by Eric Flint
"You wouldn't take unnecessary risks with the girls anyway," said Toll, smiling. "My daughter has already made her plans for you. And you wouldn't be foolish enough to try and spoil them now, would you?"
Goth's plans were to marry the captain as soon as she was of marriageable age. At first the captain had not taken her terribly seriously-just as Threbus had apparently not taken Toll's similar plan too seriously. And see where it had got Threbus! As time had gone on and Pausert and Goth had shared adventure and danger together, Pausert had come to realize that he was very fond of her too. But he was a normal man, and she wasn't yet properly grown up.
Yet the witches did have some other avenues open to them. He knew that Threbus must be at least eighty years old by now. Yet he looked to be no more than in his mid-thirties. He also knew from what they had learned on Uldune that Toll too could change her age at will. As they turned to leave, Pausert cleared his throat and braced himself to ask, "Er. Toll. About age shifts… "
Toll turned back and raised one eyebrow at him, with a quizzical half-amused, half-dangerous expression on her face. "What?" she said, in a way that would have made most men say "oh nothing. Nothing at all." But Pausert was quite brave. Or quite stupid. He was not too sure which of he two he was being right now.
"I was wondering," he said, "about, well, the age shift thing."
Toll smiled. "Oddly enough, Goth's been raising the same subject lately. The answer is 'no,' Captain Pausert. Compared to Nikkeldepain our way of raising children may seem a little strange to you. Karres children are very independent. They have to be. But, captain, they are still children, and need to go through stages of development, just like any other child. There are a number of important formative experiences Goth still has to go through. We did not let our children go with you lightly, Captain Pausert. We have ways of knowing that you are absolutely trustworthy. And anyway, because of the parent-pattern in their heads, we're around in a way, even when we're not."
Captain Pausert had encountered the Toll pattern in Goth. He'd wished that he too could have a resident instructor and mentor, sometimes. But Karres had decided that he was best left to learn on his own. "I've always done my best for them all," he said. "And if you think that is best for Goth, then we will just have to let it all happen at its own speed."
Toll patted his shoulder. "And it will. Take a step back from it, if you can. Age shift is one of the things we don't teach the young witches. Every single child among them wants to be grown up instantly. What child doesn't? Well, we found that although they can cope very easily with the physical changes in their bodies, it's not the same with their minds. Only time seems to achieve that properly." She cocked her head slightly and smiled. "See, it wouldn't just be an older Goth. My middle daughter is quite an old soul in a young body sometimes, anyway. But can you imagine what it would be like if the Leewit could suddenly choose to be grown up, or at least have a grown-up body?"
That was quite a thought! "Could make applying a piece of tinklewood fishing rod adapted to be a switch very interesting," said the captain. "I think I see your point. I don't think the galaxy is quite ready for that yet."
***
"Goth, you're being a dope," said the Leewit. "Isn't she, Maleen?"
"Shut up," said Goth. "It's more complicated than you understand, you little bollem."
Maleen, looking down on her younger sisters with the vast tolerance of an older, and now married woman, smiled. "Don't you like the captain any more, the Leewit?"
The Leewit looked affronted. "He's not a bad old dope. Okay. He's not even so old. And he's not really a dope. I like him quite a lot, actually. He's good to have around especially when things go wrong. But I don't see what Goth's all upset about." She sniffed. "And don't tell me that she's not, because she is."
Goth gave her a look that would have sent sensible wildlife running. "It's your baby's fault," she said to Maleen.
"I didn't tell you everything Kerris and the other precogs said about her."
"Don't know if I want to hear," said Goth crossly.
Maleen put a hand on Goth's shoulder and pushed her down into a chair. "Well, you should. Because it is important. I need to talk to Toll and Threbus about it too, but I couldn't with Captain Pausert there."
"Why? What did they say?"
"Pausert's going on a mission to Chaladoor."
"I know that. We leave… "
"Except that you're not going to be with him," said Maleen.
Goth shook her head. "He needs me around. He doesn't have a pattern in his mind to guide him through the klatha stuff. And he.. . experiments. Look what happened with the Egger route. We ended up back in time. He'll get hurt or killed, for sure, if I am not there."
Goth knew full well that Captain Pausert had actually done all right a couple of times without her. But a girl had keep an eye on her man. And she was double uncertain right now. That episode was well back in his past, but she was not ignorant and naive enough not to know that the captain had given his heart to this Vala. Also, his tone said that she'd meant something very different to him than his former fiancee Illyla.
Illyla, Goth could deal with, just like she'd dealt with Sunnat. This Vala…
Goth hadn't liked his reverent tone. And she didn't like the fact that, in a way, the girl couldn't have been much older than Goth was now, when she got her claws into the captain. Well. He wouldn't have been a captain then. But still.
"You know what precog is like, Goth. No one ever sees the whole picture, but they do see what they see, right? And this is what Kerris said. You-Goth, nobody else-have got to do this or else he's not just going to get killed. It'd be like he never was. It's got something to do with what is going on in the Chaladoor."
Goth took a deep breath. "You tell me all that you know right now, Maleen." This was much more serious than some old girlfriend he'd never got over.
