The Crucible of Time

by John Brunner

  Worse and worse ... Skilluck forced himself to an upright position. He said as emphatically as he could, "Since you oblige me to prove that our people are not all crazy, tell our hosts that I shall at once reclaim command of Tempestamer!"

  "But you're not fit!"

  "Let me be the judge of that!" Skilluck was struggling to bring his pads under control. "I must—"

  But his pressure failed him. He was compelled to slump back to a sitting position, whence he glared at Wellearn as though it were the boy's fault he was so weak.

  There was a rapid exchange in Forbish, and Wellearn stated authoritatively, "Shash is the curer-in-chief here. He says you must drink creshban for at least another day before you leave this healing-house."

  With a trace of mischief in his tone, he added, "I didn't tell him that was how long you already estimated would be necessary."

  At home, mocking his briq-captain in that way would have led to punishment—perhaps lasting punishment, such as having one of his tubules punctured where it would never heal. Since arrival here, though, Wellearn had regretted his oath of fealty, and decided that if all else failed, he could put himself under the protection of the Hearthomers. What did he have to look forward to if he went back to Ushere? More and more hunger, more and more misery! He had never seen cresh on land, as he had told Skilluck, but he had seen old folk lose their minds, reduced to such a state that they scarcely reacted except when they were fed like hoverchicks or barqlings, or when some young'un was brought to them to be mated because a wise'un claimed there was still virtue in that line despite appearances. It had been happening to Wellearn since it became obvious that he was among the lucky bright few, and there were no memories so revolting in his short life as those which reminded him of the foul mindless gropings he had undergone with starvation-crazy ancients. Not one—praise the stars!—of his encounters had so far led to offspring, but if he went home he would certainly be compelled to do the same again, and once the smell and touch took over...

  He shuddered. And wondered much about the nature of the stars which could dictate so cruel a doom for a person as well intentioned as himself, then pay him back—for it seemed to him to be a reward—with the gentle sweetness of Embery. She had received him twice already, and her father thoroughly approved, for as he said, "We too in this delicious land are plagued by forces we don't understand, and it has been nearly a score of years since one of our family bred true: myself with the lady who gave me Embery and died."

  What, on the other claw, they did understand had not yet ceased to astonish him.

  Leaving Skilluck's bower, he was overcome by memory.

  ...Behind the inland hills, a valley lined with smoke-blackened rock; heaps of charcoal, even blacker, surrounding cone-shaped furnaces; piles of sand and unknown minerals, green and brown and white and red; sober folk all of whose names ended in -fire, claiming spiritual if not physical descent from Jing's legendary friend who lived underground yet brought the light of heaven forth from a cave— Wellearn knew all the stories, for he had been told them as a child, but later he had been taught to think them fabulous, whereas the Hearthomers took them literally, and by their guidance produced incredible ingots of metal and unbelievable quantities of pure glass. Beyond, a desolation as complete as though a hurricane had laid the vegetation low for a day's walk or more, which was being systematically replanted with oilsap trees that grew quickly and burned hotter than even the best charcoal.

  ...In a fine house overlooking the sea, an elderly couple possessed of tiny miracles in the shape of roundels of glass no larger than a raindrop, but perfectly shaped, through which they showed him the secret structure of plant-stems, funqi, his own skin, immensely magnified, as though a telescope were to look down to the small instead of upward to the large!

  ...In a grove just outside the city, folk who selectively bred meatimals, burrowers, diggets, mounts, draftimals, and a score of creatures he could put no name to, seeking to make them fatter or more docile or in some other way more useful. Their cleanlickers were said to be unique, capable of ridding any wound of its poison within days and making a swift recovery. To take a few of those home to the lands where so often a daring fish-hunter died for his temerity in defying a rasper or a voraq: that would be an achievement! But what to trade for breeding-stock? Did Embery know about northfinders? It seemed not; alas, though, Tempestamer carried only one, which wasn't in brood-phase this year. Besides, they seldom bred true, a problem that plagued the Hearthomer animal-breeders too.

