“Are we waiting for anyone else?” asked Ram Odin.
“Just Noxon and Deborah Wheaton,” said Vadeshex. “And here they are.”
Noxon came into the room, accompanied by a girl who wore a thick band across her eyes. It was obvious by the way she moved that she wasn’t blind at all.
“Hi,” said Noxon. “We did it. Or, well, another copy of me did it, along with Ram Odin and her father, Professor Wheaton.”
“How?” asked Param. “What did they do?”
“Deborah and I saw them off in the starship. They left a couple of hundred thousand years before the aliens came, and when we hopped back to that time, the aliens didn’t come after all, so I assume they succeeded. I have no idea how.”
“She’s not really blind,” said Loaf.
“She has no eyes,” said Noxon.
Deborah tapped the band over her eyes. “It’s a machine,” she said. “Not as advanced as their visual units.” She indicated Vadeshex and Ramex.
“We waited until the Visitors came back from Garden,” said Rigg. “In the original version of history, the Destroyers had already wiped out human life on Earth before they got home. We sliced our way a few dozen years, just to be sure the Destroyers never came.”
“The expedition you call ‘the Visitors’ gave a very favorable report,” said Deborah. “They recommended that this world be left completely alone to go on developing without interference.”
“And the government made that official policy,” said Noxon. “Doesn’t mean it’ll stay the policy, but it’s a good sign. They stuck with it for a dozen years or so. Then we popped back, got on the Visitors’ outbound ship, and sliced our way through their whole voyage.”
“They never knew you were on the ship?” asked Umbo.
Noxon gave him a withering look. “Give me credit,” he said.
Umbo grinned. “We may call you Noxon, but you’re still Rigg.”
“I’m not sure how to take that,” said Rigg.
“It’s pure flattery to both of us,” said Noxon. “You should all know that I didn’t plan on coming back here. If I hadn’t accidently duplicated myself, I would have ended up with the backward Ram Odin out at the alien world. Presumably they’re colonizing the place now. But as long as this copy of me existed, I thought I might as well come home.”
“With a friend,” said Param.
“You can never have too many friends,” said Noxon.
But the way Deborah threaded an arm around his waist made it clear enough that this wasn’t an ordinary friendship.
“My job is over,” said Noxon, “but I realize you’re still caught up in the war against Haddamander and Hagia. I don’t want to distract you.”
“We no longer have such a tight deadline to work with,” said Olivenko. “Since the world isn’t ending a couple of years from now.”
“The ship told me that you already knew the Destroyers were aliens,” said Noxon. “Rigg and Param got bounced past the Destruction and had some kind of fight, yes? I’ve never actually seen one of them. Do you have it recorded?”
“Rigg makes us watch it twice a day,” said Ram Odin.
Rigg shook his head a little.
Noxon grinned. “Well, I want to see you whip them.”
“I only fought one, and it took more than twenty of me to bring him down,” said Rigg. “And it wasn’t actually me. The ones who did the fighting left the knife and the ship’s logs with Umbo, and he stopped us from getting into the fight. So all I know of it is what the ship’s log recorded.”
“Nice to know you had it in you though, isn’t it?” asked Noxon.
“You’re the one who saved the world.”
“Well, as I said, that wasn’t me, either. You and I are just copies of the heroes.”
“Good enough for me,” said Umbo.
“Only now both of us are back here,” said Noxon. “So we still have to try to keep out of each other’s way.”
Rigg shook his head. “Square taught me how to get the facemask to give me a new face. Turns out we have a lot more control over our appearance than we knew.”
“That’s right,” said Noxon. “You look like me now. I mean, the way we were. Originally. I didn’t even realize it because that’s how I’m supposed to look. Can you get my mask to do that?”
“Why?” asked Rigg. “With you butt ugly like that, people can tell us apart really easily.”
“And who is Square?” asked Noxon.
Leaky sighed a little.
“All will be explained in due time,” said Ram Odin. “But I think it’s clear now that you’ve saved the world, we have a war to fight, and your—friend? Wife?—wants a facemask.”
“I want it even more now,” said Deborah. “I won’t have to be as ugly as Noxon after all.”
“You can be whatever you want,” said Square.
“If you can control the facemask,” said Param. “Not everybody can.”
Ram Odin once again tried to take control. “Please. We’ve all seen each other, we know pretty much what happened, and we can get the details in the days and weeks to come. Let’s let Noxon and Deborah do what they came here to do, and the rest of us should get back to our responsibilities.”
“How did it work out with the mice and the computers?” asked Umbo.
“As far as we know,” said Rigg, “the mice now rule the world.”
“I’m so relieved,” said Umbo. “You and Ram Odin were doing kind of a lousy job of it.”
“Well, now you get to be king,” said Rigg.
“Just a figurehead,” said Umbo.
Param took his hand. “He keeps saying that, but when I try to give him responsibilities he refuses.”
“I don’t want to be in charge of anything,” said Umbo. “I just want to be able to complain about it.”
“He works hard,” said Param, “and he does a good job.”
“But Square and his maskers do all the heavy fighting,” said Umbo. “We’re still trying to figure out how to end the war, now that it’s obvious their armies can’t stand against us and the people want to be rid of them.”
“You’ll think of something,” said Noxon.
“This is what power looks like?” said Deborah. “The people in charge of a war. You’re the Queen-in-the-Tent?”
Param smiled. “Pretty hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“No, you’re very royal,” said Deborah. “But you also look younger than me.”
“They’re children,” said Loaf. “Brats with way too much power. Now that the world isn’t going to end, we’re going to have to put up with a lot of nonsense till they grow up.”
“Come on,” said Noxon. “If we don’t go now and get your facemask, they’ll keep you here for hours with their blathering.”
Deborah grinned at them all and let Noxon lead her out of the room. Vadeshex followed immediately. The rest of them stood there looking at each other.
“I was in the middle of a nice nap,” said Rigg.
“Mine wasn’t all that nice,” said Ram Odin. “I kept seeing Vadeshex popping a bleeding mouse corpse into his mouth.”
“Thanks for putting that image in my mind,” said Param.
“Anything for the Queen-in-the-Tent,” said Ram Odin. He left the room.
“Want me to take you all back to Ramfold?” asked Ramex. “Or somewhere else?”
“The enclave will do,” said Loaf. “Leaky has to serve dinner and I’ve got trainees to supervise.”
“I thought they were all trained,” said Umbo.
“He means my people,” said Square. “We’ve got some new recruits who just got control of their masks.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Umbo. “Are we going to go ahead and just get rid of Hagia and Haddamander now?”