"Well, you know precogs measure might-be's. They predicted Vala's name. We both heard it and loved it-and they said that it was really important that she be called that. And they said that some power from the Chaladoor was going to murder Captain Pausert."
"What!" Goth leapt to her feet. "We could dismind him, like Olimy. Or he could put himself in a cocoon like he put the Leewit and me in."
"And it happened when he was fourteen," said Maleen. "There is a ninety eight point probability that he died before he ever left Nikkeldepain. Maybe some enemy figured out then it was a good idea to get rid of him before he developed any klatha powers. Before he had Goth and Karres to protect him."
Goth said several words that even shocked the Leewit.
"The captain will wash your mouth out with soap!" said the youngest witch, primly, as if she herself did not delight in using terms that would make a docker blush. Although she was usually careful to do so in a language that Captain Pausert could not understand. Her klatha gifts ran to the ability to translate and speak any language.
"Not unless you tell him, he won't. And I'll make you swim back to Karres on the Egger route if you do," said Goth. "You're going to have to look after him in the Chaladoor, little sister. I'm going to have to go and deal with this."
***
The Leewit nodded, wide eyed, looking at her sister. It was going to be quite a task. But that was pure Karres. If something needed doing, you did it. Karres people weren't much good at waiting for someone else to take the responsibility. "How are you going to get there?" she asked.
Goth gritted her teeth. "The Egger route. And there's not going to be anyone else to help me at the other end either."
That could be nasty. Really nasty. But by the look on Goth's face that wasn't going to stop her for an instant.
"I think you'd better talk it over with Toll and Threbus first," said Maleen. "And this may not be the perfect time."
Goth took a deep breath. "I am not going to be able to sleep unless… isn't this a paradox? Like, he must have survived or we wouldn't have met him?"
Maleen bit her lip. "You'd think
so. But all precog could give us was that somehow they avoided the time paradox."
"Time is too complicated to play around with lightly," said the voice of Goth's Toll pattern, issuing from her lips. "Dimensionality comes into it."
***
They went to find Threbus and Toll. And, not surprisingly found them in consultation with several of the senior precogs. "You know the prediction that it was important that you spent the next year with my grand nephew Pausert?" said her father. "We've got a little more clarity on that."
"We're trying to establish the precise dates right now," said Toll. "But you will be leaving on the Venture with him, and then we think you're going to have to jump to the past, via the Egger route."
"I worked that out," said Goth, gruffly. "Been talking to Maleen. But why can't I just go now?"
"Because the flight schedules have been published and we are still trying to establish exactly when you have to go to, Goth. We have established you do-or did-go back to Nikkeldepain. We have only one other insight, Goth. A lattice ship."
The Leewit bounced. "Yay! I want to go too! I want go too! I love the circus!"
"Well, you can't," said Goth firmly. "I need you to keep an eye on the captain. Anyway, you're the only one beside him that seems to be able to do anything with those little vatches."
Threbus grunted. "We need them to clean out nannite-infected people. But the follow-up on that has been a bit chaotic. It seems that they only do things because they like Pausert. We don't really have any way of motivating them."
"Little-bit likes me too," said the Leewit cheerfully. "I got used to her."
She seemed firmly convinced the vatch was female, although Goth couldn't for the life of her figure out how you'd determine the gender of a vatch-assuming the distinction between male and female meant anything to them at all.
As if the vatch had known it-she-was being spoken about, the tiny fleck of blackness with the hint of silver eyes appeared, flickering around the room. Hello big ones. I have taken the others to watch a play. They like them nearly as much as I do.
Goth chuckled. "I guess you've got your motivation."
Threbus nodded thoughtfully. "There are going to be a lot of traveling players visiting the outlying provinces of the Empire in the next while."
"On an imperial cultural uplift programme," said Toll smiling. "I'll have some words with Dame Ethy and Sir Richard."
"Should be pretty interesting with that sort of audience! They'd better not let the shows get stale or the little things will liven 'em up," said Goth. "But it could work."
Threbus nodded. "I like it. It gives us something the vatches want. The other issue with the nannites is that we've had the imperial scientists working non-stop on the material-dead material so far. They haven't given us anything to use to combat the plague, other than a possible repellant. But they have said that they're absolutely sure that the plague is an artificial creation. The nannites were engineered. Made. They were programmed to do what they did."
There was a moment of silence. "That's a pretty powerful enemy."
Threbus nodded. "And one that has been around for a very long time. Working on records from the Sprites of Nartheby, the plague came from somewhere toward the galactic center. We, of course, probably weren't the targets. But it could be that something in there knows that their plague has been defeated."
"So they might be getting the next attack ready."
Threbus rubbed his jaw. "It's also, in a way, why humanity were able to expand off old Yarthe with such ease. We found so many habitable planets with traces of old alien civilizations on them, but no other existent aliens, except for the Sprites on Nartheby. But we have to face the possibility that the nannite plague might just have been the alien equivalent of a pest-exterminator, cleaning up before the new occupants got there. And the nannite problem won't just go away. It's with us for the foreseeable future. Even if we track down and destroy every nannite in the Empire, they could still be hidden away somewhere-inside or outside the Empire, in the smallest colony, and could burst out again. We're going to have to be vigilant. And get people used to having Grik-dogs to smell out the nannite exudates being something they must have."