  ...On the highest of the nearby hills, the one Embery had pointed to from the crown of the healing-house, her uncle Chard—older and fatter than his brother—complaining about the difficulty nowadays of studying the stars because the sky was cloudy so much more often than in his youth, and boasting about the knowledge of ice which he had acquired only a few days' journey from Hearthome. There was, apparently, a range of mountains whose peaks were snowcapped even in these latitudes, a fact which dismayed Wellearn, for if the mountains were closer to the sun, how could they be so much colder than the land below? Surrounded by telescopes which made Skilluck's look like a toy, Chard launched into a lengthy lecture concerning reflectivity and absorption, conduction and convection, aurorae and shooting stars and a score of other concepts which Wellearn failed to grasp but which filled him with tantalizing excitement: so much knowledge, so much to be found out!

  ...In a giant tree at the heart of the city, hollowed out deliberately and ornamented with the finest and handsomest secondary plants, a glass container sealed with wax, through which could be glimpsed the original of Jing's scripture. It was uncapped only once in a score of years, so that a fresh copy might be made, but even so it was starting to rot, and next time they planned to make two copies, of which one would be incised on rock instead of perishable wood. In any case, though, by this time the Hearthomers had added many new discoveries to those of Jing and Twig. Everything he was told fascinated Wellearn, and above all he was seized by the tales of the New Star which Chard and Shash and Embery recounted. And, over and over, he pondered the central teaching of Jing's followers: that the stars were fire, and one day the planets would go to feed them, as charcoal was added to a furnace, to make them blaze up anew.

  "We do not believe," Embery told him soberly, "that we are here solely to endure until the world falls into a dying sun. We believe it is our duty to escape that fate. Out there are countless worlds; until the end of time, some will remain for us to live on."

  "But how can one travel there?" was Wellearn's natural riposte.

  "We don't know yet. We mean to find that out."

  Everywhere he went Wellearn had a sense of being watched and weighed and scrutinized. Until the captain regained his health, he was the Wego's sole ambassador; he did his best to behave accordingly.

  And the day after Skilluck took Tempestamer to sea and brought her back content with what she had engulfed in open water, he found out that his conduct had impressed the citizens. For Shash came to tell the strangers they were invited to a gathering of the general council, to discuss a mutually advantageous proposition.

  "What they mean," was Skilluck's cynical comment, "is that they've figured out a way to rob us blind. Well, we have to go along with the deal; we have no choice."

  Wellearn bit back his urge to contradict. Time would tell.

  IV

  "It grieves us all to learn of the death of our visitor Blestar," Chard said to the assembled council. The foreigners dipped in acknowledgment, although Strongrip and Sharprong were reluctant and only a glare from Skilluck compelled them. Wellearn was still recovering from the shock of having to conduct his first-ever funeral, and in a far-off land at that. But the ceremony had been decent and respectful, even though the Wego tradition of committal to the ocean was unknown here, so Blestar's corpse was fertilizing a stand of white shrubs.

  Now it was his duty to interpret some of the most complex statements he had ever heard in any speech. Chard and Shash had given him
a rough idea in advance; nonetheless...!

  Still—he brightened—none of the others spoke Forbish, let alone this modern descendant of it, although he had the distinct impression that Skilluck often understood more than he let on.

  At all events, he had the chance to trim the list of the debate. He was determined to do so. He wanted his people and the Hearthomers to be friends; he wanted, in particular, to spend the rest of his own life here ... not that he would dare risk admitting it. What he hoped was to be appointed resident agent for the Wego, and oversee a regular trade between north and south. So many benefits would flow from that!

  But he must concentrate, not rhapsodize. The discussion was likely to be a long one. The Hearthomers took refuge from the hottest part of the day, but the assembly had gathered in late afternoon, and might well continue throughout the succeeding night. He composed his mind and relayed Chard's next remarks.

  "We have been told that winters grow colder and longer in your land. Since according to our observations the sun is growing brighter and hotter, we are faced with a paradox."

