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"But she's opposed in some fundamental way."
"No."
"Then the dream last night... what was all that about?"
"Dream and find out. Don't fight it. Don't be afraid."
I considered it. "Maybe I will."
"Good. And keep this in mind. Conflict is part of the warp and woof of
existence. That which contains no tension is static. If this is true, can any
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attempt to reach the ultimate be free of conflict? Do not think that the
Culmination must be a success from the start. That was a fundamental error of
those
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fundamental flaw. The question is, what ultimately hap-
pened? Since the Culmination is outside of time, that question can be
answered. And you will find the answer if you choose to seek it."
"Doesn't the Goddess know it, too?"
"Of course."
"It doesn't make sense," I said.
He turned and walked away a few steps, stopped, turned about. "I must leave
you now. Jake, I have a sense that you must suffer further. I can help to some
degree, but I am inhib-
PARADOX ALLEY 131
ited by circumstances you might find difficult to understand."
He smiled again. "I shouldn't worry. You are well suited to overcoming
adversity. I think that is why whatever forces are at work behind you chose
you as their instrument. You are the archetypal hero, Jake." He raised his
right hand. "Be well."
And he vanished, leaving behind the smell of ozone. The
Goddess' exit had had more panache, but his showed real class.
(p^^)
14
"WHAT NOW, Arthur?" I said wearily.
"I'm supposed to go fetch Sam and the rest of the washouts when Prime gives me
the all clear."
"When will that be?"
"I don't know, dearie. When the current flap has subsided.
It won't be safe until then."
"Okay, say you go and get them," I said. "Then what?"
"I take you to the egress portal and show you what cylin-
ders to shoot in order to get back where you belong."
For which there was no need, since I had the Roadmap. I
looked around, throwing up my arms. "What do we do till then? Fill out a time
card and punch in?"
"Make something," Arthur said, "like Carl did."
"Do you need any ashtrays?"
"How about a hand-tooled leather wallet, monogrammed?"
"You only have one initial," I told him.
"And I don't have any pockets, either. Well, then, I'm stumped."
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So was I. But there was nothing to do. We couldn't leave for the master
portal, and we couldn't very well drive all the way to the other side of the
world, back to Emerald City. We were at Arthur's mercy.
There was sleep to catch up on, though, and thinking to do.
Lay yourself open to the dream-teaching. Prime had ad-
vised. I wasn't sure I was ready for that yet. I thought about it. I needed
answers, but falling into a swoon and getting infused with divine
enlightenment wasn't my style. Besides, didn't you have to fast for forty days
and nights in the desert first? I had left my ban-shirt at the cleaners back
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in T-Maze.
133
134 John DeChancie
I was tired of searching for ever-elusive answers. Damn tired of it. As Daria
said, we keep getting pushed around by unseen forces. A phrase Prime had used
kept echoing: "what-
ever forces are at work behind you." Indeed, what forces? If neither Prime nor
the White Lady were really calling the shots, ^vho was? Were there other
aspects of the Culmination?
Was it something outside the Culmination entirely? More whispers in the
darkness, more missing pieces of a puzzle I
had grown weary of fumbling with.
I lay in the bunk, Daria asleep beside me. No dreams for her. It seemed that
if you didn't want to hear the propaganda, you simply turned off your
receiver.
I listened. The plant was quiet except for a faint back-
ground hum. Now and then came a faraway thump or bang
maintenance attendants about their chores, perhaps. Perhaps not. Were we safe
here? Of course not. But Arthur had his funnel-ears pricked for any
intruders and whatever other sensors he had were tuned in, too.
I got up and went out to the cab, sat in the driver's seat.
Arthur had inflated the spacetime ship to about half its full size, and had
gone inside. Said he had things to do.
I regarded Carl's vehicle. Everyone, including Carl, had wondered about its
origin. Had Carl created it himself? The answer, in gleaming chrome and
whitewall tires, lay out there on the floor of the receiving bay.
The time comes, as the saying goes, when a man's gotta do what a man's gotta
do. Push me, and I push back. Time to take the offensive. From now on it would
be Jake McGraw, Master of Space and Time.
I woke Daria up.
"Hmph?" she said.
"C'mon. I got an insane idea."
"Hmph."
I went back to me cab while Daria dressed. "Bruce?"
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"Yes, Jake?"
"Patch me through to the plant foreman."
A short delay, then: "He's on the line."
"Hello?" I said.
"Greetings'." the foreman beamed.
"Hi. Uh, would it be possible to use the Product Ideation and Design Facility
again?"
PARADOX ALLEY 135
"Certainly! At this moment?"
"Yes, please."
"Will send transportation immediately."
But could I do it, make that insane idea a reality? Reality seemed a fluid,
changing thing here on Microcosmos, a mal-
leable lump of stuff that could be beaten and pummeled into whatever shape was
desired. I'd take a whack at it myself. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]