goodall came to care for the chimps she studied, said Rick. She became
their advocate.
Con sighed. I doubt this Jane will ever care for us.
38
CON AND RICK
cuddled and talked for a blissful hour before the barrier between the columns
vanished. Jane was standing outside in the snow. She carried the weapon in her
hand, but she did not aim it. Looking at Con, she said, It is time for you to
return to your room.
Con pointed to the weapon. That s not necessary, she said. I ll go.
Con gave Rick a parting kiss, then rose with a heavy heart. Attempting to play
the model prisoner, she walked quickly back to her quarters. Once she passed
between the stone columns, she turned to face
Jane. Thank you, she said. It meant a lot to me to see him. Jane said
something in her own language, and the barrier formed between them.
Con was left staring at the opalescent colors that separated her from Rick.
Page 186
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Seeing Rick made his absence all the more painful. Her recent joy only
deepened her current sorrow. She threw herself down on the bed and sobbed.
When she had cried herself out, she began to brood about the future. There
seemed to be two possibilities. One was blissful she and Rick would return to
their own time to continue their lives together. The other was bleak.
They ll dispose of us.
When Con tried to decide which was most likely, her heart sank.
They must do what they ve done before.
It was very confusing, but the worst part was that she couldn t imagine that
these people had ever sent them back.
Still, she reasoned, there was one version of time where they built this
observatory. Perhaps, there are infinite variations of the future.
That idea was little help.
Which variation am I in?
Her prospects did not look good.
I m in the one where our captors are nicknamed Hitler and Stalin.
Con told the room lights to dim and went to bed. Sleep did not come easily.
She lay awake envisioning
Hitler and Stalin entering the room with weapons drawn to put her down like a
stray dog in a pound.
When she eventually dozed off, her fears brought forth vivid nightmares.
Con awoke in a sweat, thinking she held Rick s bloody corpse. The dim light of
day filtered through the swirling colors. A new food cube lay at the foot of
the bed. The fact that Jane had simply left the cube seemed ominous to Con.
The troubled night had fed her sense of dread, and, as the day wore on, Con
became increasingly apprehensive. She began to see her visit with Rick as a
sign that the end was near, the equivalent of a condemned prisoner s last
meal. Jane s statement that her coworkers had the information we require
took on sinister implications.
They re done with me, Con realized.
Now it s all a matter of waiting.
Yet passively submitting to her fate went against the core of Con s being. As
she paced her prison in restless agitation, she formed a desperate plan. She
resolved to breach the colored barrier. She reasoned that if she ran and
jumped, her momentum would carry her through the field regardless of how her
body responded to the pain.
I endured it once, she told herself.
When I recover this time, I ll be on the other side, free to find a way to
Rick
. Still, the memory of her previous agony held her back. It took another
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
anxious and lonely hour before her desperation overcame her apprehension.
Finally, as the light outside faded, Con screwed up her courage. After several
false starts, she made a running leap and curled into a ball as her body
passed through the livid colors.
Con transformed into a creature whose only sensation was unbearable agony. She
felt that her skin had been ignited, her bones crushed, and her muscles and
entrails torn and mangled. She fell convulsing upon the snow, without the
breath to scream or even moan. Pain washed her mind clear of thought and
pushed it toward madness. She became less than an animal a mindless, frenzied
thing writhing on the ground in her own befoulment.
Existing only in a crimson universe of pain, Con was unaware of Jane s
approach. She did not feel Jane lift her like a child. Only when Jane pressed
a device to the back of her neck and her torment diminished, did Con become
dimly aware she was lying on her bed in the stone room. As a cooling sensation
spread through her burning body, the world slowly came into focus. When Con
saw the swirling colors between the colonnades, she burst into bitter tears.
Jane disappeared, then returned to find Con shaking on the bed as if in the
Page 187
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
grip of a fever. She lifted Con up and held a vessel to her trembling lips.
Drink this, she said.
Con sipped the sweet, aromatic liquid. Warmth filled her mouth and throat. The [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- matkadziecka.xlx.pl