Might as well continue the sympathetic role. He patted Tammy's hand. "Okay, Tam. I'm glad you told us."
She smiled halfheartedly. "Don't you see, Wil? My dad's a suspect because we disagreed with Marta. We left to protect the family; my staying behind shows we're not running from an investigation.... But Yel‚n is. On the way down, Della Lu told me how Yel‚n wants you back in stasis right away. She'll be left all alone at the scene of the crime. By the time you two come out, the evidence will be tens of thousands years stale-heck, what evidence there is will've been manufactured by her.
"Now, I brought the family records for the weeks before our party. You and Della Lu should study them. They may be dull, but at least they're the truth."
Wil nodded. It was obvious the Robinsons had their story together. He let the interview go on another fifteen minutes, until Tammy seemed calm and almost relaxed. Lu spoke occasionally, her interjections sometimes perceptive, more often obscure. It was evident that-in itself-clearing the family l name me was of little importance to the Robinsons. When they were headed, present opinion would be less than dust. But the family still wanted recruits. Tammy's parents were convinced that the people of Town Korolev would eventually realize that settling in the present was a dead end, and that time itself was 11 the proper place for humanity. It might take a few decades, but ;f Tammy could survive the murder investigation, she would be f re e to wait and persuade. And eventually she would catch up With her family. Her parents had set a number of rendezvous in the megayears to come. Their exact locations were something she refused to reveal.
"You want to pace your lives, and live as long as the universe?" asked Lu.
"At least."
The spacer giggled. "And what will you do at the end?"
"That depends on how it ends." Tammy's eyes lit. "Daddy thinks that all the mysteries people have ever wondered on-even the Extinction-may be revealed there. It's the ultimate rendezvous for all thinking beings. If time is cyclic, we'll bobble through to the beginning and Man will be universal."
"And if the universe is open and dies forever?"
"Then perhaps we and the others can change that." Tammy shrugged. "But if we can't-well, we'll still be there. We will have seen it all. Daddy says we'll raise a glass and toast the memory of all of you that went before." She was still smiling.
And Brierson wondered if this might be the craziest of all his new acquaintances.
Afterwards, Wil tried to plan out the investigation with Della Lu. It was not easy.
"Was Ms. Robinson distressed at the beginning of the interview?" asked Lu.
Wil rolled his eyes heavenward. "Yes, I believe she was."
"Ah. I thought so, too."
"Look, uh, Della. What Tammy says about Yel‚n makes sense. It's absurd for the cops-us-to leave the murder scene like this. Back in Michigan, we would have dropped any customer who demanded such a thing. Now, Yel‚n is right that ink, hanging around to investigate the physical evidence would be amateurish. But your equipment is as good as hers-"
"Better."
"-and she should be willing to let you postpone bobbling long enough to gather evidence."
Lu was silent for a moment-talking through her headband' "1-Is. Korolev wants to be alone for emotional reasons."
"Hmph. She has thousands of years to be alone before the Peacers come out. You should at least do an autopsy and record the physical evidence."
"Very well. Ms. Korolev is a suspect, then?"
Wil spread his hands. "At this stage, she and the Robinsons have to be at the top of our list. Once we start poking around, it may be easy to scratch her. Just now it would be totally unprofessional to have her do the field investigation."
"Is Ms. Korolev friendly towards you?"
"Huh? Not especially. What does that have to do with the investigation?"
"Nothing. I'm trying to find a..."-she seemed to search for the word-"a role model for talking to you."
Wil smiled faintly, thinking back to Yel‚n's hostility. "I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't model on her."
"Okay." Unsmiling.
If Lu were as smart with gadgets as she was dumb with people, they would make the best detective team in history. "There is something else, something very important, that I need. Yel‚n has promised me physical protection and access to leer databases. I'd like to have your protection, too-at least till we can clear her."
"Certainly. If you wish, I'll manage your jump forward, too."
"And I'd like access to your databases." Cross-checking Korolev couldn't hurt.
The spacer hesitated. "Okay. But some of the information isn't very accessible."
Wil looked around Della's cabin-command bridge? It was even smaller than Tammy's quarters, and almost as stark. A small cluster of roses grew from Della's desk; their scent filled the air. A watercolor landscape hung on the wall facing the spacer. The life tones and shadows were subtly wrong, as if the artist were clumsy... or the scene not of this Earth.
And Brierson was putting his life in this person's hands. In this universe of strangers, he must trust some more than others, but... "How old are you, Della?"
"I've lived nine thousand years, Mr. Brierson. I have been away... a long time. I have seen much." Her dark eyes took on that cold, far look he remembered from their first encounters. For a moment, she looked past him, perhaps at the watercolor, perhaps beyond. Then the expressionless gaze returned to his face. "1 think it's time I rejoined the human race."
FIVE
Some fifty thousand years later, all that was left of the only world empire in history, the Peace Authority, returned to normal time. They were welcomed by Korolev autons, and discouraged from interfering with the bobbles on the south side of the Inland Sea. They had three months to consider their new circumstances before those bobbles burst.
What Marta and Yel‚n had worked so long for was ready to begin.
Thousands of tonnes of equipment were given to the low-techs, along with farms, factories, mines. The gifts were to individuals, supposedly based on their expertise back in civilization. The Dasgupta brothers received two vanloads of communication equipment. To Wil's amazement, they immediately traded the gear to an NM signal officer-for a thousand-hectare farm. And Korolev didn't object. She did point out which equipment was likely to fail first, and provide databases to those who wanted to plan for the future.
Many of the ungoverned low-techs loved it: survival with profit. Within weeks they had a thousand schemes for combining high-tech equipment with primitive production lines. Both would coexist for decades, with the failing high-tech restricted to a smaller and smaller role. In the end there would be a viable infrastructure.
The governments were not so pleased. Both Peacers and NMs were heavily armed, but as long as Korolev stood guard over the Inland Sea, all that twenty-first-century might was about as persuasive as the brass cannon on a courthouse lawn. Both had had time to understand the situation. They watched each other carefully, and united in their complaints against Korolev and the other high-techs. Their propaganda noted how carefully the high-techs coordinated the giveaway, how restricted it really was: no weapons were given, no bobbler technology, no aircraft, no autons, no medical equipment. "Korolev gives the illusion of freedom, not the reality."