by Larry Niven
“Help me,” said Svetz.
Her eyes went wide. Her ears moved too. She said something Svetz had trouble interpreting, for she spoke in ancient American.
“What are you?”
Svetz couldn’t blame her. Even in good condition his clothes would not fit the period. But his blouse was ripped to the navel, and so was his skin. Four vertical parallel lines of blood ran down his face and chest.
Zeera had been coaching him in the American speech. Now he said carefully, “I am a traveler. An animal, a monster, has taken my vehicle away from me.”
Evidently the sense came through. “You poor man! What kind of animal?”
“Like a man, but hairy all over, with a horrible face—and claws—claws—”
“I see the mark they made.”
“I don’t know how he got in. I—” Svetz shuddered. No, he couldn’t tell her that. It was insane, utterly insane, this conviction that Svetz’s wolf had become a bloodthirsty humanoid monster. “He only hit me once. On the face. I could get him out with a weapon, I think. Have you a bazooka?”
“What a funny word! I don’t think so. Come inside. Did the trolls bother you?” She took his arm and pulled him in and shut the door.
Trolls?
“You’re a strange person,” the girl said, looking him over. “You look strange, you smell strange, you move strangely. I did not know that there were people like you in the world. You must come from very far away.”
“Very,” said Svetz. He felt himself close to collapse. He was safe at last, safe inside. But why were the hairs on the back of his neck trying to stand upright?
He said, “My name is Svetz. What’s yours?”
“Wrona.” She smiled up at him, not afraid despite his strangeness … and he must look strange to her, for she surely looked strange to Hanville Svetz. Her skin was sheet white, and her rich white hair would better have fit a centenarian. Her nose, very broad and flat, would have disfigured an ordinary girl. Somehow it fit Wrona’s face well enough; but her face was most odd, and her ears were too large, almost pointed, and her eyes were too far apart, and her grin stretched way back … and Svetz liked it. Her grin was curiosity and enjoyment, and was not a bit too wide. The firm pressure of her hand was friendly, reassuring. Though her fingernails were uncomfortably long and sharp.
“You should rest, Svetz,” she said. “My parents will not be up for another hour, at least. Then they can decide how to help you. Come with me, I’ll take you to a spare room.”
He followed her through a room dominated by a great rectangular table and a double row of high-backed chairs. There was a large microwave oven at one end, and beside it a platter of … red things. Roughly conical they were, each about the size of a strong man’s upper arm, each with a dot of white in the big end. Svetz had no idea what they were; but he didn’t like their color. They seemed to be bleeding.
“Oh,” Wrona exclaimed. “I should have asked. Are you hungry?”
Svetz was, suddenly. “Have you dole yeast?”
“Why, I don’t know the word. Are those dole yeast? They are all we have.”
“We’d better forget it.” Svetz’s stomach lurched at the thought of eating something that color. Even if it turned out to be a plant.
Wrona was half supporting him by the time they reached the room. It was rectangular and luxuriously large. The bed was wide enough, but only six inches off the floor, and without coverings. She helped him down to it. “There’s a wash basin behind that door, if you find the strength. Best you rest, Svetz. In perhaps two hours I will call you.”
Svetz eased himself back. The room seemed to rotate. He heard her go out.
How strange she was. How odd he must look to her. A good thing she hadn’t called anyone to tend him. A doctor would notice the differences.
Svetz had never dreamed that primitives would be so different from his own people. During the thousand years between now and the present, there must have been massive adaptation to changes in air and water, to DDT and other compounds in foods, to extinction of food plants and meat animals until only dole yeast was left, to higher noise levels, less room for exercise, greater dependence on medicines … Well, why shouldn’t they be different? It was a wonder humanity had survived at all.
Wrona had not feared his strangeness, nor cringed from the scratches on his face and chest. She was only amused and interested. She had helped him without asking too many questions. He liked her for that.
He dozed.