"Well, at least I like Grik-dogs," said Goth. "And I guess keeping an eye out for nannites will also mean that we're ready for other problems."
Threbus nodded. "We're going to be stretched pretty thin though, for the next few years. We'll have to keep Karres people undercover, scattered around. And Karres itself will probably keep a low profile. We will have to find ourselves a new sun to orbit, because the planet will be top of their target list."
"I reckon," said Goth. "And we like the old place."
Chapter 3
Pausert was not prepared for Goth to sniff loudly and retreat, when he made a joke about his lousy take-off, instead of teasing him. The captain was almost sure she was in tears. But he couldn't leave the navigation controls just then to follow her and find out what was wrong. When she came back, her face looking recently washed, he started to ask. But she waved the question away.
She remained taciturn for the rest of the day-and all of the next, and the next. By then, Pausert was really starting to worry.
He tried to pry the Leewit, to see if she knew anything. But the little witch seemed to be in one of her non-cooperative moods.
By then, they were approaching the Chaladoor, and Pausert had something else to worry about.
***
Neldo stopped vibrating after a while, and started breathing. "Touch-talk," he gasped, just as soon he had enough breath. "The things I do for love. Maleen couldn't come because of the baby. And I've had a team of witches damping the klatha output. We hope that Pausert is unaware of this, but I need to be quick."
Goth put her hands against him, and made contact with Maleen. "What have you got for me?" she demanded.
"Quite a lot. We tracked back the date a lattice ship last landed on Nikkeldepain. And discovered that a girl called Vala, the daughter of Sutherb and Lotl, was a student at the Nikkeldepain Academy for the Sons and Daughters of Gentlemen and Officers, for six months in the same year. Got a picture of her from a yearbook. It's you, all right. But your hair is curled and red. I've sent curling tongs and the dye that mother thought best match, with Neldo. You'll have to light-shift it a bit longer at first, but long term it's easier not to have to do light shift all the time. Oh, and here's a safe set of co-ordinates for you to go to-an impression of a place on Nikkeldepain. Father supplied that."
The image flooded into her mind. "Suberth and…?"
"Mother and father, you dope," said the Leewit. Complex codes were obvious to her. Mere anagrams were a joke.
"Oh. Yeah."
"The Leewit. You need to know seeing as Goth isn't going to be here. Someone is spending huge amounts of money on finding the Venture 7333. Offering a small fortune for her flight times and schedules. Whatever is happening in Chaladoor has fingers in crime in the rest of the Empire. We're digging for whoever has put up the money. But, even by Karres standards, they've been spending it like water. And the odd thing is they have a description of someone who looks a lot like mother, that they're also looking for."
"What's so odd about that?"
"The person has wavy red hair, and her name is Vala."
***
Goth put on as many layers as she could. The Egger route was tough on the body. The captain thought that he had some way to stop the vibration, but she couldn't ask him about it now. Anyway, his klatha skills were very powerful-and a bit scary and off the wall.
The Leewit was oddly silent during the whole process. A little wide-eyed and apprehensive. The Leewit really did not like the Egger route. Actually, Goth didn't like it much herself.
"Well," she said, taking a deep breath and fixing the touch-talk mental co-ordinates in her mind, "Here goes. Look after the captain for me, Leewit. And don't forget to wash behind your ears."
"I won't," said the Leewit, not arguing for once in he
r life, her voice a little small.
Chapter 4
When Goth recovered from the stresses of the Egger Route, she tried to take in her surroundings. She was sitting on some turquoise mossy stuff, overhung by long fronded purple leaves, that she didn't recognize at all. But just over there was what she was sure was a tumtum tree from her native Karres.
A scrawny, fresh-faced boy was standing just a few feet away, staring at her wide-eyed.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"The Nikkeldepain xenobiology Botanical Garden. It's part of the Threbus Institute of xenobiology."
He sounded rather proud as he said that. But within seconds his wide-eyed stare was back. "You were having some kind of a terrible fit," he said. "Shaking and banging yourself around."
With a sudden shock, Goth realized that she recognized his face. She actually knew it very well. She'd just seen a picture of Pausert as a teenager.
"I'm all right now," she said shakily.
He was plainly worried by the whole experience. "I think I could carry you," he said. "I'll get you to a healer."
He possibly could carry her, Goth thought. He was a rather skinny boy, with a rapidly swelling black eye.
"Did I do that to you? Punch you in the eye?" she asked, feeling more than a little guilty.
He grinned. "No. You should see the other guy. He started it. But I'm going to catch it for it." He seemed quite accepting about that. "Look, I need to get you to some kind of medical help. That was really scary."
"Don't worry," said Goth. "It's over. It won't happen again." She thought hastily. "I just got the times wrong. I should have been home already. It's a side effect from the medicine I had to have for Munki fever."
"I've never heard of that. It must be pretty bad," said the young Pausert, plainly impressed. "So who are you, and what are you doing here? I thought I was the only person who ever came here. How did you get in?"
