"Only they’re trying to do something about it," Phoenix said.
"Yes, well, they’re obviously concerned about maintaining their temporal integrity," said Darkness.
"At our expense," said Phoenix.
"I can hardly blame them," Darkness said. "Clearly they’re ahead of us in one respect. They’ve managed to pinpoint at least one confluence and use it to cross over into our timeline. If my supposition is correct, and the confluence point can be located by inertial surge …" He snapped his fingers. "Of course! That’s what they’re doing! "
"What""
"The two timelines are dissimilar enough to cause instability in the temporal flow," said Darkness, "but the Fate Factor enters in at points of confluence and attempts to compensate, only since the timelines are not dissimilar enough to set up a crosscurrent effect that would manifest itself in discontinuities, the result is a surge in the inertial flow! We have instability due to the proximity of the two timelines, yet a stronger inertial flow at points of confluence. The greater the number of confluence points, the stronger the inertial flow. Eventually this magnified temporal inertia would have to overcome the instability, and the two timelines would merge into one!"
"You mean sort of like a timestream split in reverse"" said Phoenix, frowning.
"Not bad," said Darkness. "That’s a very good way of putting it. Sometimes I underestimate you. You may be a little slow, but you do learn."
"Thanks," said Phoenix wryly."Butwhat does it all mean""
Darkness shook his head. "I see I spoke too soon. Very well, let me put it to you this way: you’re faced with a situation in which you are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. On the one hand you have temporal instability caused by chronophysical mis-alignment, bringing two separate timelines too close together and causing them to intersect as a result of the interaction of their temporal fields."
"The confluence effect."
"Exactly. On the other hand this confluence effect causes a surge in temporal inertia at the confluence points,* which affects both timelines simultaneously, increasing the confluence phenomenon."
"And if it keeps happening, you’d wind up with a single merged timeline," Phoenix said. "So in order to prevent that, you have to do something to reduce or eliminate the confluence effect."
"Correct. And""
"And … and if the confluence effect is a result of the Fate Factor trying to compensate for temporal instability … you try to reduce the confluence effect by increasing the instability""
"Bravo. We’ll make a temporal physicist of you yet."
"But … that’s crazy!" Phoenix said. "The more you increase temporal instability, the greater the chance of bringing about a timestream split!"
"Ah, but in which timeline""
"The one with the greater instability""
"Pouryourself another drink, lad. You’ve just hit the nail right on the head. A timestream split would be almost certain to overcome the confluence effect, and it could result in changing the chronophysical alignment between the two timelines, forcing them apart, in a manner of speaking. But that’s only in theory. And it’s only one possibility."
"What are the other possibilities""
"Theoretically it could also result in three timelines experiencing points of confluence with an exponential increase in the instability factor. Then the same thing would begin all over again, only you’d have three timelines trying to achieve stability by merging into one. And in order to prevent that, you’d have to increase the instability again to a point where it would overwhelm the compensating influence of the Fate Factor, and you could wind up with yet another timestream split, resulting in four timelines, and so on ad infinitum. You’d be trapped in a situation where you’d have passed a point of no return and the only way to make it better, for the short term, would be to keep on making it worse. "
"Jesus. Where would it all end""
"You’ve got me. What’s the absolute opposite of entropy""
"I don’t know. WhaW’
"I don’t know either. Could be the Big Bang all over again."
"So what the hell do we do"
"Dr. Darkness does not, alas, know everything," the scientist said, sighing heavily. "I must admit to a certain morbid fascination with all this. What an incredible opportunity for research. This could enable us to quantify
Zen physics. We could be in a position to actually observe-"
"Doc!""
"What" Oh, sorry. You must forgive my enthusiasm. occupational hazard. I’ll try to keep a lid on it."
"So what’s the answer""
"What’s the question""
"Whatdo we do we about this mess""
"Stall."
"What do you mean, stall" How""
"Well, since no clear-cut solution seems to present itself, the most we can do under the circumstances is to maintain the status quo as long as possible," said Darkness. "The people from the alternate timeline are obviously attempting to hit us with a massive temporal first strike, trying to cause a significant historical disruption that might lead to a timestream split in our own timeline. We must not only prevent that, we must strike back at them in the same way. They interfere with our history, we interfere with theirs; each of us tries to adjust for the disruptions and maintain the instability as long as possible while trying to preserve a reasonable amount of temporal integrity on both sides."
Phoenix stared at him, slackjawed. "Are you serious"
"I’m very serious. It doesn’t solve the problem, admittedly, but it might keep it from getting worse. And it does have the added benefit of giving everyone a com-mon enemy. No more temporal conflicts between nations. Everyone will be too busy fighting against the other timeline. It could have considerable domestic advantages. Now we’ll really have a Time War on our hands."
"And just how long do we keep this up"" said Phoenix.
Darkness shrugged.
"Christ. I think I need another drink."
Chapter 9
They were taken to a large chamber in the temple and locked inside. The massive wooden door was thick, bolted, and reinforced with iron. There were no windows in the chamber, but light filtered in from the top of a short flight of stairs. There were two large, thick pillars in the center of the room, supporting the ceiling. The walls were mortared stone. Learoyd, Ortheris, and Mulvaney had already been brought there, but they were still unconscious. Gunga Din climbed the flight of stairs, and a moment later they heard him call out. They followed him up the stairs.
The stairs ended on a parapet built out of the side of a mountain cliff. Below them was an abyss, a sheer drop to the bottom of the Khyber Pass.
"It’s a long way down," said Finn.
"Looks like we’re stuck," said Andre.
"Sahib Finn, how we come here" Who are these people" "
I don’t know how to tell you, Din," said Finn.
"Theyare demons!"
"No, Din, they’re not demons. Just … powerful fakirs."He shrugged. How else could he explain it"
"Theywill kill us, yes"" Din said.
"Idon’t know."
— Soldier sahibs dead."
"No, they’re not dead, Din. Drugged. They’ll be waking up before too long."
"Thisplace … Kali worship," Din said. "These men serve Kali. Thugee. Kill us all."
— We’re not dead yet. Go keep an eye on Mulvaney and the others. They should be coming ‘round soon. "
Shaking his head in despair, Din shuffled back down the stairs.
"Finn, look!" said Andre.
She pointed down into the pass. Far below them two men appeared out of the mist, rising up toward them rapidly on jet-paks. They entered the temple through another chamber cut into the side of the cliff below them.