Of course, it wasn’t that simple. There were the needs of research as well. This was brought up the following day, when he settled down to map out the schedule with his closest advisers.
‘Every single one?’ they asked. ‘There must be millions of them.’
‘It will be spread over a period of years. I agreed to send them; I did not agree to a timetable. We get rid of them, at any rate, and subsequent developments can be kept pure of social infections. In due course proper colonists will arrive and they will need labour. Has there been any work on which period is best suited for colonisation?’
‘As you know, sir, the greater the distance, the greater the amount of power needed.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Ideally we would send people to an epoch when there are no human settlements, but that would require huge amounts of power and they would arrive with nothing. If we could commandeer existing infrastructure and send them less far, then we could keep costs down dramatically.’
‘I thought that was ruled out because of the difficulties of dealing with the indigenous population. I remember talking to Grange about it.’
‘Yes, sir, but that was when the plan was to invade and conquer, then use the indigenous population as slave labour. Hanslip sketched out an alternative which makes this notion more viable. He was toying with the idea that the cheapest approach would be to encourage the native population to kill themselves by exploding a bomb at a period of heightened tension during the nuclear age. Each side would blame the other, and the subsequent war would do most of the work for us; if need be we could unleash biological weapons on any survivors. When the world is clean and empty, we can begin transporting the settlers. It would mean moving people only a couple of hundred years, and despite the damage there would be substantial infrastructure still available. It is a highly imaginative solution, and very cost-effective. The added virtue of the plan is that we could begin almost immediately.’
‘What period?’
‘The memorandum pinpointed the most vulnerable moments, running from 1962 to 2024. We will use one of them.’
‘No moral objections from anyone? I don’t want to be hauled in front of some ethics committee.’
‘There can be no moral obligation to people who are both long dead and, as far as we are concerned, do not exist. We have tested that hypothesis thoroughly.’
‘No safety issues? For us, I mean.’
‘No. Again, the panel of physicists has reviewed the matter and finds no problems. They dismissed Angela Meerson’s theories as absurd.’
‘Then I suggest you start the preparations. The sooner we see if this thing works, the better.’
‘There is one other thing. We only got the vote from the physicists by promising one of them that we would conduct experiments into future transportation. He is preparing a paper based on some of the captured material and wants to ensure that we can send people forwards, as well as back. We’ll need to do something to keep him happy, and we will have to explore this in due course anyway to maintain proper communication between worlds.’
‘I do hate these people,’ Oldmanter said. ‘Still, give him what he wants. And I think it would be best to terminate Dr Hanslip. It occurs to me that if we send him with the renegades, he may have sufficient knowledge to re-create the machine eventually. If I am going to spend a fortune to get rid of them, I don’t want them turning up again in a few generations.’
60
Pamarchon walked hand in hand with Rosalind on his way to the meeting hall, neither saying much for some time, and both merely content that the other was there.
‘Better than I could have hoped for,’ she said. ‘One might even say it is a miracle.’
He took his hand away from hers and looked at her with a worried expression.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘It is a miracle. So how can I ask you to be my wife now?’
‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘I have seen who you are. How could I presume to ask for your hand now?’
‘Oh, stuff and nonsense, Pamarchon, son of whoever. Stuff and nonsense. Don’t you dare talk to me like that,’ Rosalind replied in alarm. ‘Listen, I will tell you once, and once only. There is nothing magical about me. There is nothing even particularly special or beautiful about me either, unless you choose to see me like that.’ She paused. ‘You can, you know,’ she hinted. ‘If you want to.’
‘But back there...?’
‘It’s a long story, and a strange one. I know it seems very unlikely and everything. That’s just because you don’t know the whole story, you see? Everybody only knows a bit of it. So they think there must be something incredibly meaningful about it. Why, Henary thought the world was going to end.’
‘Esilio, though...’
‘Ah, yes. He’s a bit difficult to explain. But I’ll tell you one thing. He had no more idea of who killed your uncle than anyone else. All he did was sit there and get everyone else to do the work for him. He didn’t figure out how or why Jaqui killed your uncle; Henary did. He hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on. Not a clue. He was very good at hiding it, but then he is a professor.’
‘Everyone saw his apparition.’
‘True. He popped up out of nowhere. But then, so did I, and there’s nothing strange about me. I’ve been trying to tell everyone this for ages. If it’s any help, I don’t understand it either, but there we are. I’m here, I’m real and I have already agreed to marry you, and I expect you to keep your side of the bargain. As you get to know me a little better, you will see how ordinary I really am.’
‘You will never be that.’
‘That’s sweet, but you haven’t responded.’
‘Were it possible to want you even more than I already did, then I do. Of course I do.’
‘A subjunctive! Well done. That’s settled then.’
It was a diversion, that last remark, as she didn’t want him to see the tears of relief and happiness welling up in her eyes. She disguised her feelings by hurling herself at him and wrapping her arms tightly round his neck. They stood there for some time, until he finally pulled away.
‘I have work to do,’ he said.
‘I’d better get back to the Shrine. I promised.’
‘Do you want company?’
‘It’ll be fine. You go to this assembly thing.’
He watched until she had disappeared down the track to the Shrine, then continued on his way. He had only taken a few paces before he saw Lady Catherine.
‘I owe you an apology, it seems,’ Pamarchon said as he approached.
‘Less than the one I owe you.’
‘Then let us both accept the other’s regret, and settle this last matter swiftly.’
They walked together for a while before Pamarchon said, ‘I was told to say something to you. I do not know what it means.’
‘Then speak.’
‘He told me to say that your secret must be paid for. What does he mean?’
‘He means that I should renounce Willdon and acknowledge you,’ Catherine replied quietly.
‘Why?’
‘Thenald had discovered that I was not a woman of great family. I was, and am, a fraud and he was about to put me aside in disgrace. That is my secret, the one Henary should have revealed in his defence of you. It is why Esilio spared him the task.’
‘You are an imposter?’
‘Yes. Now you know it, I could not oppose you even if I chose to do so. I will withdraw. I ask only that you preserve my secret as he did, for kindness’ sake.’
‘I do not think that was the price he had in mind,’ Pamarchon said. ‘Why, otherwise, did he make Gontal speak? He wasn’t protecting Henary alone, but you as well. I believe his meaning is different. He wants you to remain as Lord of Willdon.’