Gai had waited a month, then married Jorgan. With Thalvin’s willing permission, of course. But still.
Did she hold him to blame for Ginler’s death? He often thought so. Or maybe it was only that she no longer had time for him. She and Jorgan, right now they were in there, inside that dark tent, and they were making love. Thalvin could see it as clearly as if he were an actual witness. Gai with her close-cut black hair, each strand neatly located, large thick red lips and long narrow pert nose. Her eyes were big and blue and viciously expressive. Her breasts were round and small and hard like those of a young girl. Thalvin wanted her. Thalvin had always wanted her, but since Ginler’s death they hadn’t so much as touched hands. Well, afterward, he thought. Maybe afterward there’ll be time for that. But he knew better. He didn’t believe it. They were finished, a marriage of convenience only. And it was Thalvin’s convenience, too, not hers. It was Thalvin who had no place else to go.
Thalvin gazed at the thickening darkness and thought, It’s about time.
Gai emerged from the tent, pausing in the doorway and saying something over her shoulder. Then, laughing, she came toward Thalvin. Jorgan came after her, moving briskly. Both were dressed and Gai was beautiful. Jorgan looked big and brown and young and handsome. And satisfied, Thalvin thought, and stupid.
The two of them reached Thalvin together.
“Aren’t you coming in?” Gai said. “You have to sleep.”
“I was waiting for you,” Thalvin said.
Jorgan was the one who laughed. He started to speak, then pointed into the darkness. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?” said Thalvin. “You mean the fire over there?”
“Fire?” said Gai. She turned quickly and peered at the small flickering fire that burned about fifty yards from their camp. She wheeled on Thalvin and said, “Damn you. I thought you said we’d be alone.”
“I said there’d be no other hunters.” He too stared at the fire. He shook his head. “That’s not a hunter.”
“Then what is it? A mirage? A monkey trying to keep warm?”
“Close,” he said, smiling. “It’s a native. A man of this time.”
Jorgan was laughing again. “I thought you were an expert, Thalvin. You missed that. There aren’t any men here. They’ve all gone to the stars. Leaving this dying world behind.”
“That,” said Thalvin, “is not true.” He smiled brightly. “It’s an official lie. Man did not escape to the stars. He stayed right here and he rotted. There are maybe a few thousand of us left. We look a lot like apes and have no civilization. We’re very happy and ought to be extinct within a few thousand years.”
“You’re joking,” Jorgan said.
“No, he’s not joking,” said Gai. “I’ve heard about them. Ginler saw them too. He thought it was amusing. All our striving for progress and this was what we’d become. He thought it was funny.”
“They live in the forest mostly,” Thalvin said. “You rarely find them here. They’re loners. You never see more than two together.”
Jorgan turned and looked at the distant fire, then raised his eyes to the stars. Thalvin wanted to go away, but Gai was nodding thoughtfully and muttering. She said, “What are they like?”
“Men with fur. Long arms and big hands.”
“They don’t look human.”
“No, but they are. Apes don’t build fires.”
“Or dead men.”
“What do you mean?” said Thalvin.
“I mean, this is it. Our trophy. We’re going to bag us a man of the future.”
“That’s the same as murder,” Thalvin said.
“Not hanging on the wall it’s not. It’s a dumb ape. Who’s going to know except a few men high on the chain? And they’ll think it’s bold and amusing. I know them. They’ll think it shows class.” She cupped her hands around her lips and shouted into the darkness. “Hey—man of the future. Better watch out. Better start running. We’re coming to get you.”
“Shut up,” Thalvin said, softly.
Gai was laughing now. She grabbed Jorgan and pulled him against her. The two of them danced, twisting around, once, twice. Then they stopped. Gai said, “We’re going to bed now, Thalvin. It won’t leave before morning, will it?”
“I don’t imagine he will. But I won’t permit it. You can’t kill an—”
“Oh, hell,” Gai said. She looked at Jorgan. “Did you hear what the old man said? He won’t permit it. Did you hear that? Come on, let’s go. Dawn, Thalvin.”
“Dawn,” he said.
He waited an hour before following them into the tent. They were lying together, both naked, Jorgan’s head resting lightly on Gai’s shoulder. Thalvin stepped over them and lay down as far from them as he could get
Maybe shell forget, he thought, but knowing better, he rolled over and he slept
* * * *
It wasn’t an easy thing to tell. It was morning. The sky had gone from clear black to dark crimson. The sun was a dull purple orb clinging to the misty sky like a bloodshot eye in a bare rotting skull. The haze was thick and impenetrable like a pool of brown muddy water.
The three of them stood in a loose circle around the remnants of the fire. The man was gone.
Gai said, “You’re going to find him again.”
“I am?”
“You are. You knew he wouldn’t be here. You knew that, and you lied to me. It’s not going to be this easy, Thalvin. You’re going to find him again and Jorgan is going to shoot him.”
