But the children of the Rams and Noxons grew, and became whatever they would become, and in the course of the generations, their genes became mixed with the rest of the population, and their stories and ideas became part of the lore of every culture that arose. Among the mice as well, the memory of Father Starpilot and Father Timeshaper were preserved. And it was hard to guess which would have more influence in shaping the future, the stories or the genes.
Chapter 30
Dispositions
Rigg sat with Ram Odin in the control room of the Vadeshfold starship, along with several hundred mice, and confessed his own ambivalence. “I’ve watched the log of dozens of myself fighting with these inhuman Destroyers, and I want them to come again, and this time find all the computers of Garden closed shut against them. Let them come to ground here and find every wallfold armed and ready to fight. They can be beaten.”
“By a timeshaper with a facemask, who can duplicate himself until he vastly outnumbers a single Destroyer,” said Ram Odin. “What wallfold can match that?”
“At least, if they can’t turn the weapons in the orbiters against us, we have a chance.”
“Yes,” said Ram Odin. “What that lost version of you and Param discovered has tipped a balance. Perhaps it even tipped it enough. Perhaps the solution of our problem was in our own hands after all. And I’m relieved to know that our enemy is not the humans of Earth.”
“But what can we think, except that the Destroyers massacred the humans of our ancient homeland before they ever came here?” said Rigg. “That’s why I have to hope that Noxon will succeed in stopping them there, saving humanity on Earth. But then they’ll never come here at all, and we will never find out whether this reprogramming of the computers did the job. Whether we were able to defend against them.”
“I can live with not knowing that,” said Ram Odin. “If it means the Destroyers never come. So many lives will be saved that way. So if I had a choice, I would choose Noxon’s success over having a chance to see whether our brilliant musine friends have done the job here well enough.”
Rigg heard the mice as Ram Odin could not. “Of course we did the job.”
“They’re bragging,” said Rigg. “But I’m afraid that they’ve done a great deal more than build a wall that the Destroyers can’t penetrate.”
“What could we possibly do?” asked a mouse. “Why are you so suspicious?”
“For instance,” said Rigg, “what if they are the ones in command of all the starships now, instead of you or me?”
Ram Odin shrugged. “Then maybe the world bows to a hybrid conqueror, half man, half mouse.”
“We have no such ambition,” said a mouse. The others echoed the assurance.
“They’re all innocent of plots and schemes,” said Rigg.
“The innocent and the guilty all say the same thing, with equal fervor,” said Ram Odin. “Can your facemask tell the difference?”
“Not really,” said Rigg. “They’re always lying, always concealing something. But since everything they say is deceptive, it’s impossible to tell whether the exact words they’re saying right now are a direct lie, or a truth that conceals a deeper lie.”
“Very subtle,” said Ram Odin.
“I can’t very well feel morally superior to them,” said Rigg. “If they weren’t listening to all our conversations, we’d lie to them, too, or at least hold back our plans. They may have human genes and, collectively, intelligence to match our own—”
“Surpass it, you mean,” said a mouse.
“By about ten thousand times,” said another.
“They’re quite vain,” said Rigg, “and they grossly overestimate their own mental prowess, but that only proves how much they resemble humankind. What they won’t do, even if they take over the computers somehow, is use that power to destroy all life on Garden. If we have to choose between a tyranny of rodents and the utter destruction of our species, I’ll hold my nose and take the rodents.”
“You smell worse than we do,” said a mouse.
“I bet they’re telling you how much worse we smell,” said Ram Odin.
“See?” said Rigg. “They’re not as subtle as they think.”
“How will we know if Noxon succeeds?” asked Ram Odin.
“In all our planning, we never got that far,” said Rigg. “It was hard enough to think of a way to get him to Earth and after that, he had to figure out how to stop the humans there from destroying us. We had no idea that he’d have to stop an alien invasion. If he succeeds, he may have to do it in some way that prevents him from ever coming back here. He may be stuck on the aliens’ home world.”
“What if Noxon comes in exactly the way that the Destroyers have always come?” asked Ram Odin. “What if our new defenses kill him before he can tell us of his success?”
“Our defenses don’t kill anybody,” said a mouse.
“We’re blocking out their computer commands, not blowing up their ships,” said another.
“Though we could work on that.”
“Don’t,” said Rigg. “Please. Let’s wait and see if what you’ve already done is enough.”
“If Noxon can come back,” said Ram Odin, “he’s bound to be as smart as you. He’ll think of the danger. He won’t return at the time the Destroyers always came.”
“He might have the use of a starship. The backward copy of the original. If he can turn it forward, he might make another voyage, another jump through the fold.”
Ram sighed. “And that means he might return eleven thousand years ago, with nineteen copies. Maybe we should be checking the past to see if he’s succeeded, instead of looking toward the future.”
“If he returns in the past, he can slice his way forward. Or jump. Who knows how precise he’s learned to be? He and Param accomplished a lot together before he left.”
Ram Odin rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. “I’m tired. Since Noxon could return at any time in the existence of Garden, I don’t think it will hurt anything if I nap now.”
“We should actually leave some open time here on the bridge,” said Rigg, “so that if we have to come back and tell the mice that they need to do more, there’ll be an open space for us to return to.”
“Yes, Rigg, you can have a nap, too, if you want,” said Ram Odin. “You don’t have to come up with theories in order to justify your need for sleep.”
“Good, they’re leaving,” said a mouse. “We can take over the world now.”
“The mice are trying to see how gullible we are,” said Rigg.
“We’re as gullible as they need us to be,” said Ram Odin. “Once they take over the ships, they control all our information. How can we possibly check them? So let’s go to sleep and then decide whether to bounce into the future to see if we’ve succeeded.”
The door opened as Ram Odin approached it. Vadeshex was standing on the other side. “Oh, you’ve already heard?” asked Vadeshex.
“Heard what?” asked Ram Odin.
The mice swarmed through the door. “Stop that!” said Rigg. “When you do that we end up stepping on some of you.”
“We don’t mind,” said a mouse.
“Much,” said another.
“Well we mind,” said Rigg. “It’s sickening to feel your little bodies crunch under our shoes. Especially since the one we step on might have been conversing with us a moment before.”