Pain from deep scratches, stickiness in his clothes made his sleep restless. There were nightmares. Something big and shadowy, half man and half beast, reached far out to slash his face. Over and over. At some indeterminate time he woke completely, already trying to identify a musky, unfamiliar scent.
No use. He looked about him, at a strange room that seemed even stranger from floor level. High ceiling. One frosted globe, no brighter than a full moon, glowed so faintly that the room was all shadow. Wrought iron bars across the windows; black night beyond.
A wonder he’d wakened at all. The pre-Industrial air should have killed him hours ago.
It had been a futz of a day, he thought. And he shied from the memory of the thing in the extension cage. The snarling face, pointed ears, double row of pointed white teeth. The clawed hand reaching out, swiping down. The nightmare conviction that a wolf had turned into that.
It could not be. Animals did not change shape like that. Something must have gotten in while Svetz was fighting for air. Chased the wolf out, or killed it.
But there were legends of such things, weren’t there? Two and three thousand years old and more, everywhere in the world, were the tales of men who could become beasts.
Svetz sat up. Pain gripped his chest, then relaxed. He stood up carefully and made his way to the bathroom.
The spiggots were not hard to solve. Svetz wet a cloth with warm water. He watched himself in the mirror, emerging from under the crusted blood. A pale, slender young man topped with thin blond hair … and an odd distortion of chin and forehead. That must be the mirror, he decided. Primitive workmanship. It might have been worse. Hadn’t the first mirrors been two-dimensional?
A shrill whistle sounded outside his door. Svetz went to look, and found Wrona. “Good, you’re up,” she said. “Father and Uncle Wrocky would like to see you.”
Svetz stepped into the hall, and again noticed the elusive musky scent. He followed Wrona down the dark hallway. Like his room, it was lit only by a single white frosted globe. Why would Wrona’s people keep the house so dark? They had electricity.
And why were they all sleeping at sunset? With breakfast laid out and waiting …
Wrona opened a door, gestured him in.
Svetz hesitated a step beyond the threshold. The room was as dark as the hallway. The musky scent was stronger here. He jumped when a hand closed on his upper arm—it felt wrong, there was hair on the palm, the hard nails made a circlet of pressure points—and a gravelly male voice boomed, “Come in, Mister Svetz. My daughter tells me you’re a traveler in need of help.”
In the dim light Svetz made out a man and a woman seated on backless chairs. Both had hair as white as Wrona’s, but the woman’s hair bore a broad black stripe. A second man urged Svetz toward another backless chair. He too bore black markings: a single black eyebrow, a black crescent around one ear.
And Wrona was just behind him. Svetz looked around at them all, seeing how like they were, how different from Hanville Svetz.
The fear rose up in him like a strong drug. Svetz was a xenophobe.
They were all alike. Rich white hair and eyebrows, black markings. Narrow black fingernails. The broad flat noses and the wide, wide mouths, the sharp white conical teeth, the high, pointed ears that moved, yellow eyes, hairy palms.
Svetz dropped heavily onto the padded footstool.
One of the males noticed: the larger one, who was still standing. “It must be the heavier gravity,” he guessed. “It’s true, isn’t it, Sve
tz? You’re from another world. Obviously you’re not quite a man. You told Wrona you were a traveler, but you didn’t say from how far away.”
“Very far,” Svetz said weakly. “From the future.”
The smaller male was jolted. “The future? You’re a time traveler?” His voice became a snarl. “You’re saying that we will evolve into something like you!”
Svetz cringed. “No. Really.”
“I hope not. What, then?”
“I think I must have gone sidewise in time. You’re descended from wolves, aren’t you? Not apes. Wolves.”
“Yes, of course.”
The seated male was looking him over. “Now that he mentions it, he does look much more like a troll than any man has a right to. No offense intended, Svetz.”
Svetz, surrounded by wolf men, tried to relax. And failed. “What is a troll?”
Wrona perched on the edge of his stool. “You must have seen them on the lawn. We keep about thirty.”
“Plains apes,” the smaller male supplied. “Imported from Africa, sometime in the last century. They make good watchbeasts and meat animals. You have to be careful with them, though. They throw things.”