Thalvin looked at Jorgan, who appeared less than interested in the subject. As Thalvin continued to stare at him, Jorgan dropped his eyes, then turned abruptly away. He walked to the floater, leaving the two of them alone, husband and wife.
Thalvin said, “He doesn’t want to do it.”
“I don’t care what he wants. I know what I want. You’re going to do what I say.”
“He’s gone home,” Thalvin said. “We might catch him, but I doubt it, even if we left immediately. And we still have to break camp. I’ve seen them move. They’re quicker than rabbits. They have to be in order to survive.”
“Then we’ll follow him home and kill him there.”
Thalvin shook his head.
“Well?”
“Their home is the forest. This one probably made for the woods north of here. It’s like a jungle. You can’t take a floater in there.”
“Then we’ll walk.” She turned away and went back toward the camp. Jorgan emerged from the floater and trotted after her. Thalvin waited a moment, staring at the bleak broken fire, the charred pieces of rotten wood. Then he followed her. He walked slowly, his head down.
* * * *
The forest began abruptly. One moment there was hard flat frozen plain. The next a single tree. Then another tree. Another. And soon nothing but trees, a forest as thick and deep as an ocean.
It had taken them most of the day to reach the woods. They hadn’t seen a sign of the man. If he’d come this way, he’d beaten them home.
Thalvin parked the floater and buried a directional finder, so that they could find their way out again. Then he went over to Gai and Jorgan, who were waiting at the edge of the forest.
He spoke to his wife. “It’s set. Are you ready?”
She nodded. “They better be in here.”
“They are,” he said. Then he looked at Jorgan. “You have the shield?”
Jorgan said he had.
There weren’t any more questions to ask.
Thalvin said, “Well. Let’s go.”
They entered the forest.
They hadn’t gone more than a few hundred feet before progress became nearly impossible, so Thalvin gambled and used his heatgun to burn a trail through the thick underbrush. He had guessed correctly. The wood was wet and cold, and the flames did not spread. He moved forward, walking gingerly over the still burning grass. The others followed him.
By the time the sun had set, plunging them into total and immediate darkness, they had co
me perhaps six miles. Thalvin burned a wide area and waited for the ground to cool.
“We’ll camp here,” he said.
“Why?” Gai asked.
“Because I say so. Because it’s dark and you don’t even have the moon and stars.”
“But we might find one. The other one—we saw it at night.”
“That was out on the plain. It’s different in here. I’m sure they’re all fast and snug asleep by now.”
“Shouldn’t one of us climb a tree? Look for their fires?”
“They won’t have them. There’s no reason for a fire in here. No large animals to frighten away. No meat to roast.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“It’s my job,” Thalvin said. “The future is my job.”
She smiled at him and went over to Jorgan. The two of them sat together talking while Thalvin moved off and began to erect the shield around the burned area.
Before heading for the warmth of the tent, Jorgan and Gai performed their evening rites, both lying prostrate on the ground for fifteen minutes, then standing on their heads for another ten minutes. The last five minutes they spent in a modified fetal posture. Thalvin watched this with a feeling of utter displacement It was part of a new and very popular religion called Amerism. Jorgan had introduced it to Gai, and she had gone into it with body and soul.
While Gai and Jorgan moved their performance to the dark interior of the tent, Thalvin went around and scooped up a handful of stray logs. The air was cold here in the forest, and damp. The shield by itself was unable to provide sufficient insulation to keep him comfortable. Thalvin built a fire with the logs, ignited it with his heatgun, and felt instantly better.
Jorgan came out of the tent and stood for a moment, staring intently into the dark forest. Then he came toward the fire and sat down beside Thalvin.
“How is she?” Thalvin asked.
“She’s fine,” Jorgan said. “Asleep.”
“Good, good,” Thalvin said. He nodded and smiled. This man, this boy, with whom he shared a wife and home was an enigma to him. In four months of marriage, they’d exchanged perhaps three dozen sentences. Thalvin did not like Jorgan, but neither did he know him.
“The other day,” Thalvin said. “Do you remember? When you killed the beast and you removed its tail.”
“I remember,” said Jorgan.
“Gai and I waited for you in the floater and you remained behind. I could see your hands and body moving. Was that part of your Ameristic rites?”
“Yes,” Jorgan said.
“Well—what was it? Can you tell me?”
“I was asking forgiveness,” Jorgan said. “For taking a life.”
“I see. It’s ... wrong?”
“Very wrong. Haven’t you noticed? I never eat meat.”
“No,” Thalvin said. “I’ve never noticed.”
“But it’s true.”
“I’m sure it is. But—Gai eats meat.”
“With her Amerism is a way to reach the top of the chain. Do you see? It’s an exotic cult, very popular at the moment. With me it’s a good deal more. Unfortunately. I could live more easily if it weren’t.”
