"Not now," 17 hissed. "We are shorthanded already and your corpse would be valueless to this expedition. Get us to the correct time at once. Our power is limited, you may remember."
"It shall be done as you command," 35 said as she slithered to the bank of controls. 44 ignored the talk, keeping her multicell eyes focused on the power control bank, constantly making adjustments with her spatulate fingers in response to the manifold dials.
"That is it," 17 announced, rasping her hands together with pleasure. "The correct time, the correct place. We must descend and make our destiny. Give-praise to the Saur of All, who rules the destinies of all."
"Praise Saur," her two companions muttered, all of their attention on the controls.
Straight down from the blue sky the globular vehicle fell. It was round and featureless, save for the large rectangular port, on the bottom now, and made of some sort of green metal, perhaps anodized aluminum, though it looked harder. It had no visible means of flight or support, yet it fell at a steady and controlled rate. Slower and slower it moved until it dropped from sight behind the ridge at the northern end of Johnson's Lake, just at the edge of the tall pine grove. There were fields nearby, with cows, who did not appear at all disturbed by the visitor. No human being was in sight to view the landing. A path cut in from the lake here, a scuffed dirt trail that went to the highway.
An oriole sat on a bush and warbled sweetly, — a small rabbit hopped from the field to nibble a stem of grass. This bucolic and peaceful scene was interrupted by the scuff of feet down the trail and a high-pitched and singularly monotonous whistling. The bird flew away, a touch of soundless color, while the rabbit disappeared into the hedge. A boy came over the rise from the direction of the lake shore. He wore ordinary boy clothes and carried a schoolbag in one hand, a small and homemade cage of wire screen in the other. In the cage was a small lizard, which clung to the screen, its eyes rolling in what presumably was fear. The boy, whistling shrilly, trudged along the path and into the shade of the pine grove.
"Boy," a high-pitched and tremulous voice called out. "Can you hear me, boy?"
"I certainly can," the boy said, stopping and looking around for the unseen speaker. "Where are you?"
"I am by your side, but I am invisible. I am your fairy godmother…"
The boy made a rude sound by sticking out his tongue and blowing across it while it vibrated. "I don't believe in invisibility or fairy godmothers. Come out of those woods, whoever you are."
"All boys believe in fairy godmothers," the voice said, but a worried tone edged the words now. "I know all kinds of secrets. I know your name is Don and—"
"Everyone knows my name is Don and no one believes anymore in fairies. Boys now believe in rockets, submarines, and atomic energy."
"Would you believe space travel?"
"I would."
Slightly relieved the voice came on stronger and deeper. "I did not wish to frighten you, but I am really from Mars and have just landed—"
Don made the rude noise again. "Mars has no atmosphere and no observable forms of life. Now come out of there and stop playing games."
After a long silence the voice said, "Would you consider time travel?"
"I could. Are you going to tell me that you are from the future?"
With relief: "Yes I am."
"Then come out where I can see you."
"There are some things that the human eye should not look upon…"
"Horseapples. The human eye is okay for looking at anything you want to name. You come out of there so I can see who you are — or I'm leaving."
"It is not advisable." The voice was exasperated. "I can prove I am a temporal traveler by telling you the answers to tomorrow's mathematics test. Wouldn't that be nice? Number one, 1.76. Number two—"
"I don't like to cheat, and even if I did you can't cheat on the new math. Either you know it or you fail it. I'm — going to count to ten, then go."
"No, you cannot! I must ask you a favor. Release that common lizard you have trapped and I will give you three wishes, I mean, answer three questions."
"Why should I let it go?"
"Is that the first of your questions?"
"No. I want to know what's going on before I do anything. This lizard is special. I never saw another one like it around here."
"You are right. It is an Old World acrodont lizard of the order Rhip-toglossa, commonly called a chameleon."
"It is!" Don was really interested now. He squatted in the path and took a red-covered book from his schoolbag and laid it on the ground. He turned the cage until the lizard was on the bottom and placed it carefully on the book. "Will it really turn color?"
"To an observable amount, yes. Now if you release her—"
"How do you know it's a her? The time-traveler bit again?"
"If you must know, yes. The creature was purchased from a pet store by one Jim Benan, and is one of a pair. They were both released two days ago when Benan, deranged by the voluntary drinking of a liquid-containing quantities of ethyl alcohol, sat on the cage. The other, unfortunately, died of his wounds, and this one alone survives. The release—"
"I think this whole thing is a joke and I'm going home now. Unless you come out of there so I can see who you are."
"I warn you…"
"Goodbye." Don picked up the cage. "Hey, she turned sort of brick red!"
"Do not leave. I will come forth."
Don looked on, with a great deal of interest, while the creature walked out from between the trees. It was blue, had large and goggling independently moving eyes, wore a neatly cut brown jumpsuit, and had a pack slung on its back. It was also only about seven inches tall.
"You don't much look like a man from the future," Don said. "In fact you don't look like a man at all. You're too small."
"I might say that you are too big: size is a matter of relevancy. And I am from the future, though I am not a man."
"That's for sure. In fact you look a lot like a lizard." In sudden inspiration, Don looked back and forth at the traveler and at the cage. "In fact you look a good deal like this chameleon here. What's the connection?"
"That is not to be revealed. You will now do as I command or I will injure you gravely." 17 turned and waved toward the woods. "35, this is an order. Appear and destroy that growth over there."
Don looked on with increasing interest as the green basketball of metal drifted into sight from under the trees. A circular disk slipped away on one side and a gleaming nozzle, not unlike the hose nozzle on a toy fire truck, appeared through the opening. It pointed toward a hedge a good thirty feet away. A shrill whining began from the depths of the sphere, rising in pitch until it was almost inaudible. Then, suddenly, a thin line of light spat out towards the shrub, which crackled and instantly burst into flame. Within a second it was a blackened skeleton.
"The device is called a roxidizer, and is deadly," 17 said. "Release the chameleon at once or we will turn it on you."
Don scowled. "All right. Who wants the old lizard anyway." He put the cage on the ground and started to open the cover. Then he stopped and sniffed. Picking up the cage again he started across the grass toward the blackened bush.
"Come back!" 17 screeched. "We will fire if you go another step."
Don ignored the lizardoid, which was now dancing up and down in an agony of frustration, and ran to the bush. He put his hand out and apparently right through the charred stems.
"I thought something was fishy," he said. "All that burning and everything just upwind of me and I couldn't smell a thing." He turned to look at the time traveler, who was slumped in gloomy silence. "It's just a projected image of some kind, isn't it? Some kind of three-dimensional movie." He stopped in sudden thought, then walked over to the still hovering temporal transporter. When he poked at it with his finger he apparently pushed his hand right into it.