“Introductions,” the other said suddenly. “Excuse our manners, Svetz. I’m Flakee Wrocky. This is my brother Flakee Worrel, and Brenda, his wife. My niece you know.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Svetz said hollowly.
“You say you slipped sideways in time?”
“I think so. A futz of a long way, too,” said Svetz. “Marooned. Gods protect me. It must have been the horse—”
Wrocky broke in. “Horse?”
“The horse. Three years ago, a horse damaged my extension cage. It was supposed to be fixed. I suppose the repairs just wore through, and the cage slipped sideways in time instead of forward. Into a world where wolves evolved instead of Homo habilis. Gods know where I’m likely to wind up if I try to go back.”
Then he remembered. “At least you can help me there. Some kind of monster has taken over my extension cage.”
“Extension cage?”
“The part of the time machine that does the moving. You’ll help me evict the monster?”
“Of course,” said Worrel, at the same time the other was saying, “I don’t think so. Bear with me, please, Worrel. Svetz, it would be a disservice to you if we chased the monster out of your extension cage. You would try to reach your own time, would you not?”
“Futz, yes!”
“But you would only get more and more lost. At least in our world you can eat the food and breathe the air. Yes, we grow food plants for the trolls; you can learn to eat them.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t stay here. I’m a xenophobe!”
Wrocky frowned. His ears flicked forward enquiringly. “What?”
“I’m afraid of intelligent beings who aren’t human. I can’t help it. It’s in my bones.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll get used to us, Svetz.”
Svetz looked from one male to the other. It was obvious enough who was in charge. Wrocky’s voice was much louder and deeper than Worrel’s; he was bigger than the other man, and his white fur fell about his neck in a mane like a lion’s. Worrel was making no attempt to assert himself. As for the women, neither had spoken a word since Svetz entered the room.
Wrocky was emphatically the boss. And Wrocky didn’t want Svetz to leave.
“You don’t understand,” Svetz said desperately. “The air—” He stopped.
“What about the air?”
“It should have killed me by now. A dozen times over. In fact, why hasn’t it?” Odd enough that he’d ever stopped wondering about that. “I must have adapted,” Svetz said half to himself. “That’s it. The cage passed too close to this line of history. My heredity changed. My lungs adapted to pre-Industrial air. Futz it! If I hadn’t pulled the interrupter switch I’d have adapted back!”
“Then you can breathe our air,” said Wrocky.
“I still don’t understand it. Don’t you have any industries?”
“Of course,” Worrel said in surprise.
“Internal combustion cars and aircraft? Diesel trucks and ships? Chemical fertilizers, insect repellents—”
“No, none of that. Chemical fertilizers wash away, ruin the water. The only insect repellents I ever heard of smelled to high heaven. They never got beyond the experimental stage. Most of our vehicles are battery powered.”
“There was a fad for internal combustion once,” said Wrocky. “It didn’t spread very far. They stank. The people inside didn’t care, of course, because they were leaving the stink behind. At its peak there were over two hundred cars tootling around the city of Detroit, poisoning the air. Then one night the citizenry rose in a pack and tore all the cars to pieces. The owners too.”
Worrel said, “I’ve always thought that men have more sensitive noses than trolls.”
“Wrona noticed my smell long before I noticed hers. Wrocky, this is getting us nowhere. I’ve got to go home. I seem to have adapted to the air, but there are other things. Foods: I’ve never eaten anything but dole yeast; everything else died out long ago. Bacteria.”
Wrocky shook his head. “Anywhere you go, Svetz, your broken time machine will only take you to more and more exotic environments. There must be a thousand ways the world could end. Suppose you stepped out into one of them? Or just passed near one?”
“But—”
“Here, on the other paw, you will be an honored guest. Think of all the things you can teach us! You, who were born into a culture that builds time traveling vehicles!”