“And you’re going to kill a man,” Thalvin said.
Jorgan looked at him and his tongue licked at his lips. Then he turned away and put his hands over his eyes. The boy was shivering. It was cold here. But it wasn’t that cold.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Jorgan said.
“You want my advice?”
“Yes.”
“Then look at me.”
Jorgan raised his head and turned. He looked at Thalvin.
“I can’t advise you on religious matters,” Thalvin said.
“That’s not what I need,” Jorgan said, keeping his eyes steady. “What I want to know is this thing. Is it really a man? Gai says it isn’t. She says it’s only an intelligent ape, that it’s a monkey of our time evolved into something more. I can kill an animal. It is forgiven. But a man...”
“It’s a man,” Thalvin said. “I wish I could tell you otherwise. But it’s a man. Evolved from you and me, but in the wrong direction, for reasons we’ll probably never know.”
“A man,” Jorgan said softly. He waited a moment, looking down at his open hands. He was shivering, trembling. He said, “But I have another idea. This time, it isn’t a real time. It’s the future but the future does not truly exist To kill here is not real.”
“I can’t answer that,” Thalvin said. “You’re hardly the first who’s raised that point. It’s the easiest way. I can only tell you this. The timewarp was discovered twenty-five years ago. In that time, this time has not changed. My opinion is only my opinion. But I think this is it. The future. The only future. I think we’re moving toward this no matter what we do. This is it.”
Jorgan nodded thoughtfully and got to his feet He said, “Thank you for talking to me.” He went away.
Thalvin watched him go. Suddenly he was very cold. He opened his hands and pushed them toward the flames. He thought: Was that wrong? Should I... ?
But he knew that it didn’t matter. Of them all, only Gai mattered, and she, alone among them, knew exactly what she wanted.
* * * *
If time had been an exact and firm condition in this world, if it had been something more than two hands spinning on a five hundred thousand year old watch, it would have been exactly ten thirty-two in the morning when they first saw the man.
It was Thalvin who spotted him. For the past few minutes (since about ten twenty-eight), he’d heard the trees above swishing and moving more than the wind should have caused. He had turned sharply to the left and led the others away at a right angle. The sounds from above had followed them.
Thalvin stopped suddenly and looked up. He saw it. A patch of brown against the green.
He shouted: “Up there! Look!”
Gai and Jorgan stopped and turned. Gai said, “Yes. There. I see it too.”
The patch of brown moved. Suddenly it was suspended in the air between two trees, and Thalvin could clearly see the man. His spine quivered with the shock of revelation. This was—what?—this was his great-great-great (multiplied a thousand times) grandson. The man was less than five feet tall. His arms were long skinny vines that trailed past his knees. His head was flat; his neck was nonexistent. His nude body was covered head to foot with a thick impenetrable coat of dirty brown fur. Then he was gone. He’d reached the next tree.
Gai shouted: “Shoot! Shoot it!”
The man bounded to another tree.
“Hurry. He’s getting away.”
Jorgan had not moved. He stood rooted to the ground, one arm dangling loosely at his waist, inches from the hilt of his heatgun.
Gai ran over and screamed in his face: “Shoot—shoot—he’s getting away.”
Jorgan did not move. He was watching the man in the trees. The man in the trees jumped again, his movements as clean and graceful as a ballet dancer.
Gai jerked the heatgun from its holster and thrust it into Jorgan’s hand.
“Please,” she said, gently.
The patch of brown was no longer moving. It waited in a tree about fifty yards away, a dim pool hidden in the depths of the morning haze. It feels secure, Thalvin thought. But a good shot. . .
Gai lifted Jorgan’s arm and left it suspended in the air.
Jorgan squinted. Jorgan held his breath. Jorgan fired.
There was a scream. A cry of mortal shock and pain. The brown spot was gone, swallowed by the haze. The tree shook and quivered. Leaves dropped toward the ground, floating and swaying in the breeze. The forest was silent.
“You got him,” Gai said. She jumped in the air and clapped her hands. She was grinning. “Damn it, Jorgan. You killed him.”
“Yes,” said Jorgan. He dropped the heatgun. “I killed it.”
“Let’s look,” Thalvin said.
The three of them went to where the man should have fallen, but i
t was not there, only the tree swaying in the wind, its top lost in the darkness of the haze.
“He must have caught in the tree,” Gai said.
“I’ll see,” said Thalvin. He stripped off his backpack and lunged at the lowest limb. He caught it and swung. The next limb. He wasn’t a young man anymore, and he wasn’t physically powerful. He moved slowly and carefully, testing each limb before trusting it to hold his weight. He found the man about thirty feet up the tree. There was a hole in the man’s stomach big enough to hold a ball. Thalvin pushed the body out and away. It fell to the ground.
Universe 2 - [Anthology] Page 17
