In the Distance, and Ahead in Time
Page 20
“What took you?” Gorrance asked, standing up and smiling, unable to hide the fact that she was glad to see him. Then she saw the globe in his hand and her eyes narrowed.
“It wasn’t going right for them inside,” he said. “I made some changes, so the survivors might be reunited in a better time. And I took two of them out with me, a man and a woman. I’ll re-embody them when we get home, as a test of what Gorrance said about their limits.”
She gazed at him sadly. “Even when you talk to them in the flesh, they’ll be only mechanical analogs of persons, not alive at all. And you’ll have to destroy them—”
Gibby felt a surge of objection. “Ah, but what if they are people, and pass all the hurdles of subtlety? What will you say then, Gorrance?”
“No, no!” she said. “You’ll see right through them. Their world’s initial conditions were intrinsically impoverished, incapable of generating depth and complexity.”
“We’ll see,” Gibby said. “Maybe something new was achieved here. Maybe we can improve on it and learn to create. Maybe we can build a secondary universe that will be independent …”
“Impossible,” Gorrance said with a wave of her hand. “No secondary world can equal the primary’s complexity, because the primary exists in a transcendent infinity which can only be simulated, never duplicated. A perfect illusory world would be a real world—and there can only be one—” She looked into Gibby’s eyes. He felt her strength flow into him, and realized that she cared about what he thought, how he thought, and would continue to pity him if he failed to reason clearly. Her words had stopped him from going inside, but something deep within him continued to resist her, as if she had stolen something from him.
Kateb stood up and said, “We’d better go,” then gazed up at the giant pyramid and sighed. “It’s only an antique way, full of style and feeling, slowly losing whatever grace it had. We came from here, but there’s nothing left but ghosts in a tomb.”
“What if you’re wrong, even in part …” Gibby started to say, gazing at the ball in his hand, aware that he was still denying the tragedy of the situation, “then you’ve tried to discourage me from playing a merciful god.”
“And that’s what you wanted?” Gorrance asked softly.
“Yes,” he said, closing his hand around the ball.
About the Author
George Zebrowski’s more than forty books include novels, short fiction collections, anthologies, and a collection of essays.
His short fiction, articles, and essays have appeared in Omni magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Interzone, Science Fiction Age, Nature, the Bertrand Russell Society News, and many other publications. “Heathen God” was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1972.
Brute Orbits (1998), an uncompromising novel about the future of the penal system, was honored with the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and Stranger Suns (1991) was a New York Times Notable Book.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
“Assassins of Air,” copyright © 1973 Roger Elwood. From Future City, edited by Roger Elwood, Trident Press, N.Y., 1973. Copyright reassigned to the author in 1977. Revised version copyright © 1985 George Zebrowski.
“Between the Winds,” copyright © 1994 TSR, Inc. From Amazing Stories, Winter 1995, Kim Mohan, editor.
“Heathen God,” copyright © 1970 Mercury Press, Inc. From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1971, Edward L. Ferman, editor. Copyright reassigned to the author in 1976. Revised version copyright © 1985 George Zebrowski.
“In the Distance, and Ahead in Time,” copyright © 1993 TSR, Inc. First published in Amazing Stories, November 1993.
“Parks of Rest and Culture,” copyright © 1973 Roger Elwood and Virginia Kidd. From Saving Worlds, edited by Roger Elwood and Virginia Kidd, Doubleday, N.Y. 1973. Copyright reassigned to the author in 1977. Revised version copyright © 1985 George Zebrowski.
“The Sea of Evening,” copyright © 1983 Davis Publications, Inc. From Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July 1983, Shawna McCarthy, editor.
“The Soft Terrible Music,” copyright © 1996 George Zebrowski. From Castle Fantastic, edited by John DeChancie and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW Books, Inc., N.Y. 1996.
“The Water Sculptor,” copyright © 1970 Lancer Books, Inc., as “The Water Sculptor of Station 233.” From Infinity One, edited by Robert Hoskins. Copyright reassigned to the author 1972. Revised version copyright © 1985 George Zebrowski.
“Transfigured Night,” copyright © 1978 Jack Dann. From Immortal, edited by Jack Dann. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., N.Y. 1978.
“Wayside World,” copyright © 1977, 1985 George Zebrowski. Reprinted, with revisions, from A World Named Cleopatra, produced by Roger Elwood, Pyramid Books, N.Y. 1977.
Copyright © 2002 by George Zebrowski
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
ISBN: 978-1-5040-0992-8
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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