The Stolen Future Box Set

by Brian K. Lowe

  “Oh, I am sorry,” Tofan Res said. “Did I forget to mention that the Thorans of this era had mastered molecular tele-mutation? It must have slipped my mind.” He waved a negligent hand. “Probably because it’s such an elementary technology. I mean, they use it to serve dinner.”

  Maire gathered her wits. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve never seen that technology outside of a laboratory. And even then, it wasn’t telepathically implemented.”

  The dark woman had left her place and glided silently to a spot halfway between Tofan Res and me, her head tilted as though something were puzzling her.

  Tofan Res gave a small smile. “I assure you it will work for you just as well. Perhaps you are hungry?”

  One of the things I have always admired about my wife is that she has the soldierly ability to eat and sleep when necessary, even in stressful situations, because you never know when you might have another opportunity. She sat back in her chair, took a calming breath, and almost before she let it out a plate and cup had materialized before her. She drew in another breath in obvious pleasure.

  “And you, Mr. Clee?”

  It appeared that I would go hungry. I had already attempted to conjure a Kansas City steak with fried potatoes and a green salad—but nothing happened. From the look on his face, Tofan Res was not surprised; in fact, I fancy he had expected as much. Meanwhile, his companion had drifted to a point directly behind my chair.

  “Fascinating,” Tofan Res said. “I knew, of course, of the telepathic block imposed by the difference in our brain structures, but I wasn’t sure how far it extended. I’ve been having to teach my recruits how to communicate telepathically, but given your advanced skills, I thought perhaps the block would grow correspondingly more permeable over time. Apparently it does not.”

  “Perhaps I would be less of a disappointing guest were the young lady to introduce herself properly, instead of hovering behind me,” I said, twisting in my seat. Her eyes went wide and she took a step back.

  “You can see her?” Tofan Res demanded.

  “Keryl, who are you talking about?” Maire asked. “What woman?”

  “Fascinating,” Tofan Res said again, but I was not listening to either of them; I was frankly glaring at the young woman behind me, who retreated further from my anger until she stood next to our host.

  “You might as well come out now, my dear,” he said. “Apparently there’s no point in you trying to hide anymore.”

  I did not see any change in her, but Maire gasped.

  Tofan Res turned to us. “May I introduce Vanu Amaranaturada. She commonly goes by the name Vanu’A, and she is from the 411th century.” He smiled like a father taking pride in the accomplishment of his child. “She is, as far as I can determine, the most advanced telepath the human race has ever produced.”

  I did not need any telepathy of my own to know from the look on her face that she already hated me—because she could not read a thought in my head.

  “In case you’re wondering why your wife is staring like that, it’s because up until a few moments ago, she had no idea Vanu’A was there.” I shot a quick glance at Maire, who was transfixed, and turned my gaze to Tofan Res, who was still regarding Vanu’A possessively. “It’s called projective telepathy, making people think what you want them to think—in this case, making them think she isn’t there. It’s a very rare talent, even in the 411th century, when telepathic skills were being developed to an unmatched degree. I’m lucky to have her.”

  “An invisible bodyguard,” I replied.

  Tofan Res frowned slightly. “Why would you say that? I asked Vanu’A here to observe you, that’s all.”

  I actually relaxed a bit, because I had him on the ropes, and he knew it.

  “Come now, doctor. I have had bodyguards. I have been a bodyguard. The lady could have ‘observed’ us just as well sitting at the table with us. We would have no way to know she was a telepath unless you told us. You wanted her to be invisible because you wanted to keep a card up your sleeve in case one of us tried to attack you.”

  “Then how fortunate for all of us that you didn’t. Vanu’A knows what her opponents are going to do before they do.” He tapped the side of his head with a finger.

  “Then it is fortunate for her,” I said. I was realizing that this woman’s dislike for me was mutual. “The last person who tried to read my mind died of a telepathic virus.”

  Vanu’A hissed and literally jumped backward.