  ("What in the world is he on about?" grunted Sharprong. "It doesn't make sense!")

  But Wellearn was gripped by Chard's statement and anxiously awaiting what was to follow.

  "We know this because we have carefully calibrated the way in which certain substances change after exposure to concentrated sunlight under identical conditions, that's to say, on a completely clear day. Cloudless days, of course, are growing fewer"—and several present glanced anxiously at the sky where yet more thunderheads were brewing—"but we keep up our experiments and we can be nineteen-twentieths sure of our conclusions."

  ("Is he ever going to come to a point?" was Strongrip's acid reaction.)

  "We can only deduce that more solar heat causes more clouds to reflect it and more moisture to fall at the poles as snow, which in turn reflects still more light and heat. At my laboratory the possibility can be demonstrated using a burning-glass and a block of white rock half-covered with soot."

  Wellearn had seen that demonstration; he had not wholly understood what he was meant to learn from it, but suddenly a blinding insight dawned on his mind.

  ("Come on, boy!" Skilluck rasped. "You're falling behind!")

  "At a time when mountains here in the equatorial zone can remain snowcapped throughout the year, this is clearly a worrisome situation. Those among us who have never experienced ice and snow may doubt what I say, but I have felt how cold can numb the pads, seen how it affects the plants we here take for granted!"

  ("Why does he have to go on so?" growled Strongrip, but Skilluck silenced him with glare.)

  "We must therefore anticipate a time when mariners from the far north will arrive, not driven hither by a fortunate storm, but because their home has become uninhabitable. Yet this need not be an unmitigated disaster. For if there is one thing we lack, then ... But I'll leave the rest to Burney."

  ("I've been told about him!" Wellearn whispered in high excitement. "He's the one-who-answers-questions, their most distinguished administrator! But I never saw him before!")

  Burly, yet as tall as his compatriots, Burney expanded to full height as Chard lowered. He uttered a few platitudes about the visitors before picking up Chard's trail.

  ("I know his sort," Skilluck said contemptuously. "The politer they are, the more you need to brace yourself!")

  "What we lack, and in lacking neglect our duty, is access to the oceans!" Burney stated at the top of his resonant voice. "Oh, we've done well by our founders in spreading their teaching across this continent; travel a moonlong overland and you won't find a child of talking age who doesn't grasp at least the rudiments of what Jing bequeathed! But we know there's more to the globe than merely land, don't we? Proof of the fact is that our visitors came to us from a country which can't be reached from here dry-padded!"

  ("You told them that?" Skilluck snapped at Wellearn. "Oh you threw away a keen prong there!")

  ("I did nothing of the sort!" Wellearn retorted, stung. "Listen and you'll find out!")

  "Suppose, though, we were to combine the knowledge we've garnered with the skills of these strangers," Burney went on. "Suppose the brave seafarers of the Wego could voyage free from fear of cresh; suppose on every trip they carried the knowledge which Jing instructed us to share with everybody everywhere, so that every one of their briqs was equipped not just with a northfinder—I'm sure you've been told of their brilliant development of that creature which can always be relied on to point the same way? Though it does seem," he added with a touch of condescension, "they don't realize that if they really had crossed the equator, as Wellearn appears to imagine, it would reverse itself."

  (Amid a ripple of knowing amusement Skilluck fumed, "It doesn't surprise me! After the flattery, the put-down!")

  Burney quieted the crowd. "Perhaps that remark was unworthy," he resumed. "At all events, we know these are an adventurous people, who take the utmost care to ensure that when they set out on no matter how risky a voyage they can find their way home by one means or another. Suppose, as I was about to say, they carried not only telescopes useful for sighting a promising landfall, but better ones suitable for studying the sky, and the means to prove to anyone they contacted how right Jing was in what he wrote!"

  (Applause ... but Wellearn had to cede a point to Skilluck when he mused, "So they want to overload our briqs with chaplains worse than Blestar?")