So that was it. “Oh, no. You couldn’t use what I know,” said Svetz. “I’m no mechanic. I couldn’t show you how to do anything. Besides, you’d hate the side effects. Too much of past civilizations was built on petrochemicals. And plastics. Burning plastics produces some of the strangest—”
“But even the most extensive oil reserves could not last forever. You must have developed other power sources by your own time.” Wrocky’s yellow eyes seemed to bore right through him. “Controlled hydrogen fusion?”
“But I can’t tell you how it’s done!” Svetz cried desperately. “I know nothing of plasma physics!”
“Plasma physics? What are plasma physics?”
“Using electromagnetic fields to manipulate ionized gasses. You must have plasma physics.”
“No, but I’m sure you can give us some valuable hints. Already we have fusion bombs. And so do the Europeans … but we can discuss that later.” Wrocky stood up. His black nails made pressure points on Svetz’s arm. “Think it over, Svetz. Oh, and make yourself free of the house, but don’t go outside without an escort. The trolls, you know.”
* * *
Svetz left the room with his head whirling. The wolves would not let him leave.
“Svetz, I’m glad you’re staying,” Wrona chattered. “I like you. I’m sure you’ll like it here. Let me show you the house.”
Down the length of the hallway, one frosted globe burned dimly in the gloom, like a full moon transported indoors. Nocturnal, they were nocturnal.
Wolves.
“I’m a xenophobe,” he said. “I can’t help it. I was born that way.”
“Oh, you’ll learn to like us. You like me a little already, don’t you, Svetz?” She reached up to scratch him behind the ear. A thrill of pleasure ran through him, unexpectedly sharp, so that he half closed his eyes.
“This way,” she said.
“Where are we going?”
“I thought I’d show you some trolls. Svetz, are you really descended from trolls? I can’t believe it!”
“I’ll tell you when I see them,” said Svetz. He remembered the Homo habilis in the Vivarium. It had been a man, an Advisor, until the Secretary-General ordered him regressed.
They went through the dining room, and Svetz saw unmistakable bones on the plates. He shivered. His forebears had eaten meat; the trolls were brute animals here, whatever they might be in Svet
z’s world—but Svetz shuddered. His thinking seemed turgid, his head felt thick. He had to get out of here.
“If you think Uncle Wrocky’s tough, you should meet the European ambassador,” said Wrona. “Perhaps you will.”
“Does he come here?”
“Sometimes.” Wrona growled low in her throat. “I don’t like him. He’s a different species, Svetz. Here it was the wolves that evolved into men; at least that’s what our teacher tells us. In Europe it was something else.”
“I don’t think Uncle Wrocky will let me meet him. Or even tell him about me.” Svetz rubbed at his eyes.
“You’re lucky. Herr Dracula smiles a lot and says nasty things in a polite voice. It takes you a minute to—Svetz! What’s wrong?”
Svetz groaned like a man in agony. “My eyes!” He felt higher. “My forehead! I don’t have a forehead anymore!”
“I don’t understand.”
Svetz felt his face with his fingertips. His eyebrows were a caterpillar of hair on a thick, solid ridge of bone. From the brow ridge his forehead sloped back at forty-five degrees. And his chin, his chin was gone too. There was only a regular curve of jaw into neck.
“I’m regressing, I’m turning into a troll,” said Svetz. “Wrona, if I turn into a troll, will they eat me?”
“I don’t know. I’ll stop them, Svetz!”
“No. Take me down to the extension cage. If you’re not with me the trolls will kill me.”
“All right. But, Svetz, what about the monster?”
“He should be easier to handle by now. It’ll be all right. Just take me there. Please.”
“All right, Svetz.” She took his hand and led him.
The mirror hadn’t lied. He’d been changing even then, adapting to this line of history. First his lungs had lost their adaptation to normal air. There had been no Industrial Age here. But there had been no Homo sapiens either …
Wrona opened the door. Svetz sniffed at the night. His sense of smell had become preternaturally acute. He smelled the trolls before he saw them, coming uphill toward him across the living green carpet. Svetz’s fingers curled, wishing for a weapon.