  Tofan Res blinked. “I… see.” He speared something green with a two-tined fork while he tried to regain his composure. “You’re probably wondering why I brought you here.” I wondered if he knew he sounded like a villain in a Hollywood melodrama, but I was reluctant to interrupt. “It has to do with my ‘recruits.’“ He pointed his fork in my direction. “By the way, I didn’t appreciate losing them like that. I won’t violate my duty as your host by berating you, but you cost me a good deal.”

  “You will forgive me if I do not apologize. You will also forgive me if I point out that you are violating your duties as a host by eating before your guests have been served.”

  “Keryl,” Maire put in, “if you’re thinking of something you would have enjoyed back home, maybe you should try something more contemporary. Maybe the computer just didn’t understand your order.”

  Tofan Res tilted his head to one side thoughtfully while I admired Maire’s perceptiveness. We had only been married a short time and she already understood me better than I knew—and without being able to read my thoughts in the slightest. I envisioned a meal we had eaten in Crystalle, one of the dinners I enjoyed the most because it was just the two of us and she had sent the servants away. A moment later, the twin of that meal sat arrayed before me.

  It was the doctor’s turn to stare, only this time it was at Maire, with undisguised respect.

  “Interesting! I have to admit that I was somewhat hazy on the principles involved myself, but plainly it operates on prospective, rather than receptive, commands. Thank you, my lady. This will help me push my people to their best efforts.”

  And now he had given us something: Whenever we were, Tofan Res was no more native to this time than we. This technology was still strange to him. I decided to pursue this course and see how much Tofan Res was willing to give up.

  “So, doctor, now that we are all sharing a meal, perhaps you would be good enough to tell us where we are, and why? You obviously went to a great deal of trouble to get us here.”

  “Straight to business, then. If you wish. I had planned to wait until dessert, but there’s no need. You’ve already guessed that I brought you back in time. And you can tell, from my Thoran friends and their weaponry and their technology, that you’ve come back quite a few years.”

  “I’m guessing we’re in the height of one of the Thoran civilizations,” Maire said. “I know there have been many, but judging from skin color and physical development, as well as the familiar dishes in my meal, I would say… a thousand years?”

  Tofan Res turned his attention to me, but I merely shrugged. He looked again at Maire.

  “An intriguing guess. But as you say, the foods we’re eating are quite familiar to you. Do you really think these dishes are a thousand years old?”

  “I wouldn’t, except that you have to allow for the decline of Thoran civilization between now and the Nuum return, which was three hundred years ago, to my thinking. So yes, I’d guess a thousand years or so.”

  “Interesting…” he said again. “But quite wrong. I brought you back 315 years.”

  Maire frowned. “That’s impossible. The Thorans had nothing like this technology when we got here. They had lost it all. They hardly remembered it.”

  “Actually, my lady, this is exactly how the Thorans lived before the Nuum arrived. They were strong, inquisitive, and highly advanced. And that was the civilization that your people destroyed.”

  Chapter 22

  I Ask a Favor

  Maire was on her feet. “You l
iar! Did you think if you brought us here, and fed us dinner, that we’d buy whatever you were selling? When we came here the Thorans practically begged us to help them! Without us, they wouldn’t have survived this long!”

  It seems odd in retrospect, but I honestly cannot say if I was more shocked at that moment by Dr. Res’s pronouncement or Maire’s incredibly bad manners, although I should have realized how the disputation of everything upon she had ever based her life would shatter the ground beneath her feet. Maire was the most pro-Thoran Nuum I had ever met—due probably to her mother being Thoran. She had wholeheartedly supported her Thoran former slaves manning The Dark Lady, for example (after I gave it back to her), and even though she had once held them as slaves, their status had been a punishment, not a lifestyle, and the conditions in which she kept them had been relatively benign and sanitary.