  "We therefore offer an exchange!" Burney roared. "I hope Captain Skilluck will accept it! We will share with his folk everything we know— yes, everything!—if the Wego will put their fleet at our disposal every summer for a score of years, to return laden with southern foods and southern seeds and southern tools, after carrying our message to lands as yet unknown! Now this is a grand scheme"—his voice dropped—"and there are countless details to thrash out. But we must first know whether the principle is acceptable."

  (Skilluck looked worried. Wellearn whispered, "They do things differently here!")

  ("That's obvious! He never tried to preside at a captains' meeting!")

  "I see there are doubts," Burney said after a pause. "Let me add one thing, therefore. Assuming they accept our offer, then—if the winters at Ushere do become intolerable, as we may apparently fear according to what Chard has said—their people can remove hither and settle around the bay where their briq first made landfall. We would welcome them. Are we agreed?"

  A roar of enthusiasm went up, and among those who shouted loudest Wellearn was proud to notice Embery. But Skilluck gave a brusque order.

  "Tell him we need time to discuss this idea. Say we will be ready no sooner than tomorrow night!"

  Perforce, Wellearn translated, and the assembly dispersed with many sighs.

  "It's a trap," said Strongrip for the latest of a score of times. "There must be some snag in it we don't see!"

  "I've been everywhere in the city and met many of the most prominent of these people!" Wellearn declared. "They take Jing's teaching seriously—they really do want to spread his knowledge around the globe!"

  "That's what frightens me most," grunted Skilluck. "Blestar was bad enough; embriqing with a stranger who has absolute rule over what course I choose is out of the question!"

  "That isn't what they have in mind!" Wellearn argued. "These people never travel the oceans—they want to hook on to someone who does, and that could be us!"

  "Budlings!" Strongrip said, and turned away in disgust.

  That was too much for Wellearn. Rising to his maximum height— which, since arriving here, imbibing vast quantities of creshban, and eating the best diet he had ever enjoyed, had noticeably increased—he blasted, "I invoke the judgment of my ancestors in the stars!"

  And bared his mandibles, which normally he kept shrouded out of ordinary politeness.

  Skilluck said hastily, "Now just a moment, boy—"

  "Boy?" Wellearn cut in. "Boy? I haven't forgotten my oath of fealty to my captain, but if you can't recognize
a man who's just become a man I'll consider it void!"

  Following which he opened his claws to full extent, and waited, recklessly exuding combat-stink.

  At long last Skilluck said heavily, "It was time, I guess. You're not a young'un anymore. But do you still want to challenge Strongrip?"

  "I'd rather we were comrades. But I must. Unless he accepts me for what I am, with all my power of judgment. I did," Wellearn added, "invoke the honor of my ancestors."

  There were still creshmarks on Strongrip's mantle, but Wellearn's was clear. Skilluck studied each of them in turn and said finally, "I forbid the challenge. Your ancestors, young man, are honored sufficiently by your willingness to utter it. Strongrip, deny what you last said."

  He clenched his body into battle posture, mandibles exposed, and concluded, "Or it must be me, not Wellearn, you take on!"

  The stench of aggression which had filled the air since Wellearn rose to overtop his opponent provoked reflexes beyond most people's control. Only someone as sober and weather-wise as Skilluck could master his response to it.

  Strongrip said gruffly, "He speaks this foreign noise. I admit he knows things I can't."

  "Well said, but is he adult, worthy to be our comrade?"

  The answer was grumpy and belated, but it came: "I guess so!"

  "Then lock claws!"

  And evening breeze carried the combat-stink away.

  "Captain!" Wellearn whispered as the general council of the Hearthomers reassembled.

  "Yes?"

  "Did you know I was going to be driven to challenge—?"

  "Silence, or I'll call you 'boy' again!" But Skilluck was curling with amusement even as he uttered the harsh words. "You haven't finished growing up, you know!"

  "I'm doing my best!"

  "I noticed. That's why I didn't let Strongrip shred your mantle. He could have, creshmarks or no! So you just bear in mind your talent is for reasoning, not fighting. Leave that sort of thing to us seafarers, because at pith you're a landlubber, aren't you?"