  But at that moment, with my host’s sustenance warming my inner man, I felt acute embarrassment at the way she was conducting herself, which no doubt explains why I was at a loss to support her in her rage. On the other hand, my twentieth-century chauvinism notwithstanding, she was quite capable of expressing herself without my help.

  Dr. Res seemed completely unfazed by her outburst. Of course, he had been expecting some such reaction.

  “Protest all you like, my lady, but it won’t change anything. Ask any of my men. In fact, ask them anything you want. They are Thoran, and this is their planet. For now. Your people will be landing in less than three years, and there will be a short, vicious war. We will lose.”

  “We?” Maire repeated. “You’re not Thoran. You’re Nuum.”

  Tofan Res allowed himself a small smile, and I knew from his smile that this, too, he had anticipated.

  “No, I’m not. In fact, I’m no more Nuum than your husband, and no more Thoran than he, either. I was born 314,000 years ago, and although Keryl has traveled further than I have, I’ve traveled more extensively.”

  Now it was my turn to stare. I knew there were those who regularly traversed time, such as Zachary Kyle and his Time Police comrades, but I had never discussed it with anyone before. Honestly, the only discussions I had ever had regarding time travel seemed to concern how dangerous it was, and more often than not, how I might be prevented from doing it again, usually by inflicting some significant, if not fatal, damage. Regardless of my sudden interest in Dr. Res’s history, however, Maire was not to be sidetracked.

  “That’s a generous offer, doctor, but I’m a politician. I don’t believe anybody.” She stopped to glance at me. “With very few exceptions. I don’t know where we are, and I’ll grant you I don’t know when we are, but I’m not going to take your word, or any of your servants’.”

  Dr. Res stared down at his plate for a moment. “Then we seem to be at an impasse, because I need him to believe me.” He looked up at me. “I have a very important favor to ask you, Mr. Clee, and I am not exaggerating when I say our entire future rests upon it.”

  There were so many conflicting thoughts and questions swirling around my mind at that moment I had no idea how to respond. We had gone searching for evidence of time experiments, and I was quite convinced we had found some. The nature of time traveling was unexplainable to the uninitiated; it was both felt and not felt. It was definitely an experience, although there was no experiential data; but once you had gone through it, you knew it. And we had done it. Whenever we were now, I was certain it was not the same day as when we found the ruins.

  “Oddly enough, doctor, I have a very important favor to ask of you as well—and I was going to claim the same stakes.”

  Tofan Res sat back in his chair, steepling his fingers before his face. “I wouldn’t have thought you were in a position to ask for favors, Mr. Clee.”

  As he retreated, I advanced, leaning over the table. “You would think differently if you knew why Maire and I were here.”

  “I thought it was because my allies in the navy held you at gunpoint until I could activate the time-transmitter,” he replied with some amusement. “Was I wrong?”

  “We are here because we were looking for you,” I said. “We were looking for the source of the time travel experiments that our Chronologic Institute says are straining the space-time continuum. We came here to stop you before it’s too late. We need you to stop what you are doing, Dr. Res, or the entire world will vanish.”

  Tofan Res blew out a sigh. “Oh, is that all?” He waved his hand. “I could’ve saved you the trouble. Your Institute’s calculations are wrong. The space-time matrix is far more flexible than they give it credit for.”

  I started to protest, but he cut me off, surging forward with a hitherto unforeseen anger.

  “No! No, Mr. Clee, I am not going to argue with a caveman over four-dimensional physics. I have visited over a dozen eras, consulting with the greatest minds humankind has ever produced, on this very question. I am hardly such a fool as to attempt what I am attempting without researching it first. So now, you will listen, as I ask a favor of you.” Relaxing only a millimeter, he continued: “And do not make the mistake of thinking you will be able to refuse me so easily.”

  “I was planning to fill you in on the background of my plan, because it would help you to understand why I need you, but since you have proven so argumentative, I’m getting rather tired of this conversation. That being the case, let me explain it simply.

  “I am going to overthrow the Nuum government. I have an army waiting for my signal. It was trained here in the past, with Thoran weapons and technology, but I have moved it to your time because by your time the Nuum have gotten sloppy and weak and disorganized. When we attack with superior weapons, not only will the Nuum will be taken by surprise, but the native Thoran population will rise up to support us. I’ve done the research; I know they’re ready. You know it, too.”

  I strove to keep my face impassive, thankful, again, that no one, not even his pet telepath, could read my mind, because on this, at least, he was absolutely correct. Given a spark, even the quiescent Thorans would erupt in revolt.

  “The only problem with my plan was that I can’t lead my army. I am not a military man; I am a scientist.”

  This time my emotions got the better of me. “You want me to lead your army against the Nuum? Because I will not do it.”

  Tofan Res smiled. “That’s funny; really, it is. I know all about your siege of the Council of Nobles in Dure. You had a revolution in your hands. You could’ve brought down the Nuum right there and then.” He shook his head sadly. “You could’ve prevented all of this—but you didn’t. And that’s why I don’t want you to lead my army now.” Holding up a hand to forestall me, he went on: “I already have a general. He’s with the army as we speak—or he will be, at the corresponding moment 315 years from now. You know him. His name is Lord Farren.

  “Once the revolution is over, I want you to kill him.”

  Chapter 23

  Of Gorillas, Goats, and Girls

  Timash

  You could say that Skull and Sanja weren’t talking to each other. Then again, you could also say that falling out of The Dark Lady would be bad for your health. It’s true, but it doesn’t really describe the gravity of the situation.

  This is an especially apt comparison when you consider that the chances of Zachary Kyle actually “falling” out of The Dark Lady were somewhat higher than zero. I wouldn’t bet money that Skull would give him a boost over the side, but then, Skull had done a lot of sketchy things in his life. Just in case, I tried to be around any time they were together. I asked the crew to give me a hand, but not only were they not going to risk antagonizing their captain on my account, when I explained to them what was going on they almost hurt themselves laughing.

  Not that for his part Kyle seemed to understand his danger. Whether Sanja was just using him to get back at Skull, or whether she was genuinely attracted to him, she seemed good at finding ways to spend time around him, and he never found reasons to get away. I’d been around when Skull and Sanja first
started seeing each other, and this was a lot like that, which made me nervous. Skull had his orders, and he knew Kyle was important to Maire and Keryl, but I’ve had friends who were in love before, and when it goes bad, guys have a way of forgetting what they’re supposed to be doing when they see their girl hanging onto some other ape.

  All of which was made worse by the fact that we hadn’t moved in two days. Skull had directed us to a line of mountains at the edge of the desert where we picked up Sanja, gliding between a couple of peaks and then lowering us into a narrow, steep canyon, where we were still sitting. According to Skull, we were waiting for anybody who was looking for us to give up, and that down here, motionless with our beacons and most of our systems down, we would be practically impossible to detect. According to yours truly, it was a great place to be trapped and killed. But like I said, I’m not the captain. I’m just the guy trying to persuade the captain not to leave our most important passenger stranded on a mountaintop.

  I had been staring at that mountaintop for half the morning when Sanja came up next to me. For a wonder, Kyle wasn’t with her.

  “Hey, Timash, you think you could ask Skull when we’re leaving this gods-forsaken rock box? I don’t care what the enviro-systems say, I’m cold.” She shivered a little for emphasis.

  I wanted to point out that there were at least two places on this ship where she could go to warm up, but I didn’t want her to be mad at me, too.

  “Oh look, a goat.” I pointed to where a mountain goat had clambered into view almost at our level. “I wonder what he—crap!” Sanja and I both jumped as a screaming firehawk swooped down on the goat from directly over our heads. It had a wingspan wider than I could stretch my arms and I swear I could see the points on its claws from where we stood, but the goat held its ground, clinging to the rocks like an ant while it brandished its six-pointed antlers. I heard excited voices as the crew caught sight of the duel and rushed to the side of